Sep 14, 2017 Category:
MANAGEMENT CONSULTING & INFRASTRUCTURE
Every small-to-mid organization has some need for a Human Resources department. Why? Because organizations have people that work for them who need to be hired, listened to, managed and in cases ‘let go’, which is traditionally what HR departments do. Every business leader understands that it’s not the business owner or the leader but the people in the organization that shape and define success in an organization by driving the vision of the organization.
If this department is such a critical element of a business, why is there a mistrust between this department and associates? Talk to employees and read reviews online – Tons of references are available on how resources see HR as a threat to their existence. If this department was so successful, why should anyone have such a perception or why should an organization have unhappy people?
Now what do we understand by a People’s department? Is it a part of HR, an extension of it or a completely different team which runs HR in a radically new manner? A People’s department is one where the key role of an HR is distributed amongst employees themselves, who make key decisions on or behalf of the employees. Now the question arises – Will general employees be even equipped to handle matters of Human Resource? We believe it is a resounding Yes!
If we look at ourselves and evaluate what truly makes us who we are, our very purpose, how we define our daily lives and what we do to survive, we will realize that the life of an organization is no different than the pulse of each employee working in the organization. Shakespeare has done a great job of defining human life in the various stages in his poem “All The World’s a Stage”- something which holds true for an organization.
From birth, we are mentored and advised by our folks regarding certain do’s and dont’s. They instill the basic value system which they themselves learned and which has been further improved upon during their lives. As we move further in life, the school system, the friends we make, the people we associate with, further attempt to strengthen the same value system over and over again. Therefore, it is that value system that defines our success and failure in life and how we interact and associate with people. Every successful person has a strong value system – a principle they live by day in and day out. The same value system attracts the type of people they end up associating with in life.
Let’s consider a general household as an example. Ask anyone – do you have a defined, documented policy at home such as an HR policy? The answer will be a resounding ‘No’. On the other hand, every organization is bound by one or the other form of a policy – The HR Document, HR Policy, HR Manual- no matter what you call it, the end objective is the same – a set of defined rules which not everyone believes in.
If manuals are all that you need to implement values, how did we grow up and remain together as a family without any documented, written and signed rule? This is something each one of us should think about very seriously. As kids, we were told to be home by a certain time, curfew hours were inflicted on a few, while some were told not to drink or smoke and so on. In short, each of us were advised and guided at every stage with reasons, in most cases telling us how that could otherwise impact us in long term in our ability to ‘succeed’ in life.
Similarly, the moment someone is hired by an organization, there is something called an ‘employee orientation’, which lasts anywhere from maybe an hour to even days in certain cases educating the new employee about the organization, its mission, purposes and policies – thus defining a set of rules for behavior. The HR department becomes the go-to division for final answers on all issues, post consultation with the reporting manager.
With all this in place, we still see more than a fair share of departures within the organization. When we were children, did we just depart if there was no satisfaction from a discussion with our folks? There was something that held us back, right? – a sense of bonding, loyalty, a feeling of fear, of survival– now this is where I’d say, is a set of core values, the basic principles which actually hold us together.
To understand the concept, let’s take a look at the many fractured households. Dig deeper and you’ll find the root to be the value system, wherein core values in the family were shattered and personal priorities overshadowed basic principles that held the family together. However, once one party realized the impact it resulted in realizations and reunification of other members too, which resulted in rebuilding a strong bond in the family.
An organization is no different. It is just another family, a bigger one of maybe 5, 10, 100 or thousands more – which becomes complex once it grows and as multiple personalities join. The answer to everything lies in the core values of the organization. As Verne Harnish stated in his excellent book “Scaling Up”, if you have a situation/question, first consult the core values of the company and you should find the answers there.
But even when the answers are available, why then do we require hundreds of pages of manuals and policies in place? There should be nothing but a simple reference manual. Core values rather than being force-fed should be lived by example on a daily basis and instilled into the organization in a way that it becomes second nature to each and every one.
A value driven organization does not require a Human Resources department. It only requires a people’s team (department) where these set of individuals are empowered to do what it takes to ‘help’ the other person. In smaller organizations, each manager and team member should be empowered to help the other. In mid to large size organizations, this team should have a mandate to listen to people and think through how the lives of associates can be simplified.
By all means, this is not easy. Now, I completely understand how some people may see loopholes arising out of such a framework and I agree, this certainly is a possibility. But imagine the power of this framework in an organization- imagine this in the place where you work. Would you ever think of leaving? Would you ever think otherwise of the organization, of your family?
Jim Collins in his book ‘Good to Great’ talks about the Hedgehog concept which is based on three key pillars – passion, competency and economic engine which form the basis for great companies to differentiate from competition through the ‘One big thing’ they know. This concept can be used to understand why people stick around in an organization. When we extend that to an Employee and Employer perspective, we understand what a firm should be doing for their employees:
To sum up, alongside the core mission, businesses need to first define a simple set of 5 or 6 values where anyone can find answers to any challenges in the organization. The hiring of every new employee (a family member) needs to be based on alignment of the core values and on-boarding needs to be about the values first. When the new employee walks to their desk, they need to feel nothing less than a part of a family who they understand and know. If wrong hires somehow get in, they will feel so out of place, that they themselves would leave or the team collectively fires the individual.
A value driven organization requires a team that understands human psychology, a mindset and sensitivity of a normal person like their own family members and follow those basic guiding principles that has kept their own families together- nothing less than a People’s Only Department, if at all a department is required.
Sachin Agrawal is an Enterprise Architect & the Founder & CEO of Tarika Group Inc., dba Tarika Technologies. Sachin has over 17 years of market experience providing enterprise solutions to mid-small size organizations. He also provides virtual CIO solutions to several of his clients.
Tarika Technologies provides enterprise solutions to small-mid size businesses – process engineering, enterprise architecture and further developing custom business applications. Tarika’s Purpose simply states “Empower Through Simplicity”. “Simplicity” is the key in our approach. In an already noisy technical world, technology and its wide array of choices gives it a notion of complexity when the primary objective of Technology Implementation is to make things simpler. We strongly believe that the divide in Business and Technology should not exist; therefore, first understanding your business operations, functions, its performance and the organizations objectives allows us to develop simple, yet cost effective solutions. For more information, please visit www.tarikagroup.com.
30+ years of leadership experience
Joe leads the company’s strategy development and team building processes to formulate and enact the mission and goals. His strategic decisions involve the commitment of various resources for the fulfilment of goals and purposes of the organization, with a positive impact on its various aspects of growth.
With over 30 years of leadership experience, Joe has lead transformation projects, new business ventures, and execution of change management strategies.
In his previous role in C/C Financial Corp, a start-up financial technology business, Joe served as President & CEO. The start-up was scaled up and acquired by a large publicly traded company.
Joe started PeakFormance Leadership Consulting, a leadership and strategy advisory firm that specializes in helping busy executives develop high-performing team and organizations. His experience and proven strategies have helped him lead organization development projects with Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium size start-ups.
With a strong passion for leadership, Joe has demonstrated the ability to develop cohesive teams, aligned and collaborative teams that achieve extraordinary results. Joe’s passion for leadership and team-building and vast experience enable him to connect with executive leaders and partner with them to improve performance.
Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Minnesota State University, and an MBA in Organization Leadership from Walden University. He enjoys spending time traveling, golfing and training for Ironman triathlon competitions.
20+ years of professional experience
William Yaw Ansah, Chairman, and CEO, Origin8 Limited in Ghana is an accomplished executive with experience spanning multiple sectors – Publishing, International NGOs, Education, Consultancy, and more.
Most recently, William was appointed as Course Manual Author Monitor for Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana. He was also appointed as a Member of the Management Committee, School of Arts, University of Ghana. He is also a Member of the Institute of Directors Ghana, an Accredited Member of the Institute of Public Relations, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers, U.K
Over the years, he has been a mentor and advisor to a number of new ventures in Ghana and has trained several organizations such as SSNIT, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Water Company Limited, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme among others.
William has authored a number of books such as Simple English for Senior High Schools in Ghana, Simple English books for Primary Schools in Ghana, and Simple English books for kindergarten, among others.
William received his Master’s degree in Global Marketing from the University of Liverpool, the U.K, and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Ghana, Ghana. He started his career in Ghana as an Instructor, Consultant, and later management member of Afram Publications, Sahabia Publications, Comland Ghana, Origin8 Limited to mention a few.
20+ years of professional experience
Sachin has over twenty years of experience managing innovation and development of solutions and optimizing complex business processes; Business & Technology Architecture and Integrations. His proficient leadership and exceptional communication skills, technical expertise, combined with industry experience have delivered extraordinary results for his firm and clients.
Sachin instituted Tarika Technologies to support businesses by implementing a strong process-oriented system and the virtual CIO model, managing a team of offshore and onsite professionals. He performs complete business and technology assessment, advises on Enterprise Architecture and provides solutions for mid to large companies, globally. Under his leadership, Tarika Technologies has acquired several key accounts, providing Enterprise Solutions, Infrastructure Solutions (PaaS, IaaS, SaaS), Software & Web Solutions and Mobile Applications.
In addition, Tarika Technologies provides technology and communications infrastructure set up and has successfully launched several products in the ERP, Communication, Entertainment & Media domains. Today, Tarika stands as a global company with presence in America, Asia, and Africa.
Sachin is the CIO to a leading firm in Bethesda, Maryland USA that provides acquisition support services; and technical advisor to the Crisis Center Hotline located in the state of Maryland in the United States. During his career, he also served as Director of Information Technology at a prestigious infrastructure management firm in the DC area providing IT consulting, infrastructure design and enterprise solutions for small to large corporations all around the mid-Atlantic region, as well as governmental organizations. His innovation in business process has led to a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Offices for one of his clients.
Sachin’s keen interest in International business has formed key alliances and relationships worldwide apart from just Technology. In recent times, he has partnered with Origin8 Limited, a leading PR & Advertisement firm located in Ghana, extending all the products and services offered by Tarika to the African region. As an integral part of this partnership, Origin8 will be heading the sales and marketing of EBIMS AirWatch in the West African market; a cloud-based ERP solution by Tarika, supporting the needs in the Media industry providing real time strategic planning, monitoring, management of operations, automation of collections and complete digitization of payments through integrations to local payment gateways. He is also the Chief Technology Advisor for Origin8 Limited, driving advanced digital solutions for clients in Ghana; and introducing customized ERP for businesses across West Africa.
His keen interest in international business has formed key alliances and relationships worldwide in areas aside technology. Other areas of his expertise include managing and streamlining business processes, vertically independent Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure Management, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, high-level network and systems architecture, design and development capabilities of secure distributed applications for both private as well as governmental organizations.
Sachin holds a Master of Science in Information Architecture with highest honors; a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Associates in Computer Engineering Technology from Capitol Technology University in Maryland, USA. In his leisure, Mr. Agrawal enjoys playing musical instruments and practices Haidong Gumdo, the Korean swordsmanship, as a senior martial arts practitioner. His personal blog can be found at www.sachinagrawal.com.
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