What is HR doing for your business?

A business forum in the Chicago area last week discussed HR’s role toward business recovery and during the lively exchanges, one of the panelists offered this observation:

"Performance is not an HR problem, it’s a managerial or supervisory problem.”

Upon hearing this, I noted in the program guide that the panelist was with the Illinois Management Association. The keyword leaping out here was management, and yet it seemed that such a statement would not go uncontested. Surely, during the closing Q&A, one of the many HR titles in the audience would raise a hand to say something. Something like, hey wait a minute. Did I hear you right?

But no such follow-up occurred. Audience applause, the forum was over. Time to go.

Days later, just now digging through the stuff handed out during the event, I come across an HRMAC publication called FORUM. HRMAC stands for the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago. It turns out HRMAC has been around since 1915 and the organization has arrived at some interesting conclusions regarding the role of HR, in any economy. The feature article in the publication, written by freelancer Matt Alderton, quotes an HRMAC board member, Bob Davis. And what Mr. Davis has to say should be taught in management school.

“It used to be that your go-to-market strategy was the most important thing in your organization, but really it’s your people,” Davis says. “That realization has allowed and forced the HR profession to step up from being what were historically functional experts to being full business partners and consultants. We as a profession need to evolve – and have been evolving – to better understand our organizations’ financial drivers, customers and value propositions so that we can take a holistic approach to what we do.”

Go-to-market strategy. Customers. Value propositions.

These are not refrains calling for better management. They are calls for educated leadership. The kind of leadership that will bring marketing, branding, sales and HR together at last and put them to work for America’s businesses.

jb