Here's a reprint of a recent article I wrote for HR Magazine:
Two of the
more common reasons people give for choosing a career in HR: “I’m a people
person”, and “I like helping others. Good
enough to get started but not nearly enough to be great. After more than 30 years in HR, I have some
thoughts about what it takes to be effective in this profession. Here then, in
Letterman-esque style, are the top 10 things I think every HR professional
needs to do to succeed (in reverse order, of course).
10. HAVE A VISION
Know
what you want to accomplish, and why. Don’t wait for your organization to
define what HR should be: there are lots of examples out there and a little
research will orient you to the range of the options available. Make it your
business to know what’s out there: study everything you can find, talk to
others, network and become your own expert. Being interviewed: articulate your
goals; already working: outline them every chance you get. Discuss your ideas
with your leadership team: get their input and buy-in.
My vision:
o
Develop a culture
where people would want to work and stay
The
results:
o
More than 3
million applicants for the 125,000 openings we filled over 20 years,
o
Annualized 11%
turnover rate during that time
o
No grievances or
arbitrations (50% union, 50% non-union)
o
One of America’s
Most Admired workplaces
9. BE A STRATEGIC
THINKER
Every
leading organization needs their HR leaders to align with its goals: learn what
those goals are and how to support them.
We wanted HR to be more than a department: it was the way everyone
worked and acted. That meant employees
at every level knew and understood their part in supporting our culture and HR
philosophies. Two examples:
o
We wanted to grow
the company: that meant more and smarter managers and supervisors. We started one of the industry’s first
college recruitment program - (Mirage Resorts’ Management Associate Program – MAP): nearly 300 college graduates
were hired over 12 years who totaled 10% of the company’s management team.
o
The company
wanted a lean and empowered team: we designed HR tools (see #7 below) that
managers and employees used to enter and retrieve their own HR-related
transactions and information, teach them how to use them, and monitor their
utilization and effectiveness. Having
these self-service tools allowed the HR team to become strategic partners
rather than transactional clerks.
8. BECOME A GREAT
COMMUNICATOR
Steve
Wynn taught us the difference between a good professional and a great leader is
their ability to communicate. You’re
the voice of your organization’s culture: makes sure you’re able to fill that
role:
o
Watch others
speak, adopt some of their styles, practice, and then stand up at every
employee gathering and report on the things your HR team is doing – if it’s
good stuff, talk about it.
o
Use your skills
to help others communicate more effectively in pre-shirt and other employee meetings,
at company and community events, and in new-hire orientations.
o
Start or attend
Toastmaster’s meetings: a little bit of this kind of training goes a long way
in making you and your team a commanding speaker.
7. BE TECH SAVVY
Starting
in the mid 1990s, I wanted to use technology to improve the processes and
effectiveness of HR: problem was I didn’t know enough to articulate my ideas or
participate in discussions about them. I took computer courses that helped me
better understand the terminology and methodology (local community colleges
offer these regularly, and there’s more (today those are supplemented by conference
education workshops and online courses). I’m never the smartest guy in any
room, but by educating myself I was able to accomplish these IT goals:
o
In 1996 we partnered
with Software 2000/Infinium to develop one of the first data warehouses to
organize HRIS data to produce employee relationship management reports similar
to those that sales, and marketing departments produced for customer
relationship management purposes.
o
In 1998 we
created one of the first applicant tracking systems (ATS) that allowed
applicants to enter their application information directly into the database
via 100 computers in our recruitment center
o
In 2003 we partnered
with Recruitmax to develop an ATS that utilized the Internet to directly
capture more than 125,000 applications for positions at all levels of the
organization
o
And in 2005 we hired
PeopleSoft developers and unveiled an end to end paperless HR environment: it
maximized manager and employee self-service tools to completely eliminate HR’s
data input responsibilities
6 BE FLEXIBLE
First:
Be curious enough to discover what you don’t know. It’s easy to do the stuff we
know about and are comfortable doing, but you need to learn about the new stuff
that’s happening as a result of the pace and volume of change throughout the
world, and your industry. Magazines (like this one), the Internet, and
networking (in-person or online) help you discover new issues and the best
practices others do to deal with them. Consider sponsoring business and industry
group meetings at your company site to allow you staff to interact with others.
Second:
Try new things: the world’s changing and the static policies you’ve used in the
past might need updating every now and then.
How many of us have handbooks that contain the “At Will” language: did
you ever consider that to be an outdated approach (really: when’s the last time
you fired someone for no reason)? Mandatory
arbitration: ever wonder why there were so many lawsuits? We mostly do what’s
been done before, but sometimes there’s a better way: who better to suggest
those things than HR?
Third:
Be a wise change master. Our HR roles
give us the perfect platform to study, lead discussions about and influence
change. Rigid adherence to yesterday
prevents adopting possible new and good things tomorrow – that’s where an open
and flexible mindset serves HR professionals well. Planning – either for the
things we want to do or the contingencies for when they don’t happen exactly as
planned, is a smart way to act.
Fourth:
Manage these changes effectively. It’s
one thing to find great ideas another entirely to implement them. Great ideas take time and effort to implement,
and someone has to manage them. Learn the best practices of project management
so you can lead these changes: years ago I went back and took Community College
classes in order to fully understand the computer terminology and technology
related to the ATS and self service applications I envisioned. This gave me the confidence and confidence to
articulate my ideas and manage them to completion. Know what’s available, use
all the tools you can find, and take a leading role in the implementation of your
HR plans.
5. UNDERSTAND THE
NUMBERS
Want
something that costs money: it’s all about budgets and savings, and you have to
fight for what you need. HR leaders are
often hesitant to propose programs because they fear these will never get
approved. In 1998 I proposed creating a
new applicant tracking system and having applicants use 100 computers in the
recruiting center to enter their own data directly (rather than having them
fill out paper applications that HR would have to read and enter into that
system). The cost (for this and the better one we designed for Wynn Las Vegas 6
years later) was high, but I was able to show a return on that investment that
saved enough in 2 years to pay it back).
Had I not understood the need for, and methodology of, a standard return
on investment (ROI) analysis, these would never have been approved. We all live by budgets, but that doesn’t mean
you should give in without using all the tools available to argue effectively
for your ideas.
4. BE A FULL
PARTNER
I often
hear that HR wants a seat a ‘the table’ – guess what: you have to earn it. That means people see you as a clear thinker,
a good leader, and a smart business person: all of which it takes to be
successful in your career.
o
Collaborate with
everyone to learn what their needs are and what they expect from HR.
Collaboration is the best way to get HR ideas and practices accepted and
implemented in your organization.
o
Spend time
working in every department, conduct focus groups, run trial programs in a few departments
to assess acceptance and usability of your ideas, and start an advisory group
to provide input to your planning process.
o
Appoint
Department Training Managers: they’re line supervisors who take on the
responsibility of determining what training is needed in their areas, when and
how training should be presented, and monitor attendance and post-training
performance and behaviors.
o
This kind of
collaboration gave our HR department excellent insight into the thinking and
context of all areas of the organization, and helped us know if we were
providing what the organization needed.
3. GET OUT OF
YOUR OFFICE
Be out
of your office more than you are in it. Employees often think of going to HR as
something like going to the “Principal’s Office”. Not so if you’re the kind of
HR leader who frequents the places your employees work: they’ll become familiar
with you and be more open to asking questions or making comment in their own
environments. And you’ll become more
familiar with the context of the issues you have to deal with.
o
Employees will
appreciate your presence and managers will get more comfortable with ideas: and
you’ll be seen as part of the team rather than the HR-person who hides behind
the policies. This gives HR a chance to
handle issues before they become major problems: following this practice,
Mirage Resorts had no grievances or arbitrations between 1989 and 2000.
o
Establish
policies like requiring managers and supervisors to explain “why” when giving
directions: this promotes their ability to plan, communicate, listen to
feedback and respond to concerns. Create
an open door policy that allows employees to appeal adverse decisions: this allows
them to ask questions, get answers and develop trust in the organization.
2. TAKE RISKS
Most
HR professionals are risk averse: probably because they’re not encouraged (or
trusted) to take risks. But successful
practitioners understand the need to take chances and the value that can
result.
o
Talking about and
practicing Hiring for Attitude in
1989 was contrary to the more common practice of hiring for skills: we defined
the attitudes that were best suited to the work we did and then designed simple
assessments to make sure those we hired had what it would take to provide the
kinds of service we wanted to offer. We
married this up with Training for Skills
and together these two became the focus of our recruiting strategies: spending
so much on training – programs and dedicated staff – allowed us to provide the
skills training that allowed our employees to be confident in their duties and
allowed their attitudes and smiles to shine through. These shifts in focus
revolutionized Mirage Resorts’ recruiting practices and resulted in
extraordinarily high customer satisfaction scores. It also led to the company’s achievement of
coveted 5-Star and 5-Diamond ratings.
o
In a TEDx talk
last year (http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Because-You-Can-You-Absolutely)
I spoke of several alternate recruitment programs I developed: working with
Police gang units and special boot camp programs for 1st time
non-violent felony offenders, local agencies that promoted services to
disadvantaged individuals, and other, we reached out to people who never
thought they’d have an opportunity to work for a large casino company: not
because we needed more applicants but because it was the right thing to do.
o
Nobody thought my
computer ideas would amount to much, and I basically had to bet my job and
career on them: IT was reluctant to buy into my apparently novice ideas, and
software vendors who build one-to-many applications were hesitant to try
something so radically new that didn’t yet have a market. They worked better than even I had hoped and
are more accepted now than anyone anticipated.
1. INSPIRE OTHERS
The
word I most often use to describe my HR style is inspirational. HR professionals represent “the rules”, and too
often are seen as technocrats or policy wonks, somehow disconnected from the
real world of organizational needs. For sure that’s in the job, but the more
you inspire others to understand how and why HR stuff is needed, and how it can
work to their benefit, you’ll be a recognized leader in your organization. If you have passion, there will be passion in
your corporate culture; if not, it will just be another job for you and those
who work for your organization. That’s
no fun, and not the kind of leadership needed from HR leaders today.
These are the things I
believe can help you become a more effective HR leader. Don’t get hung up on
their order: if some seem more important than others, rearrange them so they
work best for you and your organization.
Good luck.
