Partnering with business - From the President - Brief Article

HR Magazine, Jan, 2002 by Helen G. Drinan

These downsizings are awful, as hard-working people get hammered by competitive change. In difficult businesses these changes never end. I can't tell you how often I was asked in the early 1908s, "Is it over now?" Unfortunately, it's never over.

--Jack Welch

Former CEO, General Electric

When Jack Welch wrote these words in his new book, Jack, clearly he did not contemplate the changes that would be brought about in the workforce by the events of Sept. 11. The United States is now in an economic recession, and we look ahead to a very challenging year for business in 2002. Yet with the right combination of leadership and strategy, tremendous challenges become tremendous opportunities.

Being part of a business' management team is compelling work for HR professionals. There is no better feeling than contributing the best of your expertise to a business issue and seeing results that make a difference to the bottom line.

Great business partners are HR experts with a passion for business. They understand the language of business and think of their work in relation to its impact on the bottom line. Most have a very specific agenda staying focused on a few key initiatives. They work hard to close any gaps between what the business needs and what HR does.

Full understanding of the business strategy by everyone on the HR team is critical to staying focused on the dynamics affecting business performance. HR leadership means real discipline around questions like:

* Where is the business going?

* What are the measures of success, i.e., business drivers?

* How is the business performing on these success measures?

* What are the key challenges to achieving success?

And to borrow from Welch's quote above--it's never "over." As the environment changes, HR partners continually develop and rework strategy around questions like:

* What are the business issues that require partnership from HR?

* What HR strategy addresses these business issues? What skills are needed?

* How do you measure the impact of HR strategy on the business success measures?

* How will the strategy be executed? Specifically, how do you do it?

The partnership between leaders who are committed to their workforce and HR professionals who understand the drivers of business is incredibly powerful. Based on a shared understanding of a company's culture, it's a partnership that can make a company's workforce its greatest competitive advantage.

In 2002, a difficult political and economic landscape will continue to affect the workplace. It is exactly this kind of environment where top HR partners make the critical difference between supporting a business objective and leading one.