Getting more bang for your buck
| Published date | 12 August 2007 |
| Pages | 3-3 |
| Date | 12 August 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000972 |
| Author | Jan Hills |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
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Volume 6 Issue 4 May/June 2007
STRATEGIC COMMENTARY
,
Thought leaders share their views on the HR profession and
its direction for the future
DEPARTMENTS AT A GLANCE
STRATEGIC COMMENTARY
,
METRICS
,
HOW TO…
,
PRACTITIONER PROFILE
Q&A
HR AT WORK
REWARDS
,
RESEARCH AND RESULTS
,
,
,
,
T
he days of purely transactional HR
are gone, with HR departments now
expected to be strategic business
partners rather than simply service
providers. Sounds good to me. But it does
mean that as more is expected of HR
departments, their training must keep up
with these demands.
It’s worrying, then, that the latest
Corporate Leadership Council statistics
show only 14 percent of businesses are
training their HR staff sufficiently in key
skills, with fewer than one in five CEOs
rating HR as strategically important.
So what to do? Throw money at it?
Perhaps. But if you don’t have a
bottomless budget, here are some
suggestions that could help.
Train in the right way
All too often, trainers don’t put the skills
they teach into the relevant contexts. If
people aren’t shown how skills relate to
their jobs, they’ll just put their training
folder on a shelf and forget what they’ve
learned. It’s money down the drain.
What’s more, most courses train skills in
chunks, labeled “consulting,”
“influencing” or “coaching.” In reality, HR
people rarely use one of these at a time.
Teaching the skills in a more holistic way,
one that focuses on how they will be used
together, will get you more of a return.
Finally, training courses should also
develop participants’ belief in themselves
and the importance of their jobs. They’ll
do this by showing how, with these skills,
HR people can make an impact on the
whole business.
Take training beyond the training room
I think it’s the stuff you do outside the
training room that can make the biggest
difference to your training without
costing the earth. Here are some ideas:
Fire up people’s ambition
If people don’t want to learn, they won’t.
But get a person into the right frame of
mind and it won’t just unlock their
potential, it’ll rub off on others. One way
is through “psychic income” – rewarding
people for adopting new skills by showing
them that they’re valued. It could be as
simple as saying “well done” in front of
the whole department, inviting them to a
meeting with senior managers or putting
them on high-profile projects.
Provide the tools
Once people are open to learning, it’s
astonishing how much they can pick up
on the job. Approaches such as co-
coaching (colleagues coaching each
other) and identifying internal mentors
willing to pass on their skills and
knowledge will accelerate this process
even more – and for next to nothing.
Use the technology
The intranet is also a great tool if used
properly. Uploading a 70-slide PowerPoint
presentation doesn’t make a “web-based
training program”. But interactive
programs, resource centers and chat lines
– where people from different areas of
HR can discuss HR issues – are a cheap
way of improving your learning offering.
Open up networking
Finally, events like network forums,
where external companies are invited to
share their experiences across HR
departments, provide development
opportunities that cost virtually nothing.
Create the right atmosphere
Above all, it’s essential to foster an
environment where taking time out of
the day to learn is positively encouraged
– otherwise, none of the above will
work. Take network forums, for example.
Too often people don’t go to these sorts
of things because they don’t feel they’re
important. It’s up to the senior members
of your department to make it clear how
important such events are, and that
taking time for professional development
is more impressive than being seen to be
snowed under.
I think HR teams have been the
cobbler’s children for too long – offering
great ideas for learning to their clients,
but not using them themselves. It need
not be the case. By applying a little
imagination and focusing on motivation,
you really can provide good
development without breaking the bank.
Getting more bang
for your buck
Jan Hills, founder of The Hills Consultancy, discusses how HR can add
value without breaking the bank.
Jan Hills set up The Hills
Consultancy in 1999 to help
HR teams add value to their
businesses. She was
previously global head of HR
for several financial organizations and was COO for
an investment bank. She is a fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
and an NLP master practitioner and coach.
© Melcrum publishing 2007.For more information visit our website www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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