From management to leadership - profile of Society for Human Resource Management Chairperson Gary Howard

HR Magazine, Jan, 1999 by Bill Leonard

HR professionals must switch from workplace managers to workplace leaders, says 1999 SHRM Chair Gary Howard.

The rich baritone voice of Gary L. Howard, SPHR, makes him sound more like someone who has spent his career in broadcasting rather than human resource management. But from an early age, Howard knew that he wanted to be an HR professional.

"Actually I knew what I wanted to do before I ever finished college," Howard says. "It was an easy choice to make for me. I became interested in HR management while I was a college student and working summers at a sawmill in Oregon. I was actually involved in a union, and I realized then that an employer's biggest concern is how to create an environment where people want to work."

Howard chose HR as a career because he saw it as an opportunity to help to develop better work environments and ultimately build better lives for workers.

"In many cases, the only contact workers have with a company is through their supervisor. If that supervisor is a poor leader, then employees will have a bad experience and may become cynical about their employer and work in general," Howard says. "And that's no way to go through life."

Once Howard chose his career path, he never looked back and, throughout his 30-year career, he has excelled in the HR profession - rising to the senior-level position of vice president and director of human resources for the Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group in Arlington Heights, Ill. As he grew and developed as an HR professional, Howard also remained a dedicated volunteer leader with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This month, he begins a 12-month term as chair of the SHRM Board of Directors - the top volunteer leadership office for the Society.

"I became involved as a volunteer leader while I was working with Weyerhauser in Oregon," Howard recalls. "I actually chartered a chapter of the PNPMA (Pacific Northwest Personnel Management Association) in Coos Bay, Ore., which is now defunct, but that was my first introduction to the HR association world."

He went on to serve SHRM in many different capacities as a volunteer leader such as regional vice president for the Illinois and Indiana state councils and as president of the Institute for International Human Resources.

Birth of an HR Leader

After majoring in psychology and industrial relations at Fort Hays State University in his home state of Kansas, Howard was offered a job as an employment manager for the Weyerhauser sawmill in Coos Bay. It was the mid-1960s, and employers were just beginning to change their perceptions of HR management.

"In those days, a small number of people in human resources held college degrees, and there were very few people in HR who had chosen it specifically as a profession," says Howard. "About the time that I started my career, it was the first time that Weyerhauser had actively recruited and hired people for HR jobs in an attempt to bring some professionalism to the HR function."

When Howard began his career, HR was strictly an administrative function within the company. The primary focus of his job was to hire employees and to make sure they received their benefits and compensation.

"There were a number of us who felt that HR could be much more than that," Howard recalls. "I think that HR professionals such as myself have always felt that there was a greater calling for people in the HR field to do much more than just perform administrative functions."

Howard has continued to push for his beliefs in the HR profession. He has seen the profession grow and develop much like his own career. He has also witnessed a dramatic change in the way employers perceive HR, as it continues to evolve into a more strategic role. But Howard feels that not everyone has completely bought into the new strategic nature of HR.

"I think today there are still people who come into HR with the idea that it's more of an administrative function as opposed to an opportunity to make a strategic impact on business," he says. "Personally, I believe that we're at a crossroads in the profession today, and never before have I seen the opportunities for HR professionals to have such an impact on the workplace."

At the Crossroads

HR has arrived at the crossroads because there has been a fundamental shift in the traditional employer/employee relationship. And this shift presents a unique opportunity to any HR professional who's ready to seize it, Howard believes.

"We are at a time in the evolution of corporations, especially in the United States and Europe, where we have started to look at employees as assets and not costs. When you have assets, you invest in them and don't eliminate them when the going gets tough," he says. "The opportunity exists for HR professionals to help CEOs and senior managers understand that not only is HR management at a crossroads, but the way that we deal with people in our companies is at a crossroads. If a CEO doesn't understand this new value equation then that CEO needs to think about finding a new HR director."