1. • HOW HR MATTERS IN CURRENT ORGANISATIONAL
CHALLENGES
• MYTHS VS REALITIES IN HR FUNCTION
• HR VALUE PROPOSITION
- Shantonu Dasmahapatra
- 6th July, 2013

2. CHALLENGE ONE : GLOBALIZATION
• HR will need to treat models and processes for attaining global
agility, effectiveness and competitiveness.
CHALLENGE TWO : VALUE CHAIN FOR BUSINESS
COMPETITIVENESS
• Competitiveness requires faster customer responsiveness –
innovation, faster decisions, leading an industry in price or value
, effectively linking with suppliers and vendors to build a value chain for
customers.
• To support value chain argument, research indicates that
employee attitude correlates highly with customer attitude.

3. CHALLENGE THREE : PROFITABILITY THROUGH
COST & GROWTH
• How can the organization create a commitment to rapid
growth and the culture that supports it while simultaneously
controlling cost.
• What are the HR implications of entering new businesses, of
leveraging core technologies that lead into unfamiliar
businesses.

4. CHALLENGE FOUR : CAPABILITY FOCUSED
HR professionals need to constantly seek the capabilities
necessary for success and routinely ask the following
questions:
• What capabilities currently exists and what will be required in
the future.
• How can capabilities be aligned with business strategies?
• How can HR practices be designed to create the needed
capabilities.

5. CHALLENGE FIVE : CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE
HR professionals need to help their organizations to change
and deal with following questions.
• How to encourage the risk-taking necessary for change
without putting the firm in jeopardy?
• How to determine which HR practices to change for
transformation?
• How to engage the heart & mind of everyone in the
organization to change?
• How to unlearn what has been learnt?

6. CHALLENGE SIX : TECHNOLOGY
• HR professionals responsible for redefining work at their firm
need to figure out how to make technology a viable &
productive part of the work setting.
• They need to be ahead of the information curve and learn to
leverage information for business results.

7. CHALLENGE SEVEN : ATTRACTING, RETAINING &
MEASURING COMPETENCE AND INTELLECTUAL
CAPITAL.
• Securing intellectual capital will involve learning to share ideas
and information throughout a company more quickly. HR
professionals must create the policies and practices that will
encourage such learning.
• Creating organization in which intellectual capital is constantly
updated will be a significant aspect of HR work in future.

8. CHALLENGE EIGHT : TRANSFORMATION
• Transformation changes the fundamental image of the
business as seen by customers.
• Managers and HR professionals need to focus on
transformation to create fundamental and enduring change.

9. IMPLICATIONS OF BUSINESS CHALLENGES FOR HR
AS A PROFESSION
• As champions of competitiveness, HR professionals must
focus more on the deliverables of their work rather than doing
their work better.
• They must learn to measure results in terms of business
competitiveness rather than employee comfort and to lead
cultural transformation.
• The HR function has been plagued by myths. It is time these
myths are overcome.

10. MYTHS V/S NEW REALITIES IN HR FUNCTION
• People get into HR because they like
people.
• Anyone can do HR.
• HR deals with the soft side and
therefore cannot be measured and
linked to Business performance.
• HR professionals must create the
practices that make employees more
competitive, not more comfortable.
• HR processes & systems are based on
proper theory & research which needs
to be mastered.
• The impact of HR practices on business
can and must be measured. HR
professionals must learn how to
translate their work into financial
performance.

11. MYTHS V/S NEW REALITIES IN HR FUNCTION
• HR focuses on costs, which must
be controlled.
• HR job is to be the policy police
and the health and happiness
patrol.
• HR professionals should learn to
add value and not reduce cost.
• HR practices do not exist to
make employees just happy but
to make employees committed
& competent.

12. MYTHS V/S NEW REALITIES IN HR FUNCTION
• HR is full of fads.
• HR is staffed by nice people.
• HR is HR’s job.
• HR professionals must see their current
work as part of an evolutionary chain
and explain their work with less jargon
& more authority.
• HR professionals should be
confrontative as well as supportive.
• HR work is as important to line
managers as are finance, strategy &
other support functions. HR
professionals should join with mangers
in championing HR issues.

13. THE PREMISE OF HR VALUE
• HR value proposition means that HR practices and
professionals are able to produce positive outcomes for key
stakeholders-employees, line managers, customers &
investors.
• When others receive value from HR work, HR will be
credible, respected & influential.
• Attempts at HR effectiveness without defining value will not
be desirable.

14. THE PREMISE OF THE HR VALUE PROPOSITION
• Influence with impact occurs when HR professionals start with
the beliefs and goals of the receivers.
• Who are the key stakeholders I must serve?
• What are the goals & values of the receiving stakeholders?
• What is important to them?
• What exactly do they want?
• When these requirements are fully understood, then the HR
professional can show an investment in an HR practice that will
help the stakeholders gain value.

15. THE EVOLVING PICTURE OF HR:
FROM PROFESSIONAL TO STRATEGIC PARTNER
• New economic realities are putting pressure on HR to widen its
focus from the administrative role it has traditionally played to a
broader strategic role.
• The new economic paradigm has highlighted the importance of
intangible assets, such as brand
recognition, knowledge, innovation and particularly human
capital.
• HR must move from a ‘Bottom – up’ perspective (i.e.
emphasizing compliance and traditional HR) to a ‘Top - down’
perspective (i.e. emphasizing the implementation of strategy).
• HR need innovative systems that will let them demonstrate their
influence on measures that is critical to business – namely
profitability and shareholder value.

16. HOW DO WE MEASURE THE VALUE OF HR
SERVICES?
• Two most common questions are raised by HR practitioners:
• How can we measure the value of what we do in HR in terms
that line and General Managers will understand and respect.
• How can HR metrics be incorporated in organization's
measures of business performance.
• To demonstrate its strategic contribution to senior managers, HR
needs a measurement system that focuses on two dimensions.
• Cost measurement
• Value creation

17. A SIMPLE ILLUSTRATION OF VALUE CREATION
____________________________________________
_____
FINANCIAL
_________________________________________________
CUSTOMER
_________________________________________________
INTERNAL/BUSINESS
PROCESS
_________________________________________________
LEARNING & GROWTH
Return of Capital
Employed
Customer
Loyalty
On-time
Delivery
Process Quality
Process Cycle
Time
Employee Skills

18. HR TRANSFORMATION WITH A VALUE
PROPOSITION HAS SIX IMPLICATIONS
• First : HR work does not begin with HR – it begins with the
business.
• To be real Business Partners , HR Professionals need the line
of sight between their activities and the best interest of key
stake holders .
• Second Two: The ultimate receivers of business reside in
market place that companies serve.
• HR should have a line of sight to the marketplace .
• Knowledge of market realities will enable HR in creating
Human abilities and organizational capabilities that generates
products & services that customer demands .

19. HR TRANSFORMATION WITH A VALUE
PROPOSITION HAS SIX IMPLICATIONS
• Third : HR creates value when it acts as an enabler to create
competitive advantage.
• Competitive advantage exists when a firm is able to do
something unique that competitors cannot easily copy .
• Four: HR professionals must align practices with the
requirements of internal and external stakeholders.

20. HR TRANSFORMATION WITH A VALUE
PROPOSITION HAS SIX IMPLICATIONS
• Five: HR professionals need to acquire the knowledge & skills
necessary to link HR activity to stakeholders value.
• When HR fails to make it , it allows gaps to occur between Hr
practices &stakeholder demands .
• Six: HR professionals need to view company’s key stakeholders
from a unique and powerful perspective.