Good Talent Managers Think Like
Businesspeople and Innovators First,
and Like HR People Last
Throughout most of my career I’ve belonged to
professional associations of human resources executives.
Although I like the people in these groups
personally, I often find myself disagreeing with them.
Too many devote time to morale improvement initiatives.
At some places entire teams focus on getting
their firm onto lists of “Best Places to Work” (which,
when you dig into the methodologies, are really
based just on perks and benefits). At a recent conference
I met someone from a company that had appointed
a “chief happiness officer”—a concept that
makes me slightly sick.
During 30 years in business I’ve never seen an HR
initiative that improved morale. HR departments
might throw parties and hand out T-shirts, but if
the stock price is falling or the company’s products
aren’t perceived as successful, the people at those
parties will quietly complain—and they’ll use the
T‑shirts to wash their cars.
Instead of cheerleading, people in my profession
should think of themselves as businesspeople.
What’s good for the company? How do we communicate
that to employees? How can we help
every worker understand what we mean by high
performance?
Here’s a simple test: If your company has a performance
bonus plan, go up to a random employee
and ask, “Do you know specifically what you should
be doing right now to increase your bonus?” If he or
she can’t answer, the HR team isn’t making things as
clear as they need to be.
At Netflix I worked with colleagues who were
changing the way people consume filmed entertainment,
which is an incredibly innovative pursuit—yet
when I started there, the expectation was that I
would default to mimicking other companies’ best
practices (many of them antiquated), which is how
almost everyone seems to approach HR. I rejected
those constraints. There’s no reason the HR team
can’t be innovative too.
HBR