For those of you that caught the Wall Street Journal article this week HR Executives Suddenly Get Hot you might have had the same reaction Picasso had to the incredulous admirer that commissioned a “simple” drawing by him. The story goes like this:
Picasso was sitting in a Paris café when an admirer approached and asked if he would do a quick sketch on a paper napkin. Picasso politely agreed, swiftly executed the work, and handed back the napkin — but not before asking for a rather significant amount of money.
The admirer was shocked: “How can you ask for so much? It only took you a minute to draw this!” “No”, Picasso replied, “It took me 40 years!”
Now having had very little actual conversation with Picasso in my life, I cannot confirm that this story is indeed true, but I am positive I can relate to it—you likely can as well. Very little happens suddenly and that is certainly true of human resources and the sudden hotness of the profession. Many of you reading have been in this profession for longer than my nearly two decades, but one thing I can say is progress in the world of HR has come by way of continued discipline, tenacity and realignment across decades of effort. It is this kind of focus that is leading greater numbers of senior executives and boards of directors to rely on the critical guidance and, at times, mandate that only a skilled human resource practitioner can bring.
Properly organized HR strategy is no longer about gut feelings from senior line managers. It is about the science and artful experience of career professionals. This, of course, is not the entire job description, but rather the basic requirement of HR strategy in the 21st century.
As we turn the final page of the calendar in 2009 and look toward 2010 remember that while human resource professionals are the “suddenly hot” asset of the boardroom, the hallmark of those that honor their chosen profession are the individuals who meet the imperative of delivering the right information with the right analysis and solid insight. Human capital data is the cornerstone of this process. Those organizations that perform ahead of their peers are those that avoid the risk of misguidance by poor human capital data, or worse, ignorance of data assets altogether. They actively use one of their strongest assets in workforce planning, analytics and reporting and come to the boardroom properly armed to work as business leaders alongside their peers in operations, finance and the executive suite.
I look forward to many new and continued conversations on this subject and Infohrm’s nearly 3 decades of experience in workforce reporting, analytics and planning. Have a safe and happy holiday season. Now if you’ll excuse me, as I get back to drawing on my napkin.
P.S. If you’re a senior executive in the HR field in the Silicon Valley area, I would like to talk to you about a special event we are hosting in January. Email me if you would be interested in a roundtable conversation with your peers on the topic of workforce reporting, analytics and planning. I am certain you will be happy you did.