HR needs to be the “trustee” of the people side of the business, understanding the potential of its leaders and finding the right jobs for the right people, according to business adviser and author Ram Charan.
In the opening keynote session at the CIPD’s annual conference in Manchester, Charan told delegates that while the chief financial officer is the trustee of the financial system, the numbers “come from the people”.
“The chief executive is ultimately in charge of making sure the right people are in the right job, particularly in the top two levels,” he said. “But you are the partner. You are the trustee of the pipeline.”
Charan emphasised that this was about putting people first and jobs second. “It’s about finding the people and then finding the right fit for them,” he said, pointing out that this was the opposite of trying to find the right person to fill a vacant position.
He added that it was important to recognise the potential of every leader – to understand their “god’s gift” and suggested HR should collect “verifiable observations” about people, based on actions, behaviours and decisions.
“Your skill is to collect the right information about a person, to understand the nuance,” he said.
Coaching, he added, has tended to focus on improving negatives but it was important to think the other way round, on expanding the positives and then to look at “what negatives prevent you from succeeding”.
Charan had one other piece of advice for delegates: understand social trends. “In India we are seeing HR people becoming CEOs,” he said. “Three things stand out about those who do. They master how the business makes money; they build this judgement on people; and they begin to see what is happening in the outside world. They see the social trends.”