Binge Thinking

HR Business or People Discipline?

Getting past the depressing front pages of this week’s Personnel Today (‘credit crunch’ ‘500,000 jobs to go’ etc.) my eye was drawn to an article on page 4 entitled: ‘CIPD vows to raise HR profile by working with government’.  In the article (by Guy Logan) it says that ‘Jackie Orme, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), has pledged to work with the government to improve the standing of HR professional in the boardroom.’ 

Along with suggesting that more HR people should work as non-executive directors, Orme also adds that: “There are some big challenges ahead of us, and the first is cementing our discipline as an excellent business discipline, not a people discipline.”

Interesting stuff. Especially as we have recently analysed client buying patterns at Go MAD Thinking and we have seen a shift this year from the majority of our business coming via HR Directors/Managers etc. to now it being via Operational Directors.  People who have their eye scanning their entire business and who would always see people and human capital in the context of business performance.  Possibly, the people with the access to budgets?

Does this mean that HR people are being marginalised or are some failing to provide people development that will have a tangible business benefit?  To be honest, I don’t know.  I just know that it is a shame that those who are concerned with the greatest asset of any company – its human capital – do seem to have a way to go to automatic inclusion at board level in many UK companies. 

Curious about this I did a quick Google search on: ‘HR in the boardroom’.  It throws up an interesting array of articles but not many are current.  Stephen Proctor wrote a book entitled: Power and Influence in the Boardroom: The Role of the Personnel/HR Director but this was seven years ago.  Seems like this will be a good topic to debate in our community area once it is up and running.  For now, do let us have any comments or thoughts you may have.