If we shared some resolutions this year would HR be more respected?

I’m getting in early with this.  Can we all agree on some shared resolutions for 2012 please?  There are a few things I would adore if we could wipe them off the HR map this year.

 Women on boards. 

No I’m not suggesting we give up on making our boards more diverse and representative of the population they lead, even I haven’t drunk so much mulled wine yet this Christmas to be slipping in to madness.  But can we please resolve to stop banging on about it as an issue and instead just crack on with reshaping the way we manage our future leadership Talent  pools in ways that encourage women, and people from different minority groups to move forwards with their careers? For example, did you see the news item on American Football managers and the enormous changes achieved in a very short time just by introducing a law that said there had to be at least on minority on the interview list for any football manager role. There has been something like a 36% increase in managers from minority backgrounds. It’s called the Rooney rule if you want to look it up

I’m pretty sure something like that  would be a much more effective use of our time, and one that will far sooner than we think change the numbers we seem to have got so fixated on.

 People strategy. 

Yes I know each function in a business needs to be clear on the direction it is taking as it supports the business strategy.  But in HR that means the HR function needs a clear agenda for what it will do within itself to support what the organisation as a whole is up to achieve, I.e. are we going to streamline our shared service processes and adopt software as a service this year?  No the thing I would love to see disappear from the map is people strategy.  You know, the PowerPoint pack that says over the next five years we will get the right people in the right place at the right time.  That’s a really great aim to have, but having a people strategy that is something different and distinct from your business strategy isn’t helpful.  It may seem like a subtle distinction, but either you have an integrated strategy for your business that includes how your people support that aim, or you have a business strategy and a people strategy, an indication that your HR function is still not close enough to the business.  Let’s just stop now please.

 Putting the performance management process at the heart of the agenda for improving people management in your organisation. 

Again, I’m not suggesting that appropriate management of performance is not important.  But the emphasis we have on it as a process is stopping performance from actually being managed.  It would make my Christmas very merry to know that in 2012 we will focus on helping our managers to have great performance conversations rather than teaching them to manage performance.

So, can we give it a go?

Merry Christmas, and a very happy 2012 to you all.