• 2.1: Talent Management
• 2.2: Learning & Development
• 2.3: Interim Services
• 2.4: Business Consultancy

Inviting HR managers onto your senior management team will help your organisation to put people at the heart of its business strategy. Housing association managers outline why strong HR leaders are especially important during recessionary times – and present their tips on how you can climb to the top

Plunged into a world of impaired land banks and mothballing sites, housing association bosses would be forgiven for many things as they seek to emerge from the credit crunch in good fiscal health. Such is the recession’s power to bring wise men to their knees; you would even forgive them for searching for cost cutting measures in a ditch, before rolling around the mud of their devalued land in despair at their absence.

But you probably wouldn’t forgive them for rejecting a far simpler (and cleaner) option. Chief executives should head down the hallway, dust the cobwebs from the handle and enter the door marked ‘human resources’. Often undervalued; these managers are likely to be waiting, animatedly bouncing up and down like veritable jack-in-the-boxes whose time has come.

Aside from the number crunchers, HR managers are well placed to increase their influence during tough times. In recent years, the HR function has grown from a lonely, personnel role whose marginal influence is directed at keeping everyone content; to the HR business partner model – identified by American academic Dave Ulrich a decade ago – where vigorous HR managers are well placed to assist the overall business.

But don’t let this fool you into thinking that HR managers are suddenly board favourites. “They’re often looked on as personnel departments rather than HR departments, but they’re not there to make everyone happy for the sake of it,” says Cathy Walsh, managing partner at the Triangle Partnership, which helps housing associations to reach their potential. “HR professionals should be mapping their HR strategy onto the business strategy to ensure that their people agenda combines with the organisation’s business objectives.”

HR is more accepted as a player in shaping business strategy; so savvy managers should find it easier to boost business in this recession

This is the first recession since HR's wider acceptance as a player able to shape business strategy. Which means savvy HR managers should find it slightly easier to run their people strategy across the business – where they can introduce cost savings and help it to build for the future.

Of course, they can do this more easily if given the chance to break bread with the senior management team. The idea has a firm advocate in Christine Newton, learning and development partner at Triangle. “Any organisation that doesn’t have HR at the top table has a distorted view of how an organisation functions,” she says. “An organisation is not made up of finance, manufacturing and service operations, but the people who manage those processes. By having HR at the top table you have a champion who represents the needs of the individual and – by extension – of the company.”

But do all HR managers deserve such recognition? David Blackburn, director of HR & business support at Shepherds Bush Housing Group (SBHG), suggests not. “The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) often say: ‘You’re not recognising our skills or taking us seriously,’ but it's about taking ownership. We need to look to ourselves. HR managers should be on the board because they deserve to be. Chief executives shouldn’t just put them there.”

Pockets of HR business power are emerging in housing

Finding HR managers good enough to influence the board can be challenging. Yet, pockets of HR business power are emerging in the housing sector. Triangle’s recruitment specialist Walsh has sourced several HR stars into housing associations – including Blackburn (into MHP before he joined SBHG), and Liz Hughes, HR director at Metropolitan Housing Partnership (MHP).

Blackburn appears to be esconced with a trusting chief executive at SBHG, and after an intriguing battle – Hughes now sits on MHP's strategic management team, which advises the board. “Liz fought quite a battle to make a name for herself,” says Rommel Pereira, MHP’s chief operations officer. “She even managed to earn the trust of the former chief executive who didn’t believe in people being the engine behind an organisation.” (Click here to read how Liz Hughes successfully climbed the HR housing ladder )

Debbie Viner , director of business support at Gallions Housing Association, says that while most housing associations do have some HR representation on the board, it is often only someone who reports to the board. “The senior management team aren’t going to put someone on the board unless they can prove they are making a valuable contribution. Those individuals who make it are able to think in strategic terms with commercial acumen; something a lot of HR managers don’t do.”

Viner believes HR professionals generally face a bigger battle to reach the top table because they still lack credibility. “They tend to think about poor Joan in accounts who might lose her job,” she adds. “And they’re often seen as a Marjorie Proops figure.”

More than others, HR managers must demonstrate their value

Blackburn goes further. He believes HR managers must demonstrate their value more than any other department. “HR is always going to be a different proposition to finance and sales because we’re usually thought of as an overhead and what we talk about is often intangible,” he says. “But you can’t evaluate everything. Sick days and employee engagement – yes, but it’s hard to make a scientific measurement about the energy in an office.”

Like many modern HR managers in the housing sector, Blackburn and Viner moved from the private sector. Viner says this new breed have brought useful techniques. “I’ve had to show the value of HR ever since my days in the private sector,” she says. “We’re using public funds – people’s rent money – and it’s my job to ensure that we’ve got the right number of people, with the right experience, in the right place, at the right time. If you get all that right – and Triangle helps me to do that – your business will deliver. Through a change of culture, I’ve reduced the absence rate from 7.5% to 2% in four years.”

But what else should HR managers measure to show their success? Those who feel the need to measure everything often fall into an analysis paralysis trap. The smartest operators tend to measure only what will lead to business output, such as people improvements.

At MHP, Hughes measures customer and staff satisfaction levels, and looks at key performance indicators. She would, for example, measure the effectiveness of training 100 IT staff on new technology by timing how long they take to do a task correctly before and after training.

“Good IT systems are an enabling tool and can lead to better supplier relationships,” says Hughes, who complies meaningful statistics on key performance indicators to justify supplier costs. “In some cases, invoices that regularly took six months to be paid can now get paid in two weeks. But if something can’t be measured, you should question if it should be done in the first place.”

“We run workshops on the chief executive’s role. If the chief executive is all about change, then HR is vital to making that happen”

Getting HR’s business influence acknowledged is also about educating those at the top says Greg Brown, managing director at GB Executive Solutions. “My former chief executive at Servite Houses planned to shove HR under finance until she quickly recognised the benefits we could bring.” She often described a good HR manager as the 'glue that binds the organisation together'." Brown clearly had stickability. After eight years as HR director, he became Servite's interim chief executive.

Triangle runs workshops aimed at increasing chief executives’ awareness of how effective HR can boost business. Walsh says: “Our workshops will discuss the role of a chief executive: how to bring about change but still take people with you. If the chief executive is all about change, then HR is absolutely vital to making that happen.

“We ask chief executives to look at their current managers – which of them has managed in a downturn?” The courses also ask them to consider what is happening in their HR department and how they measure expectations. “Chief executives need emotional intelligence about how their organisation runs. It’s about being courageous and creative, and asking what HR is doing to build your vision,” adds Walsh.

Newton agrees: “If those at the top don’t understand what their managers are going through, the organisation won’t be able to instigate the changes the board is looking for.”

“I read everything from the top. If I don’t understand it, I learn how”

Hughes advises HR professionals to develop business acumen and be aware how the whole business operates. “I need to be able to understand operational loss and gearing with the finance director and empathise with the maintenance manager,” she says.

Her advice is to be inquisitive, ask the right questions of the right people and to be voracious. “I read everything that comes from the top level. If I don’t understand it, I ask questions until I do. People are your most important asset. If you haven’t got someone at the top table aware of the skills required, you’re not going to get your resource planning right.”

She says HR managers could expand their awareness in other ways such as becoming a chartered manager or moving sideways to another role in the business to gain a deeper understanding.

“Talk in a language that chief executives understand, don’t bore them with statistics”

Brown believes the best HR people are effectively on the board and predicts that one of them will soon become a chief executive. As a leading candidate, he points to Blackburn, who Brown helped SBHG to recruit. He oversees communications and IT - as well as HR - and who Brown helped SBHG to recruit.

Blackburn is concerned that some HR professionals let themselves down by being too HR-centric. “We should be business leaders first, with HR expertise. If HR managers talk to chief executives in HR-speak, their eyes glaze over,” he says. “Talk in a language they understand and don’t bore them with statistics. You can’t expect to be treated as an equal player if the only time you add something is when the discussion turns to staffing issues, training and recruitment. Add much more and you will get treated equally.”

Brown says life won’t be as rewarding as the recession continues. With staff turnover likely to reduce, he believes HR managers have an important role to play in fostering a more positive workplace vibe. “Even in the downturn, organisations should create an environment where people can thrive and achieve big things. Individuals should replace the common stimulus about surviving the next three years until the upturn by setting themselves promotion targets.”

Ultimately, getting heard by those in power is down to individual HR professionals. “People want value-added work packages, a good ethos and to feel invested in,” says Blackburn. “That helps them to do their job better, which improves an organisation’s efficiency. Whether a housing association provides those things depends on the steer that the board is given by its senior HR professionals.”