This week in HR, we at Crescent focused on our value proposition.—How does CrescentHR provide value to clients in meaningful ways? So, like any self-respecting egotist, I started thinking existentially… What’s my value proposition when I walk into a room full of people, who I’d like to think are curious about me and what I do? More broadly – What does HR even do, besides make rules? Why is it that HR is always dubbed, bad-things prevention?
I believe that HR professionals should say resoundingly, “Yes, we can do that. And here’s how to do it legally and with buy-in from stakeholders.”
Of course, it is of critical importance for HR professionals to know the law. We should boldly oppose ethical decay or threats to the organization. But our best calling is to be keepers and drivers of the organization’s morale and culture through mission reminders, vision enhancements, and values integration—and marketing these vital things effectively to employees. Indeed, these are the real determinants of behavior that don’t just mitigate ethics problems, but they, more importantly, reinforce good behavior and contributions, proactively.
That’s a packed statement. But without a sense of what the organization exists to do, where it wants to go, and the values it espouses relentlessly in the process, the HR professional is really offering little or no strategic value.
There’s a reason an HR professional should be involved in organizational planning, but I’m afraid that reason becomes vague when the person at the table doesn’t know the business’ strategic objectives.
What is the value proposition of HR, then, and why bother thinking about HR? Let me ask the finance, legal, or operations professional a similar question: “What’s the value of financial initiatives or operational rules without people buy-in?” A competent HR professional can be a value-adding partner in these moments.
Here’s what I’m saying, Operations and Finance, Legal and Technology all have awesome skills and valuable insights. Human Resource professionals know people, and this is how we derive and give value. Our professional lives are built around integrating the mission and values with strategic objectives to get the results and achieve the culture necessary to be successful. My goal every day is to know enough about the organization’s financial, legal, tech, operational goals to identify when employees are on track or otherwise. But my strategic objective is to know how to fuse what makes employees happy with the needs of the organization.—that’s called SYNERGY.
In coming blogs, I’ll do a lot of gabbing about the axis between employees’ personal goals and the organization’s MVV. I can’t be sure if that means I’m contributing value, but it feels right. I hope these blogs help you. I would love your feedback for better or worse. Philip@crescent-payroll.com. I will feature any feedback I get in subsequent blogs or corrections.
