Where HR management is heading
In the decades ahead, due to increasing globalisation and the forces exerted by new technology and technological change, Human Resources professionals will be required to add more value.
Maintaining the status quo will not be good enough. People working in HR, will have to be more strategic. They will have to work alongside top management – supporting, advising and, where appropriate, leading.
With line managers also, the role of the Human Resources professional will be that of a consultant, adviser and counsellor on the full range of relevant HR issues. For HR people, a big challenge will be to strike the right balance in their work. On the one hand they will need to help managers to pursue organisational and business priorities. On the other hand, as HR specialists they will have their own concerns for talented individuals working within the organisation.
Particularly where they have international experience, HR people will be increasingly called upon to play key roles in culture management and organisational development.
Obviously, to be successful in HR in the future, it won’t be enough to simply have a basic knowledge of things like selection, employee resourcing, people development, training and compensation. Frequently, Human Resources professionals will be called upon to respond to a changing world of work. They will need to be active participatory members of the management and operations teams. They will have to be able to design, develop and then execute strategies for achieving business goals.
In addition to being seeped in organisational strategy, HR specialists will still need to:
- Emphasise management development and skills training at all levels;
- Promote employee empowerment; and
- Seek out ways to encourage employees to self-monitor.
These activities are similar to traditional HR roles. The big difference in future will be that all activities will be strategic for the organisation to keep its competitive edge. In many situations, HR people will be able to move more easily into strategic roles for time savings will occur when traditional HR management becomes linked more closely with appropriate technology systems.
Becoming more strategic
In future, it will be a well-formulated and comprehensive strategy on human resources that will help to marshal and allocate the organisation’s manpower resources into a unique and viable posture.
Such a strategy will be based on relative internal competencies and shortcomings, anticipated changes in the environment, and contingent moves by competitors.
Thoughtful and workable strategies put together by HR people, will have to include a plan where proposed actions are properly sequenced, well co-ordinated and orchestrated. The plans on recruitment, selection, training and the compensating of talent will need to be based on intelligent forecasts and anticipated changes ahead.
To create such a plan, Human Resources professionals will have to be perceptive, astute planners with an intuitive sense of where the organisation is heading. They will have to be well focused, in order to be specific in their view of emerging manpower needs. And they will have to be clear about the kinds of skills and competencies the organisation will need in the immediate and medium term future.
Accounting for people cost
In the future world of work, understanding the cost and value of human resources will be a critical consideration. And obviously, it will be the HR professionals who will be called upon to take the lead in this area. The costing options will be:
- Historical: the costs incurred to hire, train, and maintain human resources;
- Replacement: the costs incurred where employees are replaced by other employees or by contractors; and
- Value: the costs that equate to the value that the employee is giving to the organisation.
It will be the responsibility of HR to adopt a consistent costing model that is right for their organisation and ensure that management at all levels understands the cost implications.
Outsourcing Common Tasks
Where Human Resources professionals become more active as strategic business partners of senior management, they will need to relieve themselves of initiating, monitoring and even doing routine tasks.
They may need to completely outsource the recruitment, selection and training of talent to quality service providers. The costs incurred by outsourcing will very quickly be outweighed by efficiencies in the sourcing, management and development of talented individuals.
What’s involved in changing minds
As agents of change, HR people in the future will need the skill of being able to change minds and mindsets.
Winning minds is about enabling and managing change and lobbying for support to cope with new challenges. It is about influencing others. The need for useful and positive change in minds, mindsets and attitudes is constantly growing at an ever-accelerating rate. But minds, mindsets, attitudes and behaviour are not easy to change. Any manager or leader aspiring to higher levels, and especially people in HR, must therefore develop the skills and competencies to changing the minds of others and winning them over.
Managers and leaders by definition are supposed to change the minds and mindsets of others.
Changing minds involves convincing people that the change is good and beneficial. Change first occurs in the mind of the individual. Only if the change is accepted and successfully embedded in the mind will a mindset change occur and eventually the acceptance of the new paradigm. Change appears natural and the normal course of event for mind changers. However, it is often considered unnatural and not obvious or necessary to the person whose mind has to be changed. Changing someone’s mind or mindset involves making a shift in the mental representation of an idea, concept or belief in his or her mind.
As managers and leaders in the people business, it is important for HR specialists to be skilled in the dynamics and mechanics of mind changing in the workplace. Organisational change cannot simply be achieved by command and control. It needs the winning of minds by operating the right levers to make a change of mind and a shift in mindset happen.
Six levers for changing minds
The US Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Howard Gardner[1] (author of twenty-three books) has recently identified six levers that are at work in enabling a change of mind to occur.
Professor Gardner, through his work in human intelligence identifies that changing minds does not happen in a vacuum or by decree. He says that changing minds and shifting mindsets is a very rational process.
So, according to Howard Gardner what are the levers that managers and leaders can operate to change minds and shift mindsets?
- Reason: In today’s knowledge driven economy, where everyone considers himself or herself ‘a thinking individual’ reasoning is essential for changing minds. Reason involves a rational approach of identifying relevant factors, weighing each in turn and making an overall assessment. If you cannot reason rationally and explain, the effort to change minds or mindsets becomes an exercise in futility.
- Research: This is about complementing the use of arguments with a collection of relevant and supportive data. Those with scientific training can easily see the systematic production of statistical or relevant research and this is often enough to convince the doubters. The key objective of this lever is to identify relevant precedents and antecedents that warrant a change.
- Resonance: This lever refers to feelings. If an idea or perspective “feels” right or seems to fit the current situation, changing someone’s mind is easier. Even where intuition is in conflict with rationality, resonance may influence the change of mind.
- Redescription: This technique is to present or describe the idea or concept in a different way. It involves getting others to see it in a different light or form.
- Resources and rewards: Sometimes the mind change occurs because the person initiating the mind change invests substantial resources or rewards in influencing the mind changing process. A typical example is a parent who encourages a mind change through reward.
- Real world events: A major event such as a war, a hurricane or a terrorist attack can be used as a lever to change minds.
No matter which levers are used, and even if they are used in concert, resistance to change is usually unavoidable in any organisation. Resistance to change has its origins in fear of the unknown and the desire not to leave one’s comfort zone. The desire for status quo is often very powerful. It is particularly important for HR people to identify resistance. If it is possible to analyse the reasons for resistance, then it is more likely that managers will be able to select the most appropriate levers for change, for moving forward.
For HR people, winning minds is about listening to all the affected parties and arriving at a conclusion where every concerned individual does not feel his or her self-preservation or livelihood is adversely affected by the change. Winning minds is a challenge but it is one that HR people need to master in order to facilitate the necessary organisational changes that lie ahead.
Conclusion
The forces of change are set to increase the pressure for HR people to be more proactive and strategic. HR specialists will have to seize the opportunities as they present themselves and demonstrate that they are indeed strategic business partners of top and senior management.
It will be important that HR professionals be seen to be adding value. They will need to be seen to be operating levers to make the engagement of talented individuals optimal in the workplace.
Whether it is in changing minds, or advising about people needs, or giving important strategic leadership, HR professionals will have a critically important role to play in the decades ahead.
[1]Gardner, H. (2004): Changing Minds. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Visit: www.howardgardner.com
