Transformando a R H En Un Socio Estratégico

Transforming HR: Becoming a Strategic Partner
It is widely agreed that people are a company's most important asset and a source of competitive advantage--everything else can be replicated. This is by no means a radically new concept. If that's the case, however, why isn't the human resources department--the traditional keeper of the people function--considered a company's most valuable strategicfunction?
In this article, we explore how HR can transform itself into a more effective resource for the organization, enhance its credibility, evolve into a strategic partner, and potentially earn a place at the table.
The Critical Importance of HR Service Delivery
Many HR organizations are challenged by the need to strike a comfortable balance between achieving greater HR service-deliveryefficiencies and maintaining the "personal touch" culture. Experts believe that HR professionals' continuous struggle to evolve into strategic partners within their organizations often causes them to dismiss the service delivery component of HR as something tactical. The irony, of course, is that effective service delivery is considered the very criterion through which HR can become a strategicpartner.
Barriers to excellent HR service delivery include HR's penchant for building greater complexity into program design rather than convincing business leaders that they're better served with a simpler, well-executed approach. Another obstacle to successful delivery efforts has been HR's ineffective use of technology, that is to say, not fully understanding the benefits of existing technologyor inappropriately using technology to do the wrong things faster.
According to Hewitt consultant John Sanders, HR service delivery will become all the more critical over the next decade due to factors such as increasing cost pressures, global workforce and processes, demand for 24/7 information and answers, flexible and fuzzy organizational boundaries, and rising customer expectations.
Thepotential negative effects of these external forces underscore the importance of executing HR service delivery extremely well. HR's transformation into a strategic partner for the organization absolutely depends on it.
Creating Excellence in Service Delivery
Hewitt partners with companies to develop ways to take advantage of the opportunities HR service delivery offers. Here are some successstrategies that have emerged from these partnerships:
Meeting customers' needs may mean saying "No." Instead of falling victim to a "one-off" or crisis-driven approach to HR management, Hewitt suggests taking a more cost-effective approach by narrowly defining which customers should be served exceptionally well in accordance with business needs and HR's overall philosophy of operation.
Design forthe 80% solution. Hewitt describes the term "80% solution" to mean that a delivery process should be designed to meet the needs of the majority of customers, and that outlying situations should be handled separately.
Get out of the middle. Sometimes HR's role in an organization lacks clearly defined accountability, which may hinder efforts to provide superior service delivery. Hewitt suggestsestablishing expectations for HR's involvement up front. Four options that can define HR's involvement in the organization are as follows:

* HR maintains total control of the work, from "concept to customer.
* HR develops the strategy and implementation plans and manages the service delivery process.
* HR designs and provides the tools that enable other professionals to do the work.* HR ensures that service-level agreements are maintained.
Organize for effective service delivery. Many HR organizations have moved to shared services models in which there are centers of expertise to do program design and an administrative service center to handle service delivery across all areas of HR. Consolidating all the components of service delivery allows the organization to make...