..............The
Bottom Line ...........HR
Function .........................Paul
Kearns
Paul Kearns is senior partner at
Personnel Works Partnership. He
writes a regular column for Personnel Today and
often speaks at
public conferences and seminars.
Summary
The Bottom Line HR Function is
both thought provoking and
challenging, explaining how the role of HR
people should change,
how the attitudes of business leaders need to
change and what
makes a good HR strategy.
The author asks valid questions such as:
¡DDo you
need a new HR function?
¡DWhere are
you on the HRM scale of
effectiveness?
¡DWhen is
an HR strategy not an HR
strategy?
¡DSo what's
wrong with HR Managers?
¡DAre you a
high added value HR
practitioner?
Contents
PART 1 ¡V DO
YOU NEED A NEW HR FUNCTION?
WHAT¡¦S
WRONG WITH PERSONNEL?
WHERE ARE YOU ON THE HRM SCALE OF EFFECTIVENESS?
The HRM scale of effectiveness;
The historical evolution of HRM; HRM is inherently strategic,
personnel isn't; So where are you on the
scale?; Welfare and personnel administration to
IPD; Effective personnel
management; The line manager's perception of HR;
The business
person in personnel; Organisation designer; High-
and low-value
activity in HR; The paradox of
low-value, critical HR
activities; Basic
activities are critical when they support the HR
strategy; Total
people¡Vbusiness
integration; Choose your HR role
THE CHANGING ROLES OF HR
So what's wrong with HR
managers?; The demise of the HR
generalist;
When is an HR manager an HR
consultant?; Consultant, adviser or
business partner?; Personal credibility and
authority
CHANGING HR AND MANAGEMENT MINDSETS
Business-focused HR people; The
prime role of personnel; The board's
view of HR; The employee's
perception; A new perception of HR;
What
they don't teach you at the IPD
MEASURING AND ASSESSING
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HR
Are most personnel people unconsciously
incompetent?; The
importance of measurement for HR; Measurement as
a philosophy;
Reasons for measuring in HRM;
Why there has always been a serious
lack of measurement in HRM;
Measuring the ¡¥unmeasurable¡¦;
Meaningful measurement; Building output measures
into HRM BENCHMARKING THE HR
FUNCTION PART 2 ¡V THE
STRATEGIC HR FUNCTION
WHEN IS AN HR ¡¥STRATEGY¡¦ NOT
AN HR STRATEGY?
KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FADS AND
FUNDAMENTALS
PART 3 ¡V HR
AS THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FUNCTION
THE PERFORMANCE-FOCUSED HR FUNCTION A definition of the bottom line HR
function; The language of
performance; Performance measurement and
management; Performance
management consulting; Critical elements of a
performance management
function
THE ADDED VALUE HR FUNCTION The proverbial fork in the HR
road; Focusing on value generation and the
bottom line; HRM and added value
APPENDICES Are you a high added value HR
practitioner?; Identifying the key elements
of your business and HR
strategies; Kearns's simple test of HR
effectiveness; Benchmarking your HR
function using the scale of
effectiveness; Which of your HR
activities add the most value?; Reviewing
existing HR activities and their
relative priorities; Using the HR
effectiveness formula; Distinguishing between the
cause and effect of an HR problem; Standard metrics for
the bottom line HR function
