McKinley HR News
Holistic HR Partnerships Emerging as Critical Trend for 2012
Here’s what to look for in a strategic HR relationship as hiring and movement of top talent is set to explode
A time-tested sign of economic recovery is widespread movement of top talent. By top talent we mean the individuals in your organization with specific, hard-to-find skills and the leaders (regardless of title) who are looked upon to cast direction and vision, connect people and departments, make important things happen, and generally create opportunity and order out of chaos.
And the signs point to significant movement of these “lynchpins” in 2012.
In the week before Christmas, we received three personal calls from former candidates or clients who were looking to move into chief HR executive roles from their second chair position in their current organizations. While the economy was less certain in recent years, top talent stayed in jobs they really didn’t want for far longer — in some cases two to three years longer — than when they ordinarily would have sought their next career step.
As we enter 2012, that’s changing. There’s a well-documented and growing “engagement” gap between organizations and employees, with employees looking increasingly at work-life balance and career growth as drivers for change. At the same time, there’s an increase in meaningful job postings and growing optimism in the economy, spurring them to look and be recruited. Employers of choice are already leveraging their holistic HR partners to protect themselves and even take advantage of the trend. Here’s how.
The Value of Holistic HR Partnerships
With a combined 45 years of experience, we’ve seen and been on each side of the many different forms and ways to get the right people in the right seats. When we sit down with a CEO who wants to hire, they often come with one or two models in mind from their experience. They don’t know what they don’t know.
Complicating the situation, HR functions are often spread throughout an organization. Compensation may report to finance, on-boarding to an internal communications function, learning & development somewhere else or by division. In all, we consider seven major areas of talent management that impact an organization’s bottom line and must be considered part of the due diligence in executive hires. The alignment of these areas is severely tested in times when there’s significant movement of talent, and a strong partner can shorten the cycle time and cost for filling key positions.
As disruptive as movement of top talent can be, hiring the wrong person for a leadership role can be devastating. Experts in our industry tabulate the financial costs of hiring the wrong executive to be anywhere from three to five times their total compensation. Direct costs such as separation pay, continued benefits, accrued vacation, unemployment taxes, recruitment costs and orientation/training costs can be dwarfed by the hidden costs of separation processing, lower/lost productivity and morale, loss of intellectual property and the chain reaction of turnover and client issues.
A recent example: One of our clients, a $1 billion organization, endured a number of sudden changes. Among them, its COO was elevated to interim CEO, while its senior HR executive position was vacated. With so many leadership positions in flux, the interim CEO sought to fill the permanent HR position quickly to lead the other searches.
With the culture likely to change in the broader transition, we challenged the interim CEO to instead bring in an interim HR executive to lead the HR function and executive searches, while assessing the organization’s long-term needs. Because of our long-term relationship and how well we knew the organization’s entire talent management situation, she listened. It was the best thing for both the organization and the candidate, and the interim HR executive ended up hiring a permanent CEO and staying after the transition.
Minnesota’s most successful companies, both financially and those that have earned reputations as employers of choice and “Best Places to Work,” recognize that HR produces ROI. Organizations that intentionally align all seven functions of talent management are easy to recruit for and have higher retention and productivity of its employees. But more than that, having the right people in the right seats leads to new products, better processes, and a strong foundation for these companies to grow and prosper.
Characteristics of a Strategic Partner
Successful HR partnerships take time and transparency to build trust. Not every vendor can be a strategic partner with a holistic view, so it’s important to choose your partners carefully, and work differently with your strategic HR partner than, say, your plastic cup vendor.
The following are some of the values that McKinley HR embodies and we hold to be crucial in a strategic partnership:
- Strategic partners are passionate about talent management: Passionate partners are ethical and honorable in all they do, caring more about “doing things the right way” than being liked or winning any specific business. They live this out by becoming Truth Coaches to their clients — remaining constructively doubtful, willing to be candid, challenging assumptions, criticizing or correcting you gently and lovingly, and telling you when things go wrong on their end.
- Strategic partners have a help-first mentality: They choose you as much as you choose them. They’re on your side and they take the time to understand you — to the point that it seems effortless in your time of urgency. They remember everything you’ve ever said (without notes). They’re in it for the long haul and willing to withstand difficulties, knowing that clients become candidates and candidates become clients all the time.
- Strategic partners bring the wisdom of a subject matter expert: They are smart (sometimes in ways you’re not), with the experience to see things from fresh perspectives. They share stories and illuminate points of reference so the truth can be understood. They bring insight that extracts clear ideas from complex situation. And they inspire and motivate you when needed. Their expertise allows you to focus on your core competencies.
- Strategic partners take a counselor’s approach: Without substituting their own judgment for yours, they reach inside you and push a little, tug a little, and help you focus on what you really need. Counselors characteristically ask good questions, use verbal contrasts to move along discussions, and ultimately provide options to ensure you’re “doing the right things.”
That’s the McKinley HR difference and why we launched this business. We work with our partners to connect all of the elements for strategic approaches that encompass staffing, search and broader HR consulting.
Our challenge to you, with top talent on the move, is to start today to build relationships that will lead to this type of strategic partnership. It’s your vision and mission. Find someone who shares it.
Dina Simon, Managing Director
CJ DuBé, Strategic Partner
McKinley Human Resources was launched in October 2011 as the third sister-company to McKinley Group. Led by industry thought leaders CJ DuBé and Dina Simon, McKinley HR specializes in strategic consulting and providing human resource professionals in contract and direct-hire roles. We are a company built on strong relationships. We work with the leaders of Minnesota-based companies to provide our clients with the right people and our candidates with the right seat.
