THESE VITAL SPEECHES

motivations and expectations when it
comes to work.
And then, of course, there’s globalization.
Globalization has made
us literally expand our thinking about
where and when work gets done and
who does it. Companies no longer
have the option of saying, “I’m local,”
because a bright employee can work
from anywhere in the world. And many
of them do. Crowdsourcing, temporary
and remote work are all on the rise.
Talent is borderless so we are all global
now, competing for the best and the
brightest in the world.
Advancing technology changing
demographics and globalization are
just some of the mega trends changing
work as we know it today. This is a
brand new business world.
Now … to make it in this new
world, organizations need the most engaged,
productive and talented workforces.
They need teams and cultures
that give them the best chance of competing
and winning, no matter where
they are located. They need people
who embrace change, seek innovation
and press forward despite ambiguity.
They need you. HR professionals.
I believe we’re in the midst of the
Decade of Human Capital. A time
when people are seen as the real power
behind business. When organizations
will draw a clear, straighter line between
their people strategies and their
business goals. But … you don’t have to
take my word for that.
Recently the Conference Board
asked CEOs, presidents, and chairs
around the globe what their most critical
challenges were, what was keeping
them up at night. They named the
usual suspects: innovation; customer
relations; operations; sustainability.
But do you know what topped their
list? Human capital. Yes ... human
capital.
A survey by the SHRM Foundation
and the Economist Intelligence Unit
found much the same thing: that what
organizations need most today and
into the future are people management
strategies. The World Economic Forum
has also said that talent—not financial
capital—is the key to “innovation,
competitiveness and growth in the 21st
century.”
Just think about what all of this
means for us. It means our job ... our
job ... is now the most critical aspect
of business. It means the human
resources profession has no choice but
to take the lead.
In HR, we’ve always known that
people are the power behind business.
We’ve always known that talent is the
differentiator within organizations.
We’ve just wondered when everyone
else was going to get it.
Well, that time has come. Our time
has come. Because now, we’re in a
world where so many mega trends are
beyond business control. And no matter
the size or location of our organizations,
we can’t escape these trends.
Leaders are quickly recognizing that
the one thing they can do ... something
they must do in this volatile, uncertain,
complex and ambiguous world, is have
the right talent. And finding, developing
and keeping that talent? That’s our job.
So HR: We’re in the Decade of
Human Capital. We’re in the right
place at the right time. The only question
now is: What are we going to do
about it?
Every day, I hear stories of HR
leaders who are asking themselves this
question, taking on this challenge and
doing what it takes to move themselves,
their organizations and our profession
forward. Leaders like Shara Gamble.
Shara is the HR director for
TAMKO Building Products, a company
based in Joplin, Missouri with
twelve hundred employees nationwide.
We featured her in HR Magazine last
month.
She wanted her 10-person HR team
to do two things: provide useful people
analytics; and make sure managers had
competent, well-trained talent.
But when Shara looked at how they
were actually spending their time,
it was more on transactional duties
like payroll and benefits. Maybe that
sounds familiar to some of you.
Well, Shara decided to disrupt that
status quo.
She trained her team on TAMKO’s
business model so they would speak the
11
company’s language. She made sure
they understood their industry and the
talent their business needed to succeed.
She introduced cross-functional training
so that her team had a greater understanding
of the business operations. And
finally, and perhaps most importantly,
she challenged her team. She encouraged
them to offer solutions to the business
challenges their managers face.
And this small but passionate
HR team rose to the occasion. They
transformed even the most day-to-day
HR duties into strategies that impacted
their business.
For example, TAMKO needed a
way to centralize one of its most timeconsuming
functions: tracking time and
attendance. So the team implemented
new technology that has reduced time
spent on payroll.
But more than that ... more than
that ... they’ve started to use the data
from that new system for business insights—to
spot and alert management
to time and attendance trends that are
costly for the company, and bad for
employees.
And here’s another example. There
is a skills gap in manufacturing, and
Shara and her team know that finding,
hiring and keeping talent is a competitive
advantage.
So they overhauled their company’s
onboarding process to make it less like
a “task” and more like a TAMKO
“experience.” Instead of inundating
new hires with paperwork on their first
day on the job, they now use a virtual
system that explains forms in plain
language, introduces the TAMKO
culture and even shows the connection
between the employees and TAMKO’s
branding strategies.
And the key is that all of this happens
before talent walks through the
door, so that employees feel connected
and are ready to contribute on
day one.
You see, whether it was overhauling
onboarding or turning time and attendance
data into business insights, Shara
started with her organization’s strategy,
goals and needs first, then designed
HR functions to drive them. She’s
proven herself to be a business leader
CICERO 2016