We are experiencing a working life with an increasing pace of change and competition for talent. We face new expectations and higher demands for careers, employee engagement and an individually adapted working day. More companies are closing down and starting up, downsizing and upsizing, changing product ranges and skills requirements. In this intensified competition, the people in the organization are key to success. This does not mean that it is easy to get HR issues through to the management team.
What appear to be smart moves and good investments from an HR perspective nevertheless require support from colleagues around the table in the management team. It is often a challenge for HR to lean on qualitative arguments when selling new initiatives, and the business impact is not perceived to be sufficiently measurable. The business case is then often too weak, especially if there is internal competition for investments in time or money. So how do you get HR issues through to the management team?
We know that it's not always easy to measure HR initiatives in monetary terms, and it often takes a certain amount of patience to see the effects. However, there are a number of things that can help illustrate where we are, quantify where we want to be, and clarify whether we got there. Remember to look beyond HR and compile data across the board.
Tips for the business case to get HR issues through the management team
- Improvement of sick leave or unwanted turnover, as well as the calculated costs of both.
- Change in employee engagement and loyalty.
- Employer branding by ranking in external surveys.
- Recruitment success by response and acceptance rate.
- Production losses or time spent on inefficient processes.
- Billing rate or production value.
- Development in competence or skills.
- Customer satisfaction and sales performance.
- Damage statistics - and more.
We never get "two lines under the answer" to the same extent as the Finance department. It is impossible to relate the development in HR KPIs to one isolated activity, but it gives indications of whether the measure had the desired effect. Furthermore, we need to bring out the hidden values - those that are difficult to measure in exact numbers - such as leadership, relationships, quality, attitudes and behavior.
Documenting impact is also of great value in getting already implemented HR processes through to skeptical managers. I have an example based on previous experience: We in HR claim that thorough onboarding increases the chances of employees quickly getting into productive work and becoming profitable employees. But does onboarding have that effect? We decided to find out. In an anonymous survey, we asked new hires in the past year, all consultants with billing requirements, how they had experienced onboarding, and received 150 responses. In addition to input on areas for improvement, we identified the extent to which the onboarding program was followed, and we asked about billing rates in the time after employment. We linked the degree of onboarding and productivity, and compared employees with parallel tenure. The results were obvious: Investing time in good onboarding had a long-term commercial impact. We converted the differences in billing rates into potential lost revenue. Voila! That's when we got the HR case right and all the managers on board.
But let's start at the beginning: What is the purpose of the initiative you want to achieve? It must have a clear link to business strategy, overall goals and challenges, and the understanding must be anchored with managers. There you have the starting point for strategic HR activities and can show how these contribute to solving the challenges. Test your idea on several people beforehand. Are there obstacles you haven't thought of? Has anyone tried something similar before?
When concretizing the proposed solution, highlight the benefits and illustrate with relevant examples. Keep the description short and concise. Make good calculations of costs, benefits and relevant measurement parameters. Take into account the time employees and managers have to spend on the initiative. Make an estimate of the time spent and describe why it is a good investment. Highlight the potential consequences and costs of doing nothing. Feel free to tone down HR jargon and use the same terminology as other managers.
Create a project plan for larger initiatives that will run over a longer period of time, and show that measuring impact and reporting results is part of the plan.
Prepare yourself for questions, input and objections. The way you handle any skepticism or resistance can be crucial. Use your knowledge of the management team members and structure your presentation based on their preferences and priorities.
Before launching the idea to the management team, make a thorough assessment of the right time. A good initiative can unfortunately be voted down if you miss the timing.
Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer HR managers who don't have a seat at the management table. Having HR on the executive team gives you an advantage in pushing HR issues. You have a better understanding of the strategy and priorities, a deeper knowledge of the industry, competitors, range of services and customers, and not least, you know your management team members and the dynamics of the management team. We shouldn't underestimate the importance of an HR department that is perceived to be solid on the operational side, and has earned trust by delivering results and meeting expectations over time. So make sure you have "the basics" in place before presenting major investments to senior management. Good luck!