Park the HR theory and get under the bonnet of the business...

A Human Resources (HR) professional reached out to me, I always like to support and assist rising HR Stars where I can. They said they had joined a new Company however they were struggling to make an impact through their Human Resources department. Knowing this person, I can say they are highly skilled, knowledgeable, resilient and yes – very passionate.

This started me thinking, there may be a message I can context to potentially assist others, it is a challenge all HR have experienced at some stage in their career journey.

I discussed with this HR professional, all of the attributes of a great HR individual can go unnoticed if you do not understand the business. Better still; think less like HR and more like a Managing Director or Operations Manager. I continued, that a Managing Director or Operations Manager see the world from the point of ‘without sales and services’ there would be no employees, HR thinking is without employees there would be no ‘sales and services’ delivered.

My experience is that HR needs to be able to understand the strong balance between people and profitability. Companies today are looking less at the transactional activities of HR professionals and more at the commercial and business exposure, understanding and influence HR can make on a Company’s bottom line.

HR professionals need to be bold, ask questions to senior leaders in the Company, sometimes difficult ones to extract the answers required to best support the Company and employee requirements for business success.

HR over the past decades has travelled from the back-office desk in the building basements to the frontline, even meeting with Company clients to understand how the Company can service and enhance their experience and requirements.

Therefore, if you are an emerging HR professional, park HR theory and frameworks momentarily and get inside the details of how the Company sells, services, consults, and manages their clients and customers and of course makes profit. Through this it will become crystal clear on what you need to do next, to support and partner HR with the business.

About Mark Lindley:

Accomplished Human Resources Leader with extensive regional and international experience; progressive and innovative - a true developer of People & Culture. Having led organisational transformations and HR blueprint implementation, within high impact environments, delivering results with great velocity. 

Operating within complex matrix and diverse cultural structures across Australia, Asia, Middle East, UK and USA, from top 100 multi-nationals, through to new growth markets and accelerating start-ups. With a highly commercial focus on sustainable growth and capability of an organisation; Mark is a proven leader, trusted adviser, respected coach, and HR entrepreneur.