Thinking Business First

The time is today and has been always ripe for HR to help business drive & achieve our numbers of topline and bottom-line. No more can HR be a justified partner by just watching the game from outside in perspective. To understand and to help win the game, HR has to jump in and get dirty by first understanding and then playing the game as it is supposed according to the rulebook and beyond.

A couple of decades back HR was more about risk mitigation with a strong focus on regulatory compliance. However, today in the current context of new age organizations, HR’s competencies are becoming more integrated with far more intense & dynamic business competencies.

Organization where HR thinks more from a strategic business mindset can lay claim to equal participation in

1. increasing market share
2. rethinking product orientation and innovation
3. increasing sales through new medium of channel and
4. help the workforce get upskilled and become market agile.

Yes, all these things do happen provided the priority employee hygiene’s are in place.

But it is easier said than done. To move fast to this stage of thinking and working the HR leaders have to reorientate themselves in the way business think and operate without losing the crux of high quality people practice they are supposed to drive.

Playing a role with business to define a well thought through business objective and linking it to well-constructed and measurable people programs can help achieve those numbers and sustainable business objectives.

Ways HR can Partner with Business to Win in the Marketplace

• Co create the expectation of the business, understand the external & internal challenges of achieving growth and echo the language of the business day in and day out

• Know your business inside out. 

o  How is the revenue generated?

o  What are our product portfolio, which products are doing well and not so well, What is in the pipeline?

o  Who are our direct and indirect?

o  What are our financial models we follow to chase growth and sustainability?

o  How do our people practices are linked to business goals and outcomes?

o  What are our plan B or risk mitigation plan to avoid rainy days ?

• Do a dipstick study on quarters where the problem lies that is hindering the growth aspect and drive relevant change management practice to align the structure, process and people. Keep it simple but high on speedy execution.

• Be aware of the core dna of the organization and keep seeding it in every conversation and process implementation which supports business growth.

• Drive the core culture of the organization and see that come what may it remains unchanged in every action which senior, middle or junior management takes while chasing growth

• Let data be your key driver and make it speaks for itself . Make it a platform on which every conversation starts and end. Define, measure and then keep refining linking it to direct business insights.

• Develop brand ambassadors that help establish positive sentiment day in and day out through effective communication. Establish regular transparent communication as a pivot for driving business understanding and holding quality conversation during times when things are slowing down.

• Keep employee’s decision at the core of every business decision because an engaged workforce drives higher customer engagement

• Understand bigger picture and operate with solution-oriented mindset. Rather than being a stickler to “Company’s Policy”, think how to create a solution which is ethical and aligned to the core value of the organization that is innovation and helps the fellow executives in driving the business forward and helping them win in the marketplace.

Look in the Mirror: Self Reflec. Create, Drive and Sustain Value for the Business

As the organization moves and experience next orbit of growth, HR should be at the center stage of this change. A superior combination can be shaped only when HR complement their knowledge of talent with superior business understanding. HR has to drive C-suite leaders on establishing a shining purpose, improving employee practices, driving leadership development and culture agenda, and streamlining the organization operating structure but this will only work when Human Resources are hand in glove with business but first by establishing themselves as a value creators, driver and sustainer.  

Lets keep thinking Business First !!