HROTodayGlobal

Europe Preview Ariadne's Thread A guide to escaping the labyrinth that traps most HR executives. By Yan Bello HRO Summit In today's globalised business landscape, HR is frequently challenged with a wide range of expectations, from the demands to contribute "more value" and align itself with the business, to facilitating growth and development for people across diverse organisations and cultures, to the frequent insistence that HR must become a strategic partner of the business/line management. All of these are supposed to occur, of course, without HR turning its back to its day-to-day traditional responsibilities: hiring, recruiting, compensation, training, and more. The fact is that quite often the HR function is under tremendous pressure, facing conflicting views such as cost vs. investment considerations, or decisions confronting short-term vs. long-term interests, or strategic vs. tactical. And, by looking at some current trends in the turbulent present—shrinking talent availability, an ageing and soon-retiring workforce, knowledge workers-migration, globalisation, etc.—the situation only appears to be becoming even more challenging in the near future. In this context, modern organisations facing the challenges of having a capable and knowledgeable workforce (that is properly trained and prepared to execute on its core competencies with a continuous change-readiness mindset) realise that this cannot be achieved by HR's devised training programmes alone. From another perspective, HR leaders often find their projects and development proposals seriously challenged and questioned from within their own organisations in ways that no other business areas' proposals are scrutinised. It is, therefore, not surprising that many HR professionals feel confused and often disoriented, just as if they were lost, finding their way out of a labyrinth of crossroads. Fortunately, in trying to escape even from the most mythical labyrinths, as Theseus did, one can figure the way out if provided with a valid guide or "string"—in other words: a roadmap. And this is precisely what a capability maturity model such as the Carnegie Mellon University – SEI's People Capability Maturity Model (People CMM®) can provide for addressing human capital management challenges, both short term and medium/longer term. People CMM® is conceived as a state-of-the-art human capital management, organisational development, and change management model. It helps organisations (of all sizes and business sectors) become more competitive and innovative by developing their workforce and transforming the organisational culture in various stages: from inconsistent, ad-hoc approaches, to people- centred management practices, to professionalism around workforce competencies, to predictable performance through empowerment and participation, to a continuous improvement culture rooted in innovation. Organisations appraised as performing at one of these stages are known or said to be at the corresponding maturity level: initial, managed, defined, predictable, and improving. No doubt, the quest for these higher grounds asks for a sound roadmap! SUMMER 2011 | www.hroglobal.com [19]

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