These days, the Internet has asserted its ubiquity on everything from global commerce to the way individuals and

organizations seek information, share it, make decisions and create value. Machinery seems to be gradually replacing manual labor, and technology is wielding its dominance in corporate processes. In this context, you might think human resources and everything staff-related are receding.

Emad Rahim

OPERATIONAL SYNERGY

How To Achieve

Through Better Human Capital Management

But the reality is far different.

Human capital remains a pillar of business and industry,

and organizations that are adept at managing their staff

talent are more likely to achieve operational synergy and

boost revenue.

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To do this effectively, assemble a strong bench of top

managers in each department along the value chain, and

make each one accountable for a specific deliverable -

such as performance, productivity, cultural diversity or

employee empowerment, to name a few.

3. Seek 360-degree feedbackthroughout the organization

According to Edward Lazear, Professor of Human

Resources Management and Economics at Stanford

University, creating an effective feedback loop can help

jumpstart human capital management in your company.

The goal here is not to ask employees the same old

“What can we improve?” or “How can you do your job

better?” questions. Rather, ask different versions of the

same question, focusing on how the HR policies affect their

specific functions, and how these functions fall into the

overall operational process of the company.

Here’s an example: Say one of your key HR policies

emphasizes a return on investment of 10 per cent on

each employee in the sales department. In other words,

you want each salesperson to generate 110 per cent of his

or her salary in annual revenue quota. To achieve

this objective:

Set the right, competitive salary for each staff member

Seek the sales team’s feedback before finalizing the

HR policy

Adapt the corporate policy to internal procedures

within the sales and marketing department

Define and agree on performance criteria and key

success factors (KSF)

Track the KSF and, if needed, modify and realign

them with industry trends and the company’s

internal benchmarks

1. Set adequate HR policies

Effective human capital management starts with the tone

at the top, the way senior management sets the right vision

that ultimately trickles down through the rank and file.

HR policies play a unifying role in today’s enterprise, and

they help personnel focus on core operational values like

productivity, competitiveness, performance and employee

cohesion, says Professor Timothy Butler, Senior Fellow

and Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard

Business School.

To set the proper HR policies:

Include high-level HR personnel when formulating

the procedures

Ensure the procedures mesh perfectly with the

organization’s mission, vision and values

Promote the corporate culture through HR

Be aware of cultural subtleties

Seek, receive and incorporate junior HR management’s

feedback into the final blueprint

2. Embed the corporate HR vision into the value chain

Your company’s value chain encompasses all internal and

external processes that, collectively or individually, create

operational or financial benefits to the business. Simply put,

it’s everything that adds value to a final product or service.

Your typical value chain includes such activities as

production, marketing, delivery and customer service. And

these are the areas you want to focus on.

After setting adequate HR policies, apply them - and

adapt them, if needed - to your value chain, showing

personnel how the policies are good for business, for their

own performance and for the company’s overall reputation.

The Eight Key Components to Successful HRM (Dr Emad Rahim HRM/HCM Diagram, 2013)

HRMHRMHRMRecruitment, Recruitment, Recruitment, selection & selection & selection &

introductionintroductionintroductionHR planningHR planningHR planning

Personnel Personnel Personnel Personnel Personnel Personnel administrationadministrationadministrationadministrationadministrationadministration

Labor Labor Labor relationsrelationsrelations

Training & Training & Training & developmentdevelopmentdevelopmentdevelopmentdevelopmentdevelopment

Succession Succession Succession & career & career & career & career & career & career planningplanningplanningplanningplanningplanning

Performance Performance Performance & reward & reward & reward

managementmanagementmanagementmanagementmanagementmanagement

Talent Talent Talent managementmanagementmanagementmanagementmanagementmanagement

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Biography

Ø Emad Rahim, D.M., PMP, serves as the CLO at Global i365 LLC, a diversity consulting firm based in New York City and Chicago, IL. He is also the appointed Endowed Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Oklahoma State University and an MFP Management Fellow at the University of Chicago. Dr. Rahim was the previous University Dean of Business at Colorado Technical University and has taught at Syracuse University, SUNY, Cornell University and Colgate University. He co-authored Leading Through Diversity: Transforming Managers into Effective Leaders and writes for CEO Magazine, PMI Network and Tweak Your Biz. Connect with him on Twitter @DrEmadRahim.

4. Integrate technology into human capital management

Technology is here to stay - you know that already. But

what’s important to emphasize is that tech trends can

effectively help improve your human capital management

and propel your organization’s operations.

If your business hasn’t yet adapted to key fads in the

technological sector, now is the time to make the switch and

to reflect the change in priorities that consumers and your

customers have already made.

According to Vala Afshar, CMO and Chief Customer

Officer at Enterasys Networks, technology can be a potent

tool in human resource management, especially for a

company that runs global operations in far-flung locales.

You can use technology in the way you:

Source and hire human talent

Set performance criteria and other productivity

benchmarks

Evaluate staff performance periodically

Research productivity metrics and produce educational

material adapted to your personnel’s needs

Foster staff cohesion and camaraderie

Set the proper tone, both in terms of corporate culture

and values

5. Benchmark industry best practices

When it comes to human resources management,

benchmarking remains an essential component you can

rely on to evaluate your own procedures, identify what’s

working, figure out what’s not, and determine why.

Benchmarking essentially means you emulate industry

best practices. You can do so by seeking competitive

intelligence through industry research, consultants, your

own research department or academic literature.

The idea here is not to spy on your rivals and emulate

what they’re doing gung-ho, but to thoroughly find the

perfect medium between your corporate values and the

type of human capital management procedures you need to

make your company operationally effective and efficient.

Recap

When well-thought-out and effectively implemented,

your human capital management strategy can help your

company achieve operational symbiosis.

You don’t need to reinvent the operational wheel or

turn to an orthodoxy-breaking exercise to stir up your HR

policies. Just stick to the basic, good-old process of defining

the problem, seeking alternatives, evaluating them, making

a decision and conducting a post-mortem review to see

what worked and what didn’t.

Throughout the process, don’t forget to leverage

technology extensively and make it a key analytical

element, especially when reviewing human capital

management across your value chain.

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