I often hear the question, what do the Business leaders want from HR? – Especially from solution providers during briefings and product/service updates. I actually heard that question twice last week - while speaking with 2 major HRO providers.  To this type of question I usually have 2 follow up questions:

• Are we asking about executive level business leaders or line managers?
• Are we asking about what they “need” or “what they want”?
  

So, I thought I'd capture a few comments and insights on this topic from our research on High Impact HR organizations - I've had the opportunity to conduct both HR and business leader interviews now, and can share some interesting findings from those discussioins.  

Today executive level business leaders are looking to their HR organizations to answer critical people and talent questions. Questions that will not only provide them with insights on the current state of their organizations workforce strategy, but more importantly help them in making real business decisions. The first question we always ask business leaders – is what are their top business challenges.  This context is important for any discussion about what they are looking for from their HR/TM Partners. Business leaders were pretty clear that their business challenges were focused on forward thinking challenges.

• Creating an Innovative Environment
• Staying Competitive
• Managing Growth well (we aren’t seeing double digit growth, like we did before 2009 – but there is still growth in a lot of places.)
• Getting information out and making sure it is used appropriately
• Managing future costs across the company.
  

Quotes from the leaders:
CEO- Leadership needs to make information available to individuals, but also educate them on how to use it to provide better care that is also efficient care. – Large Hospital Network

When senior business executives think of their most critical business challenges we found that they were looking at tomorrow, not today. HR Leadership is often (and rightly so) focused on business challenges organizations are facing today. When we compared answers on the Top 2 Business Challenges from Business Leaders to our HR Audience in this research, not surprisingly there was a slight difference in opinions.

Although financial pressures to cut costs continue to be a big concern for both groups, the business leaders were definitely more concerned with how they would manage the forward looking aspects of the business. When HR and Talent leaders are working at their best, they are providing insights that could very likely drive the business in a new direction. Although it is with a different sample group and slightly different time frames, you will see similar trends in our recently released TalenWatch Report. This Bi-annual report can give you a rolling look at the changes in perspectives on business challenges and how the HR/TM community is planning to meet them.

So if these were the business challenges, then what were they looking for from the HR and Talent Communities? Here are the topics that were most often mentioned by business leaders in their interviews - Many of these concerns will probably sound familiar to our HR audience. 

• They fear the “unknown” and the biggest “unknown” today for business leaders is their company's current talent map and internal bench strength.
• They are looking for clear roles and accountability outlined within the HR function – They want a single point of contact.
• They want options and answers, not just data and reports.
• Finally, they felt that strategic HR meant they would have more business discussions, versus HR solution discussions.
  

All of these are focused on what business leaders "want", so let’s take a deeper look at each of these topics and find out what they really "needed". 

Reducing missed Talent opportunities, creating Bench Strength

Our interview notes were filled with stories of loosing critical talent to competitors (sometimes before they were even identified as critical talent) – or finding the right candidate buried in an internal function for a critical growth role, 2 months after they were needed. Executives fear “what they don’t know” more than “what they do know”. What they don’t know is where their talent is in their companies and if that talent is getting ready for the markets next shift. We heard the term “Talent Map” more than once, and not just in relation to succession planning. HR functions have been working on succession planning for the last several years, and we heard that these efforts are improving – but now leaders are looking to better understand the entire workforce plan as well. Building, preparing, and identifying bench strength both in leadership and critical talent roles continues to be a consistent theme. Business leaders have big expectations of the HR function in this area.

Quotes from the leaders:
 

• CEO, I’m just not very comfortable that we have the expertise to meet our goals; we have talent with experience in years, but not with experience in depth and knowledge. - Global Pharmaceutical Company
• SVP Sales Division, I would like to think that we have a very well thought out view of what [our] next leaders will be and we are choosing leaders based on where we want to go in the future - Global Financial Company
• CEO North America, Our biggest constraint is a lack of good qualified people who know the business. Mainly we don’t have people who are knowledgeable. – Global Logistics
• VP Manufacturing, Our old managers were brilliant technically - Today the leader of manufacturing has to understand that they have to produce that product at a dramatically reduced cost while still maintaining the safety and quality. Current leaders now have to be brilliant business professionals as well as have the technical knowledge. – Global Pharmaceutical Company

One Stop Shop, Single Point of Contact

This message may seem tactical in nature and hard to believe that the executive level is asking for this type of clarity, but it is a message that is heard over and over again in the interviews. Role clarity and clear decision making processes continue to be a challenge for HR functions. We also heard that communicating this information is more than just about sending out a memo, but rather pro-active outreach and education when leaders are going through the process with HR.

Quotes from the leaders:
Sr. Leader, “I have a Learning Consultant, a new Talent Management consultant, an HR Business Partner, HR Generalist, and Help Desk –who do I go to for strategic insights or HR services?”- Global Insurance Company

More Strategic HR

This is interesting, since HR Leaders are often asking how they can help their business leaders become more strategic about HR and Talent issues. These two groups are often at an impasse and it should be noted that these executives felt their HR Leaders were valued members of their senior executive teams.  Comments often centered on “how far their HR function had come”, but that more improvement was needed; especially in client facing HR roles. In many cases the challenge seemed to be the language.

The Business is looking for real business solutions – While HR has the difficult job of translating the messy and very complicated realities of the people side of that business solution. People just don’t follow pre-defined rules of logic like finance or IT. Executives often come to the table thinking they know what the answer is to their problem, for example, career-pathing will not build you better engineers for the aerospace market. Yet, several executives mentioned the need for more career-pathing and career development in their interviews. When we dug deeper into what they really “needed”, we found out that they had a need for skilled engineers, plant managers, or regional sales representatives who could perform differently than the traditional employees in these roles. As HR we know that a combination of assessments, selection, compensation, career opportunities, and career paths will help ensure that these roles are filled and meeting performance expectations.

The opportunity for HR is in how the message is packaged and communicated. HR may have to slightly alter their perception of what a solution may look like based on the leaders true business needs (not what they think they want).  But the business professional wants to leave the discussion focused on what the business outcome will look like not the mechanics of the HR solution.  

Quotes from the leaders:
 CEO “Our HR function has come a long way – but we still have opportunities for improvement”. Global Pharmaceutical Company

Answers and Options, versus data and reports

Have you ever heard the phrase – “we are data rich, but information poor” This captures many of the executive leadership comments on HR and TM measurement and data. There was a lot of concern in the interviews about knowing where to make the right investment decisions with people resources. Business leaders know their business and understand what areas are growing and struggling.  What they don’t know is which HR investments will actually help the most. Keep in mind that investments for them in many cases was less about money, and more about the valuable time of employee’s who needed to be productive. These were bigger questions about optimizing those resources and spending time on valuable efforts. The questions they were asking included:

• When will development be most effective for them? Today, after the busy season, when we launch the new products. They have limited time and I want to make the most of it.  
• What division of tasks will provide the best results? Should I remove all the tactical work and create a shared service function? Should I change incentives to focus on different tasks?
• What organizational makeup will impact bottom line numbers? Do I need team leaders, coaches, or just self-led individuals? What engages this audience and gets the results I want?
• How do we create better partnerships with our Labor unions? How can we get ahead of their requests and concerns?
• What are our total benefits and labor costs for this market? Are we in line with our competitors? If we aren’t is there a valid reason why our costs are higher or lower?

These are questions that aren’t answered by turn-over rates, training records, or even performance ratings. They are answered by combining business data with various HR and TM metrics to find trends and relationships.

Quotes from the leaders: VP Private Banking Group, We have to continue to reassess – do they have all the tools they need to be an advisor to the business (are they advisors, or simply advisors hiding behind the services they offer) – Investment Firm

Wrapping Up 

As you can see above, looking at what Business Leaders “need” from HR is critical. Understanding how to translate what they “want” into what they “need” is an art and skill HR could always look at improving. Do these comments match the voice of your business leaders?  Are you working on answering these questions today?

In my next blog, I’ll look more closely at the comments from front line managers, and share their view and challenges as well.  In our report, we'll take a look at what some HR organizations are doing to meet these needs and where the industry is struggling with both the tools and experience for these challenges.