No money for HR ….. means freedom to change!

Many of of the HR professionals that we are speaking to at present are commenting on the lack of financial backing they are getting from their repsective business leaders. They are also wondering how they are going to affect cultural and performance changes they are being asked to affect without money!

In the short term this is not a small problem to solve. However if we sit back for a second and consider the situation, I think it provides a great opportunity for members of the HR fraternity to challenge the status quo.

For the two decades I have worked in the HR world I have heard a common list of issues (and fixed mindsets) raised by Managers and HR professionals. Many of them from HR people have the common theme of “if they just did as I advised, they are their own worst enemies”, and from Managers “they don’t understood my business, one size does not fit all”. Interestingly one of the factors we have observed that has contributed to this dynamic is the availability of corporate funding for “HR Projects”.

You may be questioning this line of thought, thinking it is putting alot on the shoulders of HR. Our observations are that the avaiblility of corporate funding has decreased the need of HR people to work cloesly with their customers, managers and teams. It has enabled them, along with senior management to adopt an “I know best” mindset and implement “one size fits all programs” that have struggled to deliver anymore than 15 – 20% adoption within business.

This observation may sound critical and harsh. It is not meant to be; it is however an opportunity to sit back and reflect on the decisions you have made to date about the services you offer, the solutions you provide and the value your customers derive from them, and challenge the satus quo. As noted in our InfoWise model, the most effective outcome comes when the decision making and performance of the individual/team/ workforce is directly conected to delviering a great customer experience.

People are motivated to change when option B looks better than their current option A.  Having no money is an opportunity for HR professionals to challenge our decision making and more effectively align our focus of work with our customer (managers and employees), moving from nice to have to critical, getting away from thooretical and being part of the practical, shifting from rules to results.