Guest Column

The changing face of employee representation – how is HR being accountable?
By Sudhir Saran Singh, Founder & CEO, Stratandops

When Peter Drucker stated fifty years ago “Human Resources personnel always seem to feel that they lack status in their organization,” the role of the HR was restricted to mere employee management. Over the years their focus shifted to the relationship between the employees and the management. From managing employee relations, stress and conflict to ensuring low attrition rates the HR professionals had to play the role of a cultural cop.

However, in the past few years, the role played by HR has drastically changed. HR professionals are considered a more important part of the organization. They are now expected to be people and organization experts and also ‘Change Agents’.

With organizations going global, industry trends constantly changing and enterprises strategically restructuring, change management is one major problem faced by many. With all these metamorphoses, it becomes important for the HR professionals to develop a concrete and holistic work culture.

In his book “The HR Value Proposition”, Dave Ulrich says that, HR professionals need a perspective that is compatible with and distinct from other business perspectives. Without such a unique and powerful perspective, they are redundant, and fail in their aspirations as full business contributors. For example, an HR perspective that is both unique and powerful is one that establishes the linkages between employee commitment, customer attitudes, and investor returns. This unique view demonstrates a powerful connection between what is carried out by managers and employees inside the firm and what happens with customers and investors on the outside.

Today, helping the HR professionals in managing their activities is the Intranet in its numerous avatars. Whether it a set of connected computers or a collection of personalized applications, Intranets offer the greatest innovation to HR professionals since the advent of the desktop computer. However, an ideal case is a when there is a single Intranet with the all the required modules personalized to meet the organization’s needs.

At the heart of any Intranet is the employee. With its ability to be a strategic solution for two-way communication between all members of an organization, an Intranet allows the HR professionals to efficiently perform many of the routine tasks required. One of the best features of an Intranet is its scalability. A vast array of enhancements can be easily added to a basic Intranet system.

Also, an Intranet is the easiest medium for employee engagement. An engaged employee is more likely to understand and support the company’s vision and goals, link their personal growth with the company’s growth, be prepared for challenges and problems and recommend the company to friends and family.

With all its features and benefits, an Intranet today, is a major tool for communication, recruitment, retention, and training. Employees - old and new, are increasingly looking to the Intranet as the source for job related information, culture and communications.

However, the key to an Intranet’s success is its popularity and use. The benefits of an Intranet are realized only if it is used consistently and continuously by the employees. Newer strategies need to be formulated to constantly enhance the stickiness of the Intranet. All transactions within the organization happening through Intranet is one sure way of ensuring that the Intranet is the most visited place in the office ahead of the coffee vending machine. Once that happens, Intranet can really do the trick and ensure effective and efficient communication.

Before I close let me state it upfront that unless an organization is inclined to engage and can afford best talent for the in-house Intranet team, it is best outsourced to specialist organizations which understand art, science and technology needed for effective communication. Intranet isn’t something that the folks warming the bench can create or manage.

With many web pundits like Jeremiah Owyang declaring that "an Intranet is an accurate reflection of the inner workings and ‘Corporate DNA’ of a company," the criticality of Intranet in HR management is ascertained.

By the way, when was the last time you really felt like logging into your company’s Intranet?

About the author

Sudhir founded Stratandops (http://www.stratandops.com) about 9 months ago with a mission to build a comprehensive support organization for the clients, with an objective of developing HR processes & policies that are based on industry best practices.
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