The Flip Side With some justification, you could ask how someone can understand the realities of the workforce if they have never actually been part of another business function, or indeed directly managed employees? If we take into account the nature of the work performed, its targets and measures and the people doing it, we can see real pressures. Line managers are responsible for managing the workforce daily, with all the issues both business and personal that can arise at any moment. And manage upwards as well. An HR professional can certainly learn these things, and an HR manager will certainly get first- hand experience, but in the majority of cases, conclusions are arrived at by observation and applying the theoretical knowledge gained from studies. The biggest potential drawback is the danger of becoming “HR- centric”, where career HR professionals develop a view of the organisation through an HR lens rather than a business lens.
If we take into account the nature of the work performed, its targets and measures and the people doing it, we can see real pressures.
Examples of this are: Designing processes that are more about HR needs than anything the business requires. Conflating workforce activity with HR activity and measuring accordingly, rather than examining business outcomes directly linked to what HR is actually doing. Talking about employee engagement without connecting it to business targets. So here we arrive at a position that could tip either way on the scales. Someone can spend 20 years in HR and develop a sophisticated understanding of business through working with various
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ISSUE 28 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
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