HR executives share their experience in human resources

Citation

Duducu, I. (2009), "HR executives share their experience in human resources", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2009.37208aab.003

HR executives share their experience in human resources

Article Type: Practitioner profile From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 8, Issue 1

HR executives share their experience in human resources

Inji DuducuInji Duducu is HR director at CPP.

Inji Duducu has more than ten years’ experience in HR and is currently HR director at insurance provider, CPP, which employs over 1,150 staff in the UK. Over the last 10 years she has seen many changes taken place, both personally and professionally. She comments:

Being able to apply for jobs with “10 years+ experience” crept up on me, partly because I am delusional and still think of myself as young and able to make it in a band, and partly because for most of those years I have been working at such a pace that I haven’t stopped to reflect. So over this time what has changed in HR and what challenges still face us as a profession?

She identifies three trends that have shaped the landscape of HR over the past ten years. In no particular order, they are:

1. 1.

   The rise in popularity of the Ulrich (www.daveulrich.com) business partner/shared services model.

2. 2.

   A changing corporate landscape to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical trading a mainstream business issue.

3. 3.

   The increasing profile of people and leadership capability as a source of competitive advantage.

CSR makes a come back

She continues:

The massive increase in public skepticism about big corporations along with demands for responsible business have made CSR a real issue. Also, the war for talent, whether the next CEO or attracting and keeping call center agents, has meant that people have choices about where they work, and are increasingly opting in to companies that offer meaning through work and flexible ways of working.

I was recently reading Anita Roddick’s book (founder of The Body Shop, a global manufacturer and retailer of ethically produced beauty products), written in 2000 and reflecting on the previous 20+ years in business. During her time at The Body Shop, and even when writing in 2000, she was regarded by the wider business world as dangerously maverick for her insistence that the success of her enterprise be measured on more than profit – that it was also assessed on how it treated staff and suppliers and its impact on the community. That’s pretty standard practice nowadays, and over 100 years ago was not an unusual approach among great industrialists like Titus Salt and Rowntree. Is CSR making a come back in the corporate world?

The many demands on HR today

Duducu believes that there has been a genuine irreversible change across leaders in all industries to believe in the value of leadership. She says:

Hugely influenced by business gurus such as Jack Welch, famous for his leadership at GE, leaders have asked HR to step up and help them create performance cultures, identify and nurture talent and create winning cultures. HR, finally getting the seat at the table it had longed for, realized in many cases that it didn’t know how to contribute once it had pulled up a chair.

The demand for strategic and commercial thinking from HR has meant that the Ulrich model (or some variant) has been a necessity for a lot of functions – strip back the transactional work, push people management to the line, and free up HR business partners (HRBPs) to get close to their customers and drive an aligned people agenda. We’ve had a challenge though – great HRBPs have an unusual skill set and a traditional career in HR hasn’t prepared people for the role.

Being a HRBP means punching above your weight – typically client managing and influencing leaders several levels above you. Strong influence and relationship and commercial skills are required just to survive. On top of that, strategic thinking and OD experience are necessary to develop people plans that look fit for purpose alongside business plans. Unless you have excellent stakeholder management skills you won’t work effectively in a shared service model. You will be a “change agent” and employee champion. Oh, and you need to have a broad understanding of all aspects of HR, but because most models mean really nasty case work falls to you, you also need to be an expert in policy and legislation. To paraphrase the English novelist Jane Austen, it’s hardly surprising that there are few accomplished HRBPs, rather it’s a wonder that there are any at all!

Skilling up the HR function

However, she says that the HRBP role is now critical:

As the “face” of HR, the model thrives or fails on the qualities of that individual, and all they have at any given time is their skill and experience during that human interaction. A scary thought when you strip it back. I have seen truly exceptional HRBPs succeed through skill, determination, natural aptitude and the right input and coaching, but as a profession we need to make sure this happens through more than luck and individual will.

As the prevailing functional model now and for the medium term, we need to ensure a pipeline of people with the skills to be great HRBPs, or specialists who can apply their skill pragmatically. It is time to take stock of what we are including in our professional qualification and think about what we teach and how it is assessed.

About the author

Inji Duducu joined CPP as UK HR director in April 2008. She had previously worked for HBOS for nine years in a variety of HR roles, most recently as head of HR for its insurance business. Prior to this, Duducu started life as a graduate in Arthur Andersen’s Human Capital Services where she specialized in industrial relations and employment law. She can be contacted at: Inji.Duducu@cpp.co.uk