I recently attended a marriage in the family of a HR professional, a friend for decades, where I was pleasantly surprised to watch an incident on the dais. A batch of union leaders from the company he left ten years back were hugging him with joy written all over their faces and wishing him and his family.

I couldn’t believe it as during these days we hardly come across any farewell parties even when the person is leaving the company and here are these persons coming all the way to wish him even ten years after he left them. I couldn’t imagine how he was able to earn and sustain such a long lasting personal credibility and popularity.

I pulled my friend aside and asked him how it is happening… He smiled and said, “Well , to tell you the truth ,I also don’t know it but come to think of it I was just myself…”

His simple reply triggered a few thoughts…

Personal credibility is a building block for trust,Personal Credibility is a quality or a power and capability to elicit belief and make others rally around. Classic example that comes to my mind as to how personal credibility helps is the case from scripture Mahabharat, where Dharmaraj got credibility as a person who never lies and speaks truth only. Hence with that credibility, even when he lied that Aswathama died, every one believed him including Aswathama’s father.

Results of a research study flashed in my mind - -a research by  University of Michigan Business School (HRCS Study) which concluded that among the five factors essential for success of HR professionals of today , their personal credibility is the top most rated competence.

Needless to mention, a HR person with credibility can sell ideas faster, manage changes, respond to crisis quickly and manage it successfully.Personal Credibility enables any HR professional to become intimately involved with the organisation at a strategic level. A HR person not so trusted would invariably be left out of Strategic HR interventions.. Thus it makes him effective or ineffective in his role.

I was also reminded of a book by Sandy Allgeier titled , “The Personal Credibility Factor: How to Get It, Keep It, and Get It Back (If You’ve Lost It)   (Amazon) where the author presents how does one build personal credibility through simple steps like : Forget Power,Position,Status and other Nonsense; Honor commitments and Avoid Gossip ; Know yourself -Good ,Bad and Ugly…; Respect Others as they are ; .Ask More and Listen More…

All these simple sounding but practical mantras sound good but who is the real internal customer of HR, who can build or dismantle credibility of HR folks ?.

Is it the top management?

or is it the Union Leaders ? or Employees at large ?

or fellow management team? Or fellow HR Team?

Or is the immediate boss ?

And if none of them who else??.

A satisfied and happy internal customer may or may not convey his happiness to his/her friends but a discontented internal customer invariably shares the anger with a lot of his friends. And if all or some of the above cited members are HR’s internal customers, how does a HR Professional balance conflicting interests and expectations from these different internal customers as often they build or dismantle the credibility or image of HR folks.

In absolute terms, probably, HR Fraternity has to set self-defined standards and compete with the same to enhance value through innovative HR interventions as Dr.Santrupt Mishra said in some context (2002) .

While the HR function’s credibility is impacted by its internal customers, may be the HR professional’s personal credibility gets carried along with him/her to which ever company he goes. Where ever he/she moves, his /her personal credibility follows like a shadow or  the Hutch Dog in the ad and some times even the image foreruns before he/she joins the new company.

Hence every HR professional in one’s own interest, build , nurture one’s credibility and guard it by one,s actions.

The HR professional has to

· look at long term interests rather than short term excitements,

· walk the talk, through leading by example,operate not by one’s own power or position but by his expertise as also in this knowledge era only knowledge gets respected not the        position he /she holds

· authentic while meeting the conflicting expectations

· cater to internal customers with genuine service orientation.

My friend’s simple reply, “I was my self” made profound sense.

But the challenge seems to be to establish personal rapport with employees in an environment with increasing out sourcing of HR services ?

-How does any HR professional , avoid alienation from his/her internal customers while attaining benefits of HR Out sourcing like enhanced bottom-line and efficiency in service ?

The author Dr.PVR Murthy,is founder CEO of a leading Search Firm –Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants  and can be reached at pvrmurthy@exclusivesearch.com

Personal Credibility Dr. PVR Murthy

Last month, I met an old friend. He had done himself well, and is now the HR Head – or Chief People Officer as he would insist -in a blue-chip company.

“How have you been?” I asked him.

“Oh, I am doing well,” he replied.

“…and how has the current recession affected you?” This was a curiosity for me: what would the HR professionals be doing with people when there is not enough market demand to keep the employees productively employed.

“Not much, really!! We have managed it well,” he said. “In fact, we just concluded an Employee Alignment and Optimization initiative last week.”

‘Employee Alignment and Optimization ” seemed such a sexy term. It conjoured up images of a happy bunch of people being helped by my friend and his HR team to bring their interest and capabilities in-synch with their work and performance.

“That’s really nice! You mean, you assessed and re-allocated them so that they get to do what they are really capable of doing, and enjoy doing?”

He looked aghast and uncomfortable. “No! no!,” he said. “This was actually an initiative to disengage about 200 of them from the organization.”

“You mean, you fired them?!!” I was startled, not being sure how can one “optimize” and “align” people by firing them.

“No, actually, we didn’t have to fire them, at all,” he beamed, happily. “In fact, as we had planned, it was a voluntary separation. It was really a very smooth process.”

I was thoroughly impressed. “That’s really remarkable!,” I said with awe. “It says so much about the level of commitment you must have fostered among the people, that they could make such a sacrifice for the larger good of the organization. Imagine!… you send out a mail saying that we need 200 volunteers to leave the organization – and people actually volunteer.”

My friend looked at me as if I had lost my beans. “Of course, Not! It was not like that at all!!” he almost choked. “This was a very systematic and thorough exercise; we planned it with precision, and with full confidentiality; and we trained our HR and line executives to communicate the choice to the 200 of our employees who had be separated.”

I was befuddled, “….and what was the choice?”

“Oh!,” he said with the pride of a general who has cleverly ambushed the enemy. “We told them that they can volunteer to resign; they will have to sign a document to that effect. It was our legal department which suggested this. In return, we will give them 2 months of “sabbatical leave” – “

“Sabbatical leave! You mean, the company will finance 2 months for their re-education?” I was amazed at this generous gesture, though by now, I had a nagging doubt that there must be a catch somewhere.

“No, no!, we can’t do that. Think of the costs!” he corrected me. “You know, what with this sensitivity of media about the pink-slips, we had to really think about what to call this interim period. What we actually offered them was 2 months of further employment at half salary, and they don’t have to come to office – actually, they can’t enter office! We also promised to help their outplacement, and they get a decent separation package after 3 months. Depending upon their length of service, they would get 2-months to 10-months of their pay as the severance pay.”

“…and what if they didn’t accept this offer?”, I was curious – or as Alice would have said, it was getting curiouser and curiouser.

He laughed, waving his hands in the air. “Actually, there was not much of a choice for them.” he said with some satisfaction. “We had their performance ratings, and other inputs from the line managers, which we could use to retrench them. We told them that, upfront…. our Legal Dept had already put together a strong case for termination for each of them, really!.”

A stray thought suddenly occurred to me.

“But tell me,” I asked. ”why did you want to fire – er, sorry, disengage - them in the first place!?”

He looked at me incredulously, as if I was from some other planet. “Don’t you read the newspapers?” he asked. “I don’t know if this is a cyclical recession or a meltdown, but the point is that we need to cut down costs – and maintain our margins.”

“Costs!!.. But aren’t employees the “resources” – I mean, Human Resources? I know organizations which even call them “the most precious assets” or “human capital”? How did they suddenly become “cost” to the company?”

“Ugh! You don’t seem to understand…,” he lapsed into silence for some time. “After all, “resources”, “assets” etc., are just words. The key issue is: whether, as HR professionals, we are contributing to business or not.”

“But what happens if the business picks up in a year or so, and you need more people?”

“If that happens, we will have to hire new ones”, he said in a matter-of-fact manner. “The point is that have to maintain our profit margins of 35%…”

Needless to say, we left each other, puzzled – and the rest of the conversation, somewhat, went on the same tenor…

And I recalled Jerry Harvey’s classical article: “Eichmann in the Organisation”…

“… it was not the Nazis only who were to be blamed for what happened to Jews – but also the Jewish Council in Germany. To quote:

“…the collusive role played by the Jewish councils – the most powerful, respected, and trusted members of the Jewish community – in the liquidation of their own people, including, in the end, themselves…. they compiled lists for the Nazis of persons to be deported… served as police during actual seizure of people and property… “ etc.

In the contemporary scenario, Adolf Eichmann was the quintessential Human Resources professional, and would have approved of the new HR Mantra:

Align!… Optimize!!… Fire!!!

Building HR Strategy, Personal Credibility, Service Orientation, Strategic Thinking & Alignment, Talent Management Dr Madhukar Shukla