HRMagazine, December 1, 2004

HRMagazine

December 1, 2004

SECTION: No. 12, Vol. 49; Pg. 118; ISSN: 1047-3149

HEADLINE: SHRM, Foundation pull together best, brightest; Inside SHRM; Society for Human Resource Management

BYLINE: Bates, Steve

BODY:
In opening the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) first Strategic HR Conference in Los Angeles on Oct. 12, SHRM Board Chair David B. Hutchins, SPHR, CEBS, CCP, noted that "the term 'strategic HR' has come to symbolize the holy grail of HR."
Keynote speakers and educational session leaders sought to help the more than 500 attendees better understand strategic HR throughout the three-day conference. SHRM plans to hold the event annually.
Strategic Keynoters
Acclaimed business author Jim Collins opened by declaring that the HR profession is driving the most successful companies in the world.
Collins told the HR leaders that the key question they should be asking is "not how to get a seat at the table. The question is how to see that what you do is the No. 1 seat at the table."
Organizations that are built to succeed over the long term and that move from good to exceptional do so because they embrace certain core principles.
These principles are the stuff of HR, according to Collins: making decisions about who should lead before deciding where they should lead, and finding and supporting leaders whose ambition is focused on the company's success, not their own. Research shows that "every one of those good-to-great companies first focused on who. Every question can be shifted from a 'what' question to a 'who' question," Collins said.
The second principle is leadership that goes beyond bottom-line results and encompasses such traits as vision and courage. These leaders have "a genuine streak of personal humility," but at the same time "a terrifying will on behalf of the company." Their intense ambitions are for the sake of the company, not their own compensation or reputation, Collins said, consistent with their core values.
Corporate governance expert Richard C. Breeden told attendees that HR professionals have a crucial role in ensuring that their organizations are run in an ethical manner, even if this role creates conflict with their CEOs and boards of directors.
Breeden, a former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a former corporate monitor for the failing telecom giant WorldCom Inc., said that for any corporate compliance system to be effective "it is critical that it be based on a strong HR department."
Breeden recounted startling discoveries of abuse by former executives of WorldCom, since reorganized as MCI. He noted that despite layoffs, pending fraud charges and close to $ 80 billion in exaggerated earnings, top officials of the company continued to expect sweet deals in salary improvements and buyouts while WorldCom was sinking.
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"You are at the epicenter" of the struggle to keep management and other employees on the path of honesty, transparency and responsibility, Breeden told HR leaders.
Though HR professionals cannot be expected to go on crusades to uncover wrongdoing where no indication of unethical or illegal action exists, they must create a culture of ethical behavior.
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"A company cannot be an ethics-free zone." HR must do the best it can to keep that message in front of executives and all employees, said Breeden.
Switching from ethics to coping with change, cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Jennifer James told attendees that as life and the workplace become increasingly complex and the rate of change increases, conveying HR's message to management and employees can seem nearly impossible. It doesn't have to be, though.
"We've never seen anything like this. The learning curve is straight up" and likely will remain that way, James said.
People and organizations resist change, with resistance typically greatest right before a breakthrough. She cited as examples the battles on behalf of women's suffrage, people with disabilities and homosexuals.
The good news, James said, is that HR can anticipate good things happening in the workplace. "Many of the programs you've been suggesting for years," such as productivity improvements, greater attention to work/life issues and developing a more flexible workforce, "are about to break through."
Wrapping up the conference, speaker and author Ram Charan said that HR professionals can ensure their companies achieve profitable growth.
"Organic growth is a people game, which is your game," said Charan. "This one belongs to you and not the CEO." But he added, "Is your organization fit for growth and execution?"
Key questions to determine whether a firm is ready for growth include "Do you learn from failures?" and "Do you actively take risks?"
He exhorted HR leaders to identify growth leaders early and reward them appropriately. In addition, he said that HR professionals must ask themselves if they have the discipline to execute strategies for sustainable growth.
Thought Leaders
Dovetailing with SHRM's Strategic HR Conference was the SHRM Foundation's Thought Leaders retreat, held Oct. 14-15 in Los Angeles. Created by the SHRM Foundation in 1999, the annual retreat brings together leading HR experts and accomplished practitioners. The invitation-only event featured frank and stimulating discussions of HR's difficulties and opportunities in working with CEOs and boards as well as with rank-and-file employees toward the goal of maintaining ethical organizations.
Participants also debated what an HR leader should do if his or her CEO and board don't want or expect HR to be involved in crucial business decisions. Some said the answer is to leave such an organization; others encouraged ways to demonstrate how HR can and does contribute to the bottom line.
Discussion included how organizations can follow corporate governance legislation and regulation-and meet or exceed the goal of fostering and ensuring ethical performance.
A single act by a single executive rarely can be blamed for the collapse of an organization's credibility or financial viability, said Patrick Wright, a professor of HR studies and director of the Center for Advanced Human Resources Studies in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Accounting and consulting firm Arthur Andersen "didn't lose its reputation in a day. It was a step-by-step process of sacrificing values for greed."