Are you tired of how you are perceived at work? Lee Xieli asks if rebranding the HR function into a savvier business unit can earn you more respect among your peers.
The definition of the HR function varies for different people, depending on where they work. Some think HR is still an administrative function that processes leave days, administers payroll, handles employee grievances recruits or terminates employees during a corporate downsizing. Some say HR in their organisations has a caring persona, but ultimately has no say in solving issues employees might have with management.
Then there are others who approve of the strategic valuable insight senior HR directors give to companies. Those, perhaps, are the lucky few. So what of the rest whose reputation does not go beyond the faceless paper pusher? And could rebranding HR into a savvier business unit give the remaining HR practitioners, who hover between administrative work and strategic boardroom discussions, greater credibility among senior leaders and peers?
Adam Shay, managing director of The Face, an Australian firm specialising in employer communication initiatives, says the perception of the HR function differs in different regions.
He believes HR has a “larger voice” in organisations based in European markets.
However, in Asia Pacific, including Australia, Shay thinks HR is still playing catch up, even though the function has been steadily increasing its influence in the region over the past five years – no doubt aided by the severe talent war in the pre-recession boom times and the staff challenges every organisation faced during the financial crisis.
“HR has been knocking on CEOs’ doors for so long that they started to realise how important talent was,” Shay says. “It [the importance of HR] is now ingrained in the minds of CEOs post-recession as talent shortages are starting to appear again.”
Shay thinks that any poor perception of HR in the marketplace exists because the function was previously a “reactive part of the organisation you went to if you had any issue”. The perception worsens when compared with the “inherently proactive” sales or marketing division because it’s their job to go out and sell.
But times have changed with savvy HR practitioners that work with most employers as proactive business partners. “They go to the executives to propose and discuss issues that will be for the better of the organisation.”
The modern HR guy
William J. Manfredi is not your traditional HR practitioner. The executive vice president of global talent management for Wunderman, a direct marketing agency with offices in 55 countries, has a decade worth of HR experience since he joined the agency (headquartered in New York City) in 2000.
When Manfredi first took on the HR role after leaving IBM’s sales and marketing division, HR was more of an administrative function in the agency.
What happened over the years is the incumbent CEO Daniel Morel, a big advocate of talent, partnered closely with HR to ensure the company acquires, trains and develops the right talent.
Manfredi says there are now performance management programmes, succession planning and regular talent reviews to support that partnership. But there is another thing that this modern HR practitioner does differently.
Several years ago, Manfredi started to sit in during the advanced stages of a business pitch. He would put together and present the approach of how the agency would hire, train and match the right talent to the prospective client’s business strategy, after understanding a client’s core competencies.
For example, in 2005, Manfredi visited Microsoft’s HR department to better understand and develop the people strategy for its operations.
“Because if we get the right people in, they [clients] will stay,” Manfredi says.
Once the account is won, Wunderman has an onboarding programme to certify and inculcate the right personnel and cultural understanding for the client’s global business.
“When they come in, they understand the culture, technology, geography and platforms so they are ready to work. It makes it [the work process] more effective and a lot quicker.”
With Nokia, one of Wunderman’s recent clients, the agency has taken this service to another level. Manfredi has been to Helsinki, where Nokia is headquartered, about 12 times in the past year.
He has been involved in not only selecting talent, but in making sure it is being trained properly because the project spans 52 locations.
HR has designed a training programme for employees working on the Nokia account to develop digital fluency skills.
Manfredi says there is a lot of credibility when an HR professional is asked to attend meetings with clients, especially when the company is consolidating a new business.
While he has a team taking care of the administrative HR aspect “because that has to be done”, it is “serving the client” that matters most. “You have to be very responsive. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.”
Removing the fuddy-duddy tag
If Manfredi is an example of a practitioner who balances the business and practical side of HR versus the administrative work, what is his perception of a traditional HR professional?
Laughing, Manfredi ponders before answering. “They don’t get involved in the business, they get involved from afar.”
From a marketer’s point of view, Grace Tan, marketing manager for L’Oréal Singapore, believes the people adorning any role, regardless of its job function, have to be “dynamic and savvy”.
Tan’s first contact with HR was through the beauty company’s marketing competition and recruitment exercise L’Oréal Brandstorm in 2005.
There was nothing “fuddy-duddy” or “motherly” about HR, according to Tan. In fact, her first impression of HR was very much the opposite. “The HR and marketing personnel I met [during the competition] were talented, dynamic and passionate,” she says.
The annual competition, which invites tertiary students to develop a long-term global marketing strategy for one of the beauty company’s brands, offers students and the prospective employer a platform for a six-month interaction.
Having joined L’Oréal as a management trainee, along with 17 other fresh graduates seven years ago, via this Brandstorm recruitment route, Tan says: “L’Oréal has this HR strategy down pat.”
L’Oréal’s HR has also launched another recruitment tool, Reveal, an interactive virtual business game that allows tertiary students in Singapore to assess their career options and gain a 360-degree insight about their individual skills. It is also a direct pedagogical game for web-savvy Generation Y candidates to understand the various job functions, such as supply chain, marketing, sales, finance and research development in the company.
Tan says organising such current, relevant and engaging recruitment programmes, which appeal to the youth, is “the way forward” for the HR function.
The real-life game simulation gives potential talent “a more holistic experience” and understanding of the prospective employer, instead of reading its profile off a corporate brochure or website.
“The more open HR practitioners are to using new tools or creating new initiatives, the more dynamic and savvy the organisation is going to be,” Tan says.
Garnering more credibility
Like any business unit, HR has to show a return on investment on any initiatives it spends money on, says Shay. Any HR practitioners worth their salt will build a solid business case – what’s the cost now and what are the potential savings – for any initiative they want to implement.
“That’s what HR needs to work a lot harder on because any part of the organisation that is a cost and not a benefit will be the first that is cut,” Shay says.
For example, many organisations are turning their recruitment in-house, instead of spending money on search firms and headhunters, which is a great way to save money according to Shay.
“The more HR can show ROI in what they do, the more CEOs will see the value of HR.”
Secondly, HR needs to take ownership on issues CEOs want to embark upon in the organisation and “push their worth”, says Shay. One growing concern in the business world is corporate social responsibility (CSR).
“When a CEO is talking about something, he will want to revert to the person who knows most about it in the organisation.” This is where HR comes in. “It’s rare that any CEO would say no to anyone who wants to take some work off them.”
Would renaming HR give credibility to the function? While Tan thinks the term “HR department” is credible and widely recognised enough in L’Oréal, Shay and Manfredi feel differently.
Shay prefers the terms “talent”, “talent division” or “talent management” over “human resources”.
“It gives a bit more credence to the people in the organisation if everyone is referred to as talent.”
Besides, talent is a word CEOs use and a word that they are familiar with, adds Shay.
Manfredi agrees, even though he has nothing against the word HR. Citing his business title, Manfredi says: “The word I use for HR all the time is ‘talent’ because around talent comes the identification, acquisition, hiring, training and career management.”
Manfredi says even if HR practitioners might soon be referred to as “talent practitioners”, renaming the function isn’t necessarily going to make the function any better if nothing changes.
“For me, it’s credibility. It’s stepping up and understanding the demands of the company and how you are viewed as an asset.”
On the front foot
The general consensus is if employees are the driving force behind every successful company, an improved HR will only help the organisation manage and develop better talent.
At L’Oréal, Tan says the HR function has the important role of ensuring the right talent is recruited into the company. According to her, HR acts as a “filter” to complement the hiring manager’s recruitment efforts.
More importantly, becoming a better HR practitioner begins with understanding the business. Manfredi says: “You really need to understand what the company is doing, the clients’ needs and the needs of your people driving that business, then you can be a better practitioner.”
Otherwise, tooting your horn without any significant achievements will destroy any credibility HR has painstakingly built over the years. “It kills me when people say ‘I need a seat at the boardroom table’ or ‘I’ve got to be a partner’.”
“You can’t just stand there and think ‘I have the right to be there because I’m in this function’. You can have the right, but if you’re not adding value, you’re of no value.”
Inside Scoop
So you want to rebrand HR?
If HR wants to carry out an advertising campaign on rebranding itself, what messages should it use and what would be its focus? Lee Xieli speaks to Chris Chiu, group executive creative director for Leo Burnett Singapore, the agency responsible for the latest instalment of National Family Council’s Filial Piety campaign, “Father and Son” airing in Singapore.
Background/overview: Product information and measurable objectives:
Chiu says HR needs to know the issues the function has within that specific company because “everyone sees communication as an end product” in solving a marketing problem or branding issue. When you know what you are being perceived as, Chiu says changing the perception becomes easier. “Depending on what the issues are, HR would solve them by showing how they are misunderstood or what their true focus is. If you are not respected, what do you need to do to be respected? If you’re not well-liked, how do you soften your image?”
Current situation analysis: Where does HR fit in the organisation?
Sometimes HR might not be seen as proactive or as involved. Or HR practitioners need to forge a better relationship with peers.
Some people see their HR director as a nice person, but lacking in tangible performance and results. Or HR is perceived as efficient, but it’s hard to have a chat with it because it is unfriendly.
Target audience:
Internal customers aka the employees.
Key messages: Prioritise facts about the service you’re marketing and its value to target audiences:
If employees assume HR only administrates the payroll and leave days, Chiu says it’s letting them know HR does more than that. He asks: “Can you imagine if HR makes mistakes with the payroll or someone’s leave?”
The positioning statement to employees would then be: “Because everything you do matters, it matters to us.”
There should also be testimonials from employees who have experience as to how HR was responsive in helping them, perhaps in a tax issue or medical leave concerns.
Next, to give more credibility to the HR function, Chiu says employees need to glimpse at what HR does behind the scenes.“Show off a bit there,” he says. The second message could be: “If you like what you see us do, wait till you see what you don’t see us do.”
Tone and image: What tone and imagery is most effective?
Instead of a mass advertising campaign, Chiu says HR should use a personalised direct-marketing campaign because “each employee has a different reason as to how they perceive HR in a certain manner”. That shows “a bit more heart and sincerity”, explains Chiu, because if the campaign comes out right, “employees will appreciate HR more”.
Delivering:
The messages should be disseminated through emails, e-direct mailers, print posters and the corporate intranet.
Schedule:
Once the campaign is up and running, it’s critical for HR to measure the ROI through regular climate surveys on whether employees’ perceptions of HR have changed.
“If the scores haven’t changed and you’ve done your survey properly [having taken out external factors], find out what can be improved upon.”
Additional information:
Would Leo Burnett change the HR department’s name to something more fashionable during the rebranding campaign?
Chiu says a name change would only be necessary if it’s relevant to the issue HR has in the organisation.
“I’m not saying it’s wrong, but is there a need to call HR the People’s People? Half would say it’s fun and cool. The other half would say what is the point.”
It’s far more constructive for HR to fix what’s wrong or improve on what’s good, explains Chiu.
“You don’t change just for the sake of it.”
