The Workplace Coach

You won’t get any argument from me about the importance of the various corporate functions that deliver organisational performance and success.  Your C-suite will probably reflect those roles that are most valued by the organisation.  You will likely have a Chief Executive Officer (or similar,) some business line Executive Directors or General Managers, and then you will have a selection of senior corporate leaders.  Typically, these will include your Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and maybe a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel. 

What’s missing?  Chief People Officer. 

Unfortunately many organisations still don’t fully recognise the importance of their people.  The rhetoric has long been that ‘our greatest asset is our people’ yet the organisational structure doesn’t support that notion.  They might even still call the function ‘Human Resources’ and have the Director of HR reporting to the COO along with the governance, marketing and communications teams. It is time for employers to recognise that the term “human resources” is viewed by some people as a derogatory term, treating employees as little more than human capital, a resource to be burned through in pursuit of business objectives. 

What does organisational performance depend on?  Is it the IT infrastructure?  Is the allocation of budget and funding?  Is it the organisational governance?

Organisational performance relies on all of these things, but the single biggest determinant of organisational performance is going to be your people.  Not only do you need to have the right people in the right jobs at the right time, but you also need to develop and nurture these people, you need to have developed great managers who know how to inspire, motivate and manage their teams, you need to have systems and policies and procedures in place that support your people giving their best every day, and you need to have an employment framework that is going to remunerate people fairly.  You will also need to have an organisational culture that supports diversity, rewards innovation and effort, and recognises achievement and excellence.  You need a culture that eliminates negative behaviours and deals effectively with poor performance. 

Are you starting to get the picture?  This is complex stuff but still some less evolved employers out there still think of the ‘HR function’ as a bit of a factory process.  Get them in the door, pay them, develop them, and if necessary, boot them out the door. This doesn’t just downplay the importance of people, but it is also pretty insulting to those specialist professionals who are charged with ensuring that the organisational workforce is fit for purpose and operating at full capacity.

Let us please start giving the People Function the recognition and standing that it deserves.  People are complex and I would argue that being responsible for an organisation’s people is just as important, if not more so, than managing the finances or the IT systems. 

“Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business.” – Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group.

It is about time that organisations established a Chief People Officer or Chief of People and Culture role.  This person needs to be a part of the executive, on an equal standing with the CFO or any of the other C roles. They need to report directly to the CEO, and they need a voice in all strategic decisions.  There is not one single strategic organisational decision that does not impact the people that work for that organisation, not a single one.

Organisations who have a healthy, happy and highly engaged workforce with a culture of high performance are the ones that will succeed in business, today and in the long term.   If you look around at the success stories in your industry, you will more than likely find these organisations have an experienced and highly qualified Chief People Officer applying a people-centric focus to the strategic decision-making process.   

The Workplace Coach