How to be a human resource key advisor

An emerging trend in Human Resources (HR) is to centralize your HR transactional functions while leaving a smaller HR footprint at each geographical location. Larger corporations and government agencies have found efficiencies in transforming their HR service delivery in this fashion. Although many transactional functions were centralized, the most essential element of HR service delivery is the key advisory services provided by the HR leader at each geographical location. This on site HR professional is essential in maintaining a high level of customer service with their generalized knowledge of HR principals and contacts at the centralized service delivery center. More importantly, this HR leader should understand the organization's vision and be able to strategically develop the HR mission to support their organizational leadership. This article will talk about key principals of an HR key adviser.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Organization's Goals
   
   How do you add value to the strategic goals of your organization? In the Air Force, if you don't impact the war fighter, then you are not value added for the organization. About 20 years ago when I entered HR, it seemed we existed for ourselves. Of course we would provide polite and courteous service to our customers. However, we served more as process champions or policemen telling people what they can't do. Instead, HR professionals need to align themselves with supporting the organization's goals. As a wise general once told me, "You need to work your boss' issues first." Work the key issues for your leadership and tie your efforts to your organization's strategic plan. By doing so, you will provide value to your organization.
2. Measure Your Impact
   
   What can you measure for your success? In HR, we can look at some key areas:
   HR Information Service
   Orientation,Training and Development
   Employment
   Employee Relations
   Compensation
   Benefits
   Law
   Organizational Development
   
   You can find 3 - 5 key statistics to measure to serve as indicators of the health of your organization. What are the key areas that support the organizational mission? What are the key issues that affects your leadership...customers? If your company has high turnover, then tracking this statistic could be beneficial as you develop strategies to deal with this issue. That way, you actually can tell if your efforts are making a difference. What are the other critical issues in your organization? Measure them to determine your return on investment of your HR services. Remember, if your leadership wants something to measure, its important to them. That means, it's important to you.
3. Create a Customer Service Culture
   
   Who are your customers? Everyone is your customer in HR. You have specific relationships with the leadership in your organization but you still have responsibilities to the rank and file employees. Determine customer groupings like management, technical, office, or line workers. Survey each individual grouping on how you are meeting their HR needs. When was the last time you asked your customers what type of job you were doing? If you did ask, then what did you do about their feedback? Do you have exit interviews? This is an important tool to find areas needing improvement and possible suggestions to employ.
4. Communicate the Importance of HR Functions
   
   What is your strategic communications plan? With an understanding of your boss' needs, company vision/goals, and customer needs, how do you communicate your HR message to them? Do you send emails as issues crop up? Do you send out a calendar of key events? Or, do you look holistically at the life-cycle of your organization and strategically plan your communications to all echelons of your organization in a variety of means? Your goal is to anticipate your customer's needs and communicate your information/solutions proactively so they can be successful in meeting the needs of the organization. You might also want to ask the different groupings of people what type and through what medium do they like to receive information. Take into consideration generational differences and learning styles to get the full impact of your strategic communication to your organization.
5. Integrate HR Functions with Customer Needs
   
   One of the strengths of HR professionals is our ability to integrate across divisions, levels of employees, and other spectrums. We need to cross these boundries and bring people together to help solve the internal and external customer needs. We are the ultimate team builders. In the Air Force, HR is responsible for casualty (death) notification. However, when a casualty occurs on base there are several different functions involved. The leader of the base does not want to deal with several different people, but would rather have one belly button to push to make sure everything is on track. The HR person can be that belly button integrating with other agencies or divisions to coordinate a response or solve problems. If it involves people, then the HR person should lead the charge or be involved.
6. Incorporate Coaching
   
   If you have not developed your coaching skills as an HR professional you will miss an amazing potential impact upon your organization. In many federal agencies they have migrated to a pay for performance system. In a sense, supervisors now have more of a role in the HR function. But the HR professional can still play a huge role in "coaching" managers concerning pay setting, performance objectives, pay for performance, and other traditional HR "employment" functions. Helping people find the solutions within themselves and their sphere of influence vice telling them the rules or answers relies more on coaching skills than consulting. Coaching allows the customer to have more ownership and thus they are more likely to implement change for their betterment and that of the organizations.

Tips & Warnings

• This article gave the "general ideas" of the HR key adviser philosophy
• More specific articles about the key adviser role are forthcoming
• A key adviser is a role you fulfill as a HR professional
• If you read, please comment. This article will grow from the body of knowledge from the readers...thanks in advance for your insights!