Like any other practice worth pursuing, human resource (HR) practices have to be purposefully and intentionally developed if they are to have positive impact.
Successful evolution requires that we understand the philosophy before we jump into the mechanics.
Business leaders and strategic HR professionals are ideally the partners who grow and sustain the business through progressive people practices.
Anywhere in the world, progressive HR practices in organizations begin with strong leadership who lead by example.
In the Barbados environment, as in any other environment, some companies are evolving their HR practices to ensure that they can be globally competitive; others are not transforming or transitioning to more progressive people practices.
What really is the deciding factor with respect to how progressive an organization is in evolving its people practices? It boils down to one critical factor – the mindset or tone of the leadership.
There are very progressive companies in our environment where the leader and the majority of the executive team understand that they lead people who in turn commit to making excellent contributions when led effectively.
Their people practices are continuously evolving and their businesses are sustainable.
Hard and fast evidence of this surfaced when Caribbean Catalyst Inc. worked with the ten finalists in Barbados’ Best Employers 2010. All ten of these companies exhibited very strong people practices which were visibly supported by the leaders.
Some of these HR practices are in areas such as employee engagement, coaching, training and development, proactive integration of business units, purposeful communication of strategy and progress to all, team members giving feedback to managers, an integrated electronic performance management system, and an HIV/AIDS workplace education programme.
HR practitioners cannot successfully promote progressive people practices if the business leaders do not “walk the talk” with respect to how they treat with their people.
Practitioners who succeed are able to get the attention of the leadership and are able to assist them with a strategic approach to leading people because they themselves are leaders who understand business and are not just focused on “HR programmes” in a vacuum.
Exemplary HR professionals are also effective change agents who not only understand what their leaders require but also can champion employee causes effectively.
Some of our businesses, unfortunately, are still stuck in the old mindset that their people are merely “units of production” and are easily replaceable.
Why worry trying to satisfy or engage them?
These businesses will struggle to build committed and competitive teams for the long haul.
If these “leaders” do not change their outlook, then their organizations will become obsolete in the local market – far less in a regional and global context.
Sound leadership equates to progressive and effective HR practices. Continuously evolving such practices is the remit of all executives facilitated by HR executives/managers.
We have sound examples right here and need to study these, as all organizations – private sector, government and NGOs – work towards a more progressive and productive Barbados.