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Dear Friends, I wish to initiate a healthy debate on the importance of HR performance being linked with the EPS of the organization. ( EPS = Earning per share). I wish that you take this forward and build it.
This debate is necessary because lately virtually every HR Champion worth his salt has been proclaiming the eventual ascent of HR to the 'corner desk'. The worst thing about this conviction is that it is possibly conveying the wrong image about the scope of HR, to the fresh HR professionals. I don't wish them to believe that religious monitoring of attrition rates and training feedback scores are the only figures which would sail them through, to the corner desk.
At the beginning of this debate, I wish to narrate a series of incidents which motivated me to probe this issue publicly.
Incident 1: I recently had the opportunity to hear a very senior HR professional who spoke on a public HR forum who spoke very eloquently and convincingly about how well his policies were impacting his organization and were being appreciated as well thoughout his organization. From what I could understand, he was also talking about the increased influence that HR was acquiring with regards to the top management.
Incident 2: I, being a stake holder of that organization was very impressed and chose to increase my investment in that particular IT company. But much to my disappointment, when I checked out the price trends of the share price, I discovered that the stock price of this share had dipped by about 40%, while the other IT majors had shown an appreciation of over 50% during the same interval of time. The EPS growth of this particular IT major was also nothing worth talking about.
Incident 3: Out of curiosity, I did write to this particular HR professional seeking some explanations about this contrary trend. I wrote to him around fifteen days ago and I am still waiting for an answer.
Incident 4: The increasing trend of costly training progrms, which focus on helping HR professionals become better core HR professionals, hence possibly leading them more away from the basic purpose of business.
I believe that HR professionals who wish to reach the corner office should start bothering about the impact of their policies on the Earning Per Share of their organization. They could possible create a HR-EPS quotient, so that they are able to start talking 'business impact' figures rather than just 'hr impact figures'
Figures and Trends such as " Training Man days per month" or "Training Programs conducted" or "Attritrion Rate" and " Feedback Averages" other HR matrices are fine as a function, but ones superior performance in these areas does not automatically qualify at the Business Impact level. HR professionals who talk about various HR jargon such as 360, Compensation, Kirk-Patrick, Managerial Grid and other such GYAN…..in isolation would also be aware of the negligible impact all this has on the overall business growth.
There are surely many people doing this already. Would it not be great, if such professionals, share their success stories. They would be the true inspiration for all concerned.
I welcome your views. Cheers
Sid |
