Successful companies see HR as key business cog
Published Saturday September 6th, 2008
Atlantic HR conference hosts slate of world-renowned experts
In his book, Code of the Executive, Forty-Seven Ancient Samurai Principles Essential for Twenty-First Century Leadership Success, author and management guru Don Schmincke uses, as the title implies, actual Samurai principles from centuries ago to show how executives can lay the groundwork for their, and their companies', success.
Sound a bit whacky? Schmincke has heard the accusation before.
But after 20 years of studying anthropological trends and evolutionary genetics -- over many centuries -- of which management styles work and which ones fail, he knows of what he speaks. That's why Schmincke travels the globe talking to groups crying out for better, more effective management, from Fortune 500 companies to the military.
"Now, we want to bring it to these HR professionals," Schmincke says, referring to the inaugural Atlantic Human Resources Conference, to be held in Moncton from Oct. 1 to 3 and dubbed Taking Flight and featuring a slate of HR and management experts as keynote speakers, Schmincke not the least among them.
More than 1,000 CEOs have already been trained in Schmincke's theories. Those CEOs asked to learn Schmincke's leadership findings because as a scientist he has analyzed management styles over the centuries and found striking consistencies in the most successful methods.
His results will be discussed in depth at Taking Flight.
Those kinds of results are all well and good for Schmincke, but most CEO's are more familiar with how "flavour of the month" leadership initiatives often fail, or worse are never bought into by the rank and file from the very start, leading to rolling eyeballs and skepticism before they are even implemented.
Schmincke can help corporations big and small learn how to put the right tools into their human resources professionals' hands that have proven to improve company success, boost morale, create leaders and generally turn companies' around because they have done exactly that for centuries.
"It gives them very specific tools and techniques that are scientifically proven, and over a great many years," Schmincke says.
Some companies are half way there already, he says. Those are the firms that have taken their HR professionals from merely clerical roles, where they handle benefits and paperwork to ensure compliance with government regulations, to key cogs in the corporate machine that can engage employees and executives alike towards a common goal.
"What happened is management started to realize that we have to look at people as part of the most important capital in the company," the scientist says.
The people in a company have gone from a necessary evil to the cornerstones of internal innovations that can make the difference between leading the competition and being out of the competition. And the HR professionals are seen by leading firms as key to creating that kind of internal dynamism, Schmincke believes.
"It's now emerging as a critical part of the company. But it really requires people inside HR to take on new roles and responsibilities." That means HR professionals themselves must rise to the challenge, by not only implementing the best ways of achieving the company's goals, but by going further: challenging CEOs' preconceived notions, raising at-times contentious issues and offering presentations on timely and complicated HR topics.
In an age where some businesses are short of key labour, this becomes even more important, Schmincke notes.
"It becomes more of a strategic requirement to reduce turnover, to make sure that good people stay. Recruiting and selecting the right talent is of vital importance, but retaining the good talent also very much is," he says.
And if that's not enough to convince you, as any good HR person knows, it costs approximately three times as much to replace someone than to make them happy enough to retain them.
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