 Strategic
Human Resources
Integrating HR with business strategy is critical to organizational
success. Kimm Korber is Global Vice President of Human Resources at
Chemtex – an engineering, procurement, construction management and
technology licensing firm serving the chemical and alternative fuel
industries. He is also a past participant in U-M EE's Strategic Human
Resources Planning program. He recently shared with Exceed a few
of the lessons learned through the program that have helped change the
way the organization's executives and senior managers view Human Resources at Chemtex.
"There were a lot of concepts presented
during the course for me to take back to my organization and build on,
but I continue to return two powerful lessons again and again. First,
an organization must really take a hard look at itself and focus on its
priorities. Innovation, relationship building, price, quality and
efficiency are all critical to our business, and there is an
overwhelming temptation to defend and argue that all of these areas (and
more) are the most important. However, we have to be realistic about
what the source of our competitive advantage truly is and focus on that.
Then, the organization has to align its people, processes, and
practices to maintain the source of its competitive advantage. If your
workforce's capabilities are not aligned with your organization's
defining factor, it allows precious time, energy, and business
opportunities to slip away without ever creating value. You have to have
the courage to ask thought-provoking questions every time the
organization is faced with an issue affecting its ability to compete,
and HR has to be prepared to deliver practical solutions for keeping the
workforce's capabilities aligned with what drives the success of the
business. Not all decisions to ensure this are easy, pleasant or widely
accepted, but success comes from linking the rationale for difficult
decisions (i.e. staffing) back to the core of the business.
I
have found that these are simple concepts to articulate;
institutionalizing them and allowing them to drive your decision making
process is challenging even in the best of circumstances. That said,
applying these concepts at Chemtex has repositioned HR within the
organization. Executives and senior managers see HR in a different
light. The function is less bound to hiring transactions and is now more
involved in working with other parts of the organization (Operations,
Finance, etc) to set business plans and drive bottom-line
profitability."
Learn more about the
Strategic Human Resources Planning program at U-M Executive
Education, and start leading meaningful change at work.
Have you
experienced positive results from implementation of U-M Ross Executive
Education tools and concepts? We want to feature you in an upcoming
issue of Exceed.
Share your real-world experiences, highlight results and even brag a
little. E-mail us your story today at
gbugala@umich.edu.
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