Soft Skills

Home is where the HR heart is

The 'future is now' for human resources. HR management is compelled to start focusing on what it needs to do for its own staff members so that as a department, it can provide the right kind of support to the organisation. By Nina Woodard

You may have heard or read that for an individual to be able to lead or develop others, he or she must first focus internally, and lead and develop his or her own skills. If HR management is to be able to provide business support that leads to talent management, leadership development and engaging employees, the policies and practices that it offers must provide these for employees, and it must first begin at home. It must provide support for the HR department, as well as employees from other departments.

It is imperative that HR team members continue to learn and grow in their jobs, without leaving the organisation. It is necessary that they be able to work out a level of work-life balance that makes sense and help employees' balance the needs of their families with the needs of the business.

Building from inside-out, human resource employees will want to look at what they need to do for themselves in order for HR teams to feel valued and valuable to the organisation. Once they make an internal audit of what will work for them, they will begin to see how their policies and programmes can affect the larger employee population. They can begin to focus on all the policies and process in place in the organisation with HR implications and begin to communicate them as tools for both managers and employees to solve their business dilemmas.

To be able to do that, HR practitioners need to be better prepared to offer business solutions to stated business needs through creative and business-based policies and programmes that deliver talent, reward, recognition, leadership development, results' orientation, fiscal savviness, and sound business practice. This means that HR professionals must reach out for developmental and growth experiences that will enhance their thinking styles, innovation and competency.

Looking at what HR does as a profession, individuals engaged in that field in India can use professional memberships and leadership as a personal developmental tool. Local organisations like NASSCOM, NIPM and NHRDN work hard to provide a learning and networking environment that build frameworks for creative thinking and sharing of information that will lead to development of best practice in retention, recruiting, rewards, policy creation and in the array of other HR-based practice that supports the business.

Globally focused organisations like the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA) and Society for Human Resource Management, one of the founder organisations of WFPMA, are offering more globally focused developmental, networking, learning experiences and opportunities in the same way through volunteer leadership, programmes and conferences. It is a mix of these local and global knowledge-sharing and developmental experiences that will help shape personal expertise and depth of knowledge required in HR delivery of services.

The author is director, business development, SHRM India