While general managers and line managers rush to the HR professional to recruit and train staff or to address more delicate issues like discipline and behaviour problems at work, it is common knowledge that the HR manager is often considered a light weight in the boardroom. The HR professionals are perceived, at best, as fulfilling an important support function in situations where others consider the role as either too soft or not challenging enough to justify their time and effort.

In reality, people management is anything but soft and unchallenging. With the advent of the knowledge society, employees have become better prepared for work, their career expectation have increased considerably and engaging and retaining their commitment has become a daily challenge for companies that seek to keep ahead of competition.

Nevertheless, HR professionals need to delve deeper into the reason why the HR function is perceived as an add-on rather than an integral part of the operations and business strategy. The Chartered Institute for People Management (CIPD) has just released a report which seems to suggest that HR professionals need to be “business savvy”, that is they need to understand the business environment as much as, if not more than, their colleagues in production, marketing and sales, and finance. Three fifths of HR practitioners interviewed stated that the profession needs to build its understanding of business issues. Their understanding and practices in recruitment, training, engagement and career development enable them to position their organisations well to capitalize on opportunities for the long-term sustainability of the business. However this is not always appreciated because these strategic tools are not always applied in concert with the business strategy and therefore boardroom members fail to make the connection between the proposed HR measures and profitability.

It appears that credibility for HR managers depends on how well they can understand the business by using effectively their insights in the relationship between people, the organisation and the external environment to drive organizational performance. CIPD state that a stronger focus on “business savvy” will give HR greater opportunity to challenge the relentless pursuit of short-term goals that damage long terms business success.

The report identifies four key foundations that give HR professionals the edge that they need.

1) Understanding the business model in depth – HR practitioners know how value is created or destroyed in the organisation and know too well how an improvement in fostering the right intent among the employees, promoting integrity and developing competences, will render healthy results and enhance organizational performance. The successful alignment of the values of the individual employees and the values that drive the organisation is the job of the HR professional. In so doing, the person has to show how this alignment bears a direct effect on business success and profitability.

2) Generating insight through evidence and data – HR practitioners might feel intimidated by technical jargon and may stop short of requesting evidence about certain proposals submitted by technical personnel. HR practitioners should ensure that the decisions are based on sound business cases. They have to make it their business to read and understand the reports tabled and ask for clarifications before endorsing a decision. How else can HR managers expect the HR practice to fulfil its potential to sit at the core of organisational performance unless they thoroughly understand each proposal in order to align people’s capabilities to the proposal’s successful implementation?

3) Connecting with curiosity, purpose and impact - To become business savvy, HR professionals need to challenge the way things have been done so far. HR managers should take the lead and question whether things can be done differently and better. If processes are complex then that is a good enough reason why HR managers should seek innovation and use their people skills to capitalise on their capabilities and seek new solutions. Are HR managers individuals trained in people management with a casual understanding of the business environment or are they business leaders with an HR discipline?

On a personal note, in spite of the fact that I am running an HR organisation, monitoring my business sector, listening to the changing demands of our clients and members and developing new products to satisfy emerging needs, is second nature to me. I am heavily involved in consultancy and training and I enjoy every minute of it but I never lose sight of all the other decisions that make the organisation sustainable in the long term. This was also my experience when I ran a number of public social welfare agencies where I never looked at the more popular short-term gains and our decisions at management level were always directed towards long-term sustainability, and where HR measures featured at the centre of every decision taken, even if sometimes these were the lesser popular decisions.

4) Leading with integrity, consideration and challenge – HR practitioners should serve all stakeholders and therefore should have the courage to challenge the pursuit of short-terms goals at the expense of sustainability and long-term success. Integrity is about being truthful and honest, the sort of business ethic that builds trust with all stakeholders, as they know that their interests will not be forfeited for short-term gain in favour of others. However, we also need to make the right impression and this can only be done when we are consistent in what we say and do. So no matter how difficult or challenging a situation is, we have to look at the issue objectively, and with prudence and wisdom take the right decision. In this respect, the HR practitioner plays a critical role in balancing the various interests and where he or she can be the biggest ally that the general manager can hope to have in the boardroom.

Liz Ogden, HR director at G4S said that if someone is really serious about a career in HR, they should get out of HR and into the business to really understand the organisation and achieve credibility. I think that there is a lot of truth in her statement even if it is easier said than done.

HR practitioners need to spend time in operations as this experience will give them the credibility to speak with authority. Standing in front of your line managers to convince them to invest time in appraisals and coaching without having the moral authority to claim that you were there and have done it successfully, will prove difficult to get them to agree. On the other hand, claiming that you have an understanding of the wider implications of the business because you had to manage work complexities, competing demands, heavy competition and reducing budgets, gives you the confidence to connect the implications of HR measures to business strategy. At that point your colleagues will view the HR function as key to their success and they would want to know more about how to manage performance effectively and how the relationship between people, the organisation and the external business environment will work for them.

While the role of the HR specialist will continue to be valid and sought after, the role of the HR practitioner has become strategic. So get out of HR, spend time in planning, production, marketing and selling, go on business tours and visit clients, sit with your planning personnel and devise innovative proposals and negotiate contracts. Get the real feel of the attitudes, knowledge and competencies that win or lose a client and allow yourself to be absorbed by the complexities of production and selling and visualize new ways of how the relationship between people and systems work for the business and for the employees, customers, shareholders and the community.

The HR practitioner is often in the unique position of integrating the different constituent parts to add value in face of competition and make a material difference to the bottom line. I believe that HR practitioners who are really successful have the curiosity to find out more about the whole business and the courage to propose alternative ways of doing things because they have earned the credibility of being business savvy.

Mr Gerada is the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Human Resources Development