I’m so pleased that my article sparked some dialogue about this subject in your office. I love…love…love your blog post and can’t agree with you more.

Less is many times just less-not more. I know way too many HR practitioners that have gone from being brilliant specialists working in the trenches to stressed out and overwhelmed generalists. I caution any company rushing to implement a shared services or HRBP model to pump their brakes and assess the threats and opportunities involved.

Thank you for reading and weighing in on this topic.

Best Regards,

Janine

It’s incredible how easily businesses can commit to “economizing” without considering the costs that aren’t directly represented on a balance sheet. At some point taking away resources and trying to get more from less really does just get you less. Would-be specialists are swamped by the range of required duties, while generalists can get bogged down in minutiae and become unable to provide the broad perspective that is their great strength.

I love your insight-it is thought provoking. You are 100% correct that HR continuously shoots itself in the foot. I think it is HR’s incessant wanting to be respected and viewed as a value adding entity in the eyes of the C-Suite. In wanting this to be the perception they go out on wily tangents every once again.

In my mind there is a need for specialization, people to do transactional activities, and at the same time you need people like generalists to bring a broader perspective. The bungled talent management as you call it and (particularly the shared services model) is often ill-conceived and is more labor intensive than it is worth.

Unfortunately, most companies are cutting back and trying to do more with less FTE’s-so I’m afraid this is a trend that is likely to continue for sometime.

By the way, you may be interested in this article from Forbes: The Secret Power Of The Generalist — And How They’ll Rule The Future – Forbes http://shar.es/t55Tv via @sharethis

Thanks again for reading and chiming in,

Janine

In any business function there are needs for content knowledge (e.g. compliance) and for process knowledge (e.g. employee engagement); there are strategic activities (e.g. job analysis, selection process design, strategic workforce planning) and transactional activities (e.g. payroll, benefits administration, etc).

The costs of bungled enterprise talent management are staggering — generally more than enough to double most companies’ pretax profits. And it’s been that way for decades, while business leaders tinker with HR business partners, shared services, HRIS upgrades and the like.

Meanwhile, the “elephant in the room” is broad-gauge overarching incompetency at real talent management. Peter Drucker observed that executives bat no better than .333 on staffing and promotion decisions (the equivalent of 666,666 DPMO in six sigma terms). He added: “In no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.”

Bottom line: in every enterprise people drive performance (or not). The important question is not whether HR Specialist or HR Generalist, but who will take responsibility for dramatic improvements in talent management practices. We have known precisely what to do for decades. Now would be a good time to do it.

r.melrose@vision21.us