Putting HR in rotation: experts say rotation programs are the best way to gain a broad view of the business, yet HR often leaves itself out of the loop - Cover Story - human resource professionals should become strategic business partners

HR Magazine, March, 2003 by Robert J. Grossman

"I wanted to learn more about how the tools we develop in workplace analysis were being applied and used," says Todd Sperl, one of the OE staffers. 'And I wanted to gain a feel for the day-to-day operations, what our managers go through and how they make decisions."

To that end, Sperl is shadowing Maryann Barnes, the administration director for surgery at St. John Hospital. While maintaining his regular workload, Sperl plans to spend about a day a month observing and consulting with Barnes. Recently, he attended his first operations meeting and afterwards spent an hour debriefing with Barnes.

"We're very financially focused," Barnes says. "Todd's going to see the whole clinical piece and how it ties in with the financial side."

Julie Bell, the other OE staffer, also is eager to view health care from the trenches. "I want to learn more about the business side," she says. "Unless I have operations knowledge--especially about nurses, I won't be able to ask the right process questions that relate to productivity and morale."

Bell's mentor, Stephanie Brady, director of behavioral medicine and pastoral care at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., says she welcomes the chance to build communication between HR and operations. "The problem with HR is they don't know anything but HR. There's a silo-thinking effect where you get training but don't see the day-to-day operations to know what it's really like."

Although the program is still in its infancy, Sperl already sees it spurring his professional growth, and he suggests that other HR professionals ask senior management for cross-functional rotational opportunities. "If your office isn't forward thinking, go out and produce a relationship with a line manager on the side," he says.

* County of San Diego. When Carlos Arauz became the HR director for the County of San Diego and its 18,000 employees, he instilled a service team approach, creating five interdisciplinary HR teams that were linked to the county's five operational units (including public safety, land use and environment, and community services.)

"Previously we had two separate divisions and they were not providing good customer service to the operating groups," Arauz says. "We were not functioning as effective business partners!'

Now, specialists in compensation and benefits sit together with their counterparts in recruitment and selection in five-person customer service teams. As a result, each specialist now has a working knowledge of the specialties of other team members-and also has an appreciation of the business issues facing the operating unit the team supports.

Teams meet monthly with HR generalists who work directly for the operational units and report jointly to Arauz and their unit chief. They serve as conduits, translating the HR needs of their unit to the HR team. Teams focus exclusively on HR issues but also are briefed by line managers on an ad hoc basis.

Teams also receive two to four hours of classroom instruction each week on various HR disciplines and functions.