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Mrinal Krant
Krantmrinal.blogspot.in
Is HR today, CEO's trusted business ally?
Is HR today, really, the 21st century HR? What is strategic HR? The Business Consultant, the Business Challenger, the Change Agent, the Business Evangelist on People Strategy? The Key
Catalyst in terms of "Talent Identification, Integration, Engagement, Nurturing and Rewarding to report tangible returns in ROI and ‘Value Building’ terms?”
You may wonder, what special and unique expertise and
genetic combination HR has got, which creates a great
difference to building, a fair, equitable and transparent,
innovative, creative, profitable, meritocratic and a Great
Place to Work company?
What insights and measures HR uses to check the factors
count that define a highly motivated and success oriented
work culture?
Does HR build and present the talent vs. capability
scorecard and guides how the optimization of the talent
topography and execution curve can be achieved? Has HR
ever done the true talent mapping? I am not talking about
education, certification and relevant experience columns
from the excel file. I am talking about talent that can result
in direct value add to Capability framework of the
organisation and consequently to the customer satisfaction
and delight. Does HR help achieve, the eulogised, true
cutting-edge over competition, we also call competitive
advantage?
Does HR know what transaction non-value adding tasks
employees are doing that can be outsourced/In-sourced to
lower level low cost staff? What is the value of the time and
talent loss due to the higher paid staff doing the lower end
job or parts of it?
Can HR present a talent available versus talent utilization
graph? The percentage of under or over utilization of talent.
Can HR highlight all hidden spots of "glass ceilings" in the
organisation which prohibit talent utilisation and
development by creating artificial barrier to talent’s
upward/lateral mobility?
Can HR spot and highlight, where all we have talent water-
shed/rain-shadow and talent pipe thinning?
Can HR present total talent loss data in Talent Transmission
due to poor and hurdle-infested processes and archaic
conventions of design architecture of solution and delivery
planning bureaucracy?
Can HR present thorough a public dashboard, how many
employees or percentage, on any date feel like; they are
"Thriving, Surviving or Struggling"? The professional well-
being index.
Does HR lose sleep when talent suffers against boss’s
idiosyncrasies and bureaucracy? Do they raise a red-flag?
Do they put their foot down? Do they come forward and help
removing hidden and obvious barriers to talent flow and de-
clog growth in the organisation?
Tell me why HR should be considered the backbone of
organisation's talent management? What role they play is so
different and uniquely value adding and differentiating than
the line manager does?
Is today’s HR CEO's trusted business ally? Does he naturally
get reminded of the HR partner when he thinks business!
Think over!!!!

2. 2 | P a g e
Mrinal Krant
Krantmrinal.blogspot.in
Overriding debates and value judgement tendencies of HR’s worth to business, here are few structured framework to integrate the ‘HR Champion’ to the business, for
impactful results! After all, ‘business of business is people’.
ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES---
Capabilities are backbone of delivery, company’s
sustainable competitive positioning and advantage.
Capabilities are core concepts of long-term plans.
Talent Manager/Org Designer-HR Champion builds a long-
term talent (skills and Competency) capability building plan
with mandated training (education, experience and
exposure) , certifications programs at right intervals under
able mentoring and right kinds of projects with objective of
building a Subject-Matter Expert, Area Content Expert and
Go-to person for such skills and competencies. Design time-
bound and opportunity linked Career Advancement Plan to
fit in the Talent/Capability Optimizing Framework.
Culture and Change Steward-HR Champion is culture
vanguard who aims at building, propagating and preserving
the unique culture of the organisation by ensuring culture
reflects in every thought, act and planning of the
organisation. For any Change Management, the HR Champ
ensures all effective vehicles of communication are used
and right mind-set is built after proper dialogue and
iterations on people’s responses. Seamless integration of
changes shall be the end objective of the HR Champ.
Strategy Architect-HR Champ is integral part of the
Corporate Strategy where People Strategy is closely linked.
HR Champ debates the implications of such business
strategy on people and culture and upon negotiations and
proper understanding suggest people strategy that shall fit
the new business structure for right results. Business
debates on people strategy from the perspective of
alignment to plan of action and people’s capabilities and
morale. HR Champ plays a balancing yet business ally role,
within the framework of HR law of Governance!
SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES---
Systems and processes are arteries and veins for smooth
function of operations. It ensures standardised work-flow
and right sets of compliance and control. Systems abilities
and Process abilities are matter of continuous improvement
for efficiency of services, effective results and internal-
external customer satisfaction.
Operational Executer- HR Champ is an operational Paranoid,
a Perfection Freak and Customer/Employee Services
obsessed professional. He ensures his systems and
processes are idiot-proof and free from individual biases
(linked to approved policies and guidelines) and person-
independent. It is trick-free and easy to understand and
operate. HR Champ ensures proper updates and upgrades
are embedded on time to all systems and processes. Trains
people on changes and new processes and systems ahead
of implementation.
Business Ally-HR Champ works with business, for business
and ensures business success! Owns his piece with
professionalism and integrity, keeps business aware of
each steps of development and raises red-flags on seeing
possible risks, suggest s alternative plans and solutions,
truly partners with business and ensures success as One-
team!
RELATIONSHIPS-
Relationship s is the software which sits on the hardware
and connects with users only if activated. There is no-auto-

3. 3 | P a g e
Mrinal Krant
Krantmrinal.blogspot.in
pilot in relationships. Relationship is the first and the last
step in building alliance and partnerships. With
relationships, come understanding and trust. HR Champ
cannot be a success unless he champions the art of
relationships. He needs this skill in his DNA.
Credible Activist-HR Champ is the most visible face of
people activism, policy implementations, gathering feedback
on existing policies and plans, building networks across
levels and functions, all kinds of diversity and opinions. HR
Champ is a middle-ware, who deftly senses and captures
people’s reactions and responses as a neutral body and
helps build platforms for debate, propagation,
implementation or change by involving right set of people to
ensure plan and policies are enforced, rightfully.
The other important part of Credible Activism of the HR
Champ is, acting as vanguard of values and ethics,
adherence to sacrosanct policies of the organisation even
in difficult situations. Ensure that actions are in
conformance with established norms and conventions of the
organisation, even in absence of written rules. Ensure that
he has challenged the deviations that erode trust in
established values and processes, whenever it is evident to
him or brought to his notice, irrespective of how high
positioned is the violator/infringer!
References--- HR from the Outside In (2012, Jon Younger,
Wayne Brockbank, Mike Ulrich),
Global HR Competencies (2012, Wayne Brockbank, Jon
Younger, Mike Ulrich),
The Why of Work (2010, Wendy Ulrich),
HR Transformation (2009 Justin Allen, Wayne Brockbank,
Jon Younger, Mark Nyman),
Companion for Strategic Human Resources (2008 John
Storey, Pat Wright),
HR Competencies (2008 Wayne Brockbank, Dani Johnson,
Kurt Sandholtz, Jon Younger),
Human Resource Value Proposition (2005 Wayne
Brockbank), The Future of Human Resource Management
(2005 Michael Losey, Sue Meisinger),
Tomorrow’s (HR) Management (1997, Gerry Lake, Mike
Losey), Human Resource Champions (1997),

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Mrinal Krant
Krantmrinal.blogspot.in
Dave Ulrich
Author
David Olson Ulrich is a university professor, author,
speaker, management coach, and management
consultant. Ulrich is a professor of business at the
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
and co-founder of The RBL Group. Wikipedia