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HR: AN EVOLVING FUNCTION D HARISH Abstract This article explores the changing role of HR as a function and HR practitioners as professionals. With the changing business and organizational context, HR as a profession is evolving and is strategic partner in many of the long term interventions. Action that is reactive to the context is natural but a conscious professional evolution that can enable the function to be prepared with capability to cope with changes of strategic nature is the key. Harish is Vice-President - HR Services, Unilever (Asia, Australia, Africa). He is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur. He has 22 years of corporate experience across India and UK, mostly in Hindustan Unilever where his last assignment was Vice- President - HR. Harish was recognised with "Exemplary Leader Award" for Excellence in HR both at the regional and national levels as part of Employer Branding Awards 2007. Introduction: HR as a profession has evolved over the years. It has in many ways responded to the changing context and demands. It has come to be recognised as an integral part of business. In some organizations it has even gained a place of pride and recognized as a function of strategic value. Currently, the business scenario is fast changing and we are witnessing a number of new horizon sectors coming into being. In these times of fast-paced change and short-cycle reviews there is a mad rush to get into an action mode. I recognise many HR practitioners caught in that fastaction syndrome. In spite of fast changing business context I find many similarities in the focus of HR response in the past and in the present. The following is an exploration of the HR function's evolution to understand the apparent paradox and determine ways going forward. Looking Back: Many years ago the HR professional existed only in the context of a factory environment. In this scenario he was expected to be the conscience keeper of the management with respect to all labor related issues. He was expected to balance the pulls and pressures between management and labor. He was expected to ensure that the employees were treated fairly and the management got the best out of its labor without unduly exploiting them. It was clearly an imbalanced relationship with far greater power vested in the management hands and hence the strong possibility of management not being responsive to the genuine needs of the labour. It was to guard against such a scenario that the government regulators envisaged the need for the position of the labour welfare officer which is the earliest "avatar" of the HR professional. With the advent of the trade-union movement the role of safeguarding the interests of labor was assumed by the communist ideology touting labour leaders. The HR professional now had to "rebalance" the equilibrium between management and labor (with labor taking quite an aggressive posture with the support of trade union organizations). From a predominantly labor welfare orientation he had to assume the role of an arbitrator between 92 November 2007 NHRD Journal
management and the labor leaders to ensure that the labour leaders do not start abusing their new found power. Quite often this also entailed the HR professional to wield the stick to enforce discipline at the workplace. This often resulted in his being viewed as biased towards management. The fact that the HR person was in the payroll of the company definitely added to the dilution of the perception regarding the neutrality of his stance. In an attempt to wean away the employees from the clutches of the trade unions the management charged the HR professional with the task of introducing newer and more appealing activities/benefits to keep the employees motivated and focussed. Over a period of time the various HR activities that were initiated called for a large amount of administrative focus in managing them efficiently. This then started taking centre stage in the life of the HR professional. With growing competition in the market place and easy access to technology and finance the business leaders started realising the importance of the People edge to business success and started expecting the HR professional to focus on attracting the right quality people and developing the appropriate skills amongst the existing people. The growing interest in training and development, learning center, quality circles are outcomes of this phase. The realization that the workplace culture impacts almost all of the people issues has started to bring attention to both the tangibles and intangibles, the hardware and the software, the furniture and the philosophy, the work and the values, the rewards and the recognition. Today there are many examples of Culture related work and thanks to involvement of experienced OD practitioners/ consultants these are no longer isolated initiatives but more comprehensive in their approach, leveraging all aspects of HR. TPM, open offices, vision workshops, instant and visible recognition schemes, objective performance management process and performance linked rewards. Many of the leading thinkers and writers in the area of HR have exhorted the need to get more strategic in our approach and one of the key levers of Strategic HR is leadership. The high impact of Leadership on talent management, organization culture, and eventual business performance has clearly shifted the focus on developing leadership capabilities within the organization as a key enabler of success. A large number of HR professionals have begun to discuss leadership development and some have indeed started to influence and contribute to development of leadership within their organizations. As the HR professional found the demands on his contribution changing he sought to build his own capability to meet the changing demands. Therefore from the stage of becoming familiar with the regulatory guidelines to be able to provide all facilities that were expected at the place of work he moved to building his capability to negotiate successfully with the trade union leaders. He also had to develop his knowledge of the jurisprudence so that he could enforce discipline within the bounds of law. He then started becoming creative in the design of benefits and provision of facilities which made the employees happy and motivated. The big step was in understanding of human psychology so that she could predict the effect of her initiatives and activities on people and their consequent behavior. (please note that shift in the gender of the HR professional at this stage of evolution! ). More recently the understanding of business and ability to contribute more directly to business performance has become key to being more strategic in their approach. Looking Ahead In many of the organizations belonging to the new horizon segment the HR practice is being November 2007 NHRD Journal 93
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NHRD Journal Organizational Change
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S.no Title of the Article Author Pa
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE INDIRA J PARI
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give subtle shape to the organizati
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to be tempered by a sense of humor,
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Although the result did not spell o
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the Project Sponsor to engage the C
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• Consultative - The target popul
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Now they are confronted with change
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A living system can never be direct
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ut in absence of formal process of
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Higgs, M. and Rowland, D. (2005),
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• Organization Structure Rigid hi
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magnitude of the programme, you can
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• In only about 10% of the school
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memorization, the focus of the teac
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HOW HR CAN IGNITE 'HOT SPOTS' YOGI
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pointed the prerequisites of change
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BRINGING CHANGE TO THE CHANGE AGENT
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were low, people lived simply and s
Page 41 and 42: 'People Academy' that seeks to fost
Page 43 and 44: DEFINING CHANGE AGENTS SANDEEP K. K
Page 45 and 46: human resource process like leaders
Page 47 and 48: References Chris Argyris, Initiatin
Page 49 and 50: needs to tell a trained nurse about
Page 51 and 52: esponse to changes in the external
Page 53 and 54: THE ENDURING SKILLS OF CHANGE LEADE
Page 55 and 56: left to resolve tensions, answer qu
Page 57 and 58: neglected step in the change proces
Page 59 and 60: enefits of the long march are lost,
Page 61 and 62: To address the challenge of executi
Page 63 and 64: very capable people; but the organi
Page 65 and 66: DRIVING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE LEENA
Page 67 and 68: change, preparing the leadership an
Page 69 and 70: However the good news is that the a
Page 71 and 72: Organizational Culture and Sub-Cult
Page 73 and 74: References Ashkanasy, N. M., Broadf
Page 75 and 76: • Finance and Accounts • Techni
Page 77 and 78: and gives the freedom to fail. Chan
Page 79 and 80: therefore shift gear and venture in
Page 81 and 82: COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS, JUSTIC
Page 83 and 84: interactional justice focused on th
Page 85 and 86: and in a manner that is perceived a
Page 87 and 88: the merger, in whichever form has a
Page 89 and 90: is high, implying that there would
Page 91: • Successful integration approach
Page 95 and 96: ONE REASON FOR FAILURE OF CHANGE IN
Page 97 and 98: IPO: A POWERFUL INTERVENTION IN ORG
Page 99 and 100: In expectation of such a reaction,
Page 101 and 102: system was designed, requiring mana
Page 103 and 104: Then the system was recommended for
Page 105 and 106: Newsletters used to be published an
Page 107 and 108: CHALLENGE OF MANAGING ORGANIZATIONA
Page 109 and 110: productive deployment of raw talent
Page 111 and 112: Conclusion There is a broad agreeme
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Page 115 and 116: and regional development programs.
Page 117 and 118: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE-MARUTI SUZUKI
Page 119 and 120: in the HR thinking, approach and th
Page 121 and 122: • Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) o
Page 123 and 124: i. Technology • Plant location
Page 125 and 126: consolidates in a short period of f
Page 127 and 128: PBIT (Rs in crores.) The Company ha
Page 129 and 130: concepts in an organizational conte
Page 131 and 132: APPEAL TO CONTRIBUTORS The National
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