07-01-2008
Who is the C level officer responsible for saving the global organization money, increasing efficiencies and ROI in staffing and recruiting activities? If this person is not in HR, so who is it then?
Answers:
The short answer is ALL of them.
In my experience it is NOT HR that is the budget holder, so it is the responsibility of each and every department.
The only time I have ever seen it be HR’s responsibility is when a diktat was handed down to cancel all current recruitment (but then there is normally an exception).
There are some interesting answers here. I know the CFO is always looking to reduce costs, but they do not control staffing budgets for each department in most organisations, eventhough they try to.
By Mark J. Ely
In most organizations that I’ve looked at or been a part of, the HR department head reports to the COO.
By David Schneider
If you look at any of the Dilbert books “Catbert” the evel HR Director is the gate keeper, and chases the good outside talent away.
All humor aside, this is very true. It is rare that anybody from HR “found” me any talent. The last two hires that I did where “HR” had to interview, they found reasons not to hire the person, even if the person was qualified and the folks on my staff gave a thumbs up.
The answer to your question is really simple. It starts at the top and flows down. The culture and the drive or lack of drive to hire the right talent and temperment, and the leader that sets the course to nuture and grow internal talent is the CEO, followed closely by the COO.
You can argue that it is the HR VP’s job. But if the CEO and the COO do not support, or they ignore the tallen issue, the HR VP is limited in what they can do. And even if the CEO and the COO give “lip service”, the HR VP is still powerless.
Every example of a company that has a dynamic workdorce or motivated and energetic associates will be a company where the CEO and the COO not only say that “The People are the Power”, but they Make It Happen.
Now, the second part of the question is this, Who in the organizatuion makes the decisions that money needs to be saved and that ROI needs to be delivered in the HR arena? It is the CFO. “Count the Money” can sit on a department budget and insist on improvements, or cuts (they are not one in the same).
To wrap up the package, all of the above are responcible. The HR VP makes the gears turn. The CEO and COO lead (or don’t lead) where the HR car goes, and the CFO xdecisdes how much money is going into the “HR Mobile”.
By Orhan Bag
Mostly, COO or CFO…
Sometimes, lets say CDO, Chief Development Officer in charge of Business Development of “internal” business structure
Some structures also have CMO in charge of Management of corporate structure; in that cafe CMO.
By Barry Williams
The reason this is a valid question is that there is no good answer in most organizations. If there were a consistent answer then companies like Bearing Point, Accenture and others who do HR consulting and outsourcing would be out of business.
Everyone says its the COO, and they should and do care about saving money and improving efficiencies, but in my experience, the day to day operations often distract them from acting on HR related improvements where changes may be “unpopular” actions like reducing headcounts or implementing new software.
The root problem is that HR is expected to be a cost center, and like a support center is often regarded as a necessary evil where only minor attention is required.
To get more attention at the C level, HR leaders must do a better job selling the efficiencies that can be made at times where there is a heavy focus on the bottom line. Showing that changes rolled out over a 6-12 month period can save large dollar amounts is difficult to ignore when things are tight and stockholders are nervous.
Everyone in the global organization is responsible for saving money, increasing efficiencies, and ROI in staffing & recruitment activities (and all others I might add) Bryan.
If there is one single person to hold accountable, that person most certainly would be in HR/Admin. Makes sense doesn’t it?
If the CAO [Chief Administrative Officer] isn’t responsible for this task, then there is no real reason for HR organizations to exist. All of the functions could (and perhaps should) be outsourced. Historically, HR executives have not sought nor desired this accountability. It is much easier for them to develop policies, procedures, and directives for others to struggle with than it is to actually be accountable for their results.
By Pankaj Dutt
I would further add to David’s response with fully agreeing with it….most of the organizations have separated talent management and staffing making it an independent function reporting in to business head
I think HR has almost lost its position on talent management and its role is more oriented towards performance management, policy custodian and employee engagement.
Some of the recent titles which you could easily find in companies today are head of organization development, head of leadership development etc and considering the business imperative of talent, these roles are closely aligned to operations or business. IT industry is a typical example where talent management is a core function for them and hence closely aligned with operations
Posted by webmaster in Answers, Business Development | RSS 2.0
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.