Janice Haddon, managing director
Article Type: Practitioner profile From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 13, Issue 3
HR executives share their experience in human resources
Janice Haddon has worked in HR for over 20 years and firmly believes the strategic importance of the HR function. She is founder of Thrive in Life, an organization that provides coaching to improve wellbeing and work/life balance, and heads up Morgan Redwood, a consultancy that specializes in helping individuals and organizations achieve their growth potential – both roles that involve close interaction with HR. She believes the function has a key role to play in supporting the strategic drivers of an organization. Rather than acting as a force for policing right from wrong, she says it is fundamental that the HR function develops a focused people strategy that underpins the business strategy and plan.
Haddon comments: "People flourish when they are treated with respect and can see a clear vision of where the organization is heading. We are all happiest when we work in an environment where our personal values match those of the organization. If these are not in existence and employee engagement is low, the psychological contract between employees and employer is not fully met. If an organization doesnt have such things in place, employees do not have clarity as to what they can expect."
Meeting the psychological contract
So how does the psychological contract get met and the business benefit from a truly proactive HR function? Haddon explains: "Whilst the standard policies and procedures for ensuring employment laws are met and the day-to-day operational HR activities are fundamental, the true benefit of HR comes into its own when it becomes a key function within the business. A full people strategy can be the way to show the other areas of the business what value can be added – true value that helps to drive the business strategy."
"Key to its development is not only understanding the business strategy and plan, but to also understanding the opinions of employees. Employee surveys are fundamental for understanding how staff feel the organization is doing and where it needs to improve. The tricky thing with this is when employees are asked opinions and they let you know what they think, you absolutely have to commit to listening to the results and then to improving things that need to be developed. Many organizations fail to do anything with the results of surveys and then end up doing more damage than good. The most successful companies listen to the results and balance that with business requirements – then set up a full strategy and plan to tackle things."
Finding the right focus
Haddon believes that everything HR does needs to have business benefit. She says: "Improvements for employees need to provide for increased clarity and motivation – and therefore improved performance. An organization, management and staff working together to the same clear vision take an organization to a different level."
"Organizations obviously have different abilities to tap into employee performance. The more difficult times become, the less businesses tend to focus on things for employees and their development. This can be a false saving. People perform at their best when they have clarity, are recognized for their contribution and can see how they can continue to learn and grow – to feel safe in their work place and how their career can at least be maintained or at best, improved."
"Those organizations that simply focus on the bottom line are not truly focused on top end performance. The best HR functions are integral with other functions and underpin performance across the whole organization."
Getting the best from people
"By translating an organizations values into a behavioral competency framework, HR can support managers and hence all staff to understand what is expected of them," adds Haddon. "What attitude they need to demonstrate whilst performing their day-to-day activities. Clarity of objectives through a simple and clear performance management framework provides for all employees to be focused in their delivery whilst understanding how their contribution supports the organizational goals."
"Organizations that dont do that leave staff either floundering or doing their own thing – either way they will be undertaking activities that dont all necessarily fit together or pull together to meet the business objectives. The key to competency and performance management frameworks is in their simplicity. Make them too complicated and they do not get used and can cause more ill than good."
"Another area where many organizations get the best out of their staff is to ensure a solid communications strategy is in place. Regular feedback and two way communications with line managers is where employees feel they are valued. Employees stay engaged if they are kept up to date with key successes and goals in the organization and understand how they have an opportunity for making suggestions for improvements. When they can also have the opportunity for asking questions to obtain clarity back up through the organization and when senior leaders are willing to engage with them, they are in an organization that is above the rest."
"Research shows the manager/subordinate relationship can be one of the biggest forms of motivation or one of the biggest causes of stress. Providing managers with key leadership skills is essential to ensure your biggest resource is treated with respect and engaged in a way that provides the foundation of motivation. For HR to ensure that leaders have the key tools and skills to undertake such a role is another key area."
Ignore HR at your peril
Haddon concludes: "The number of organizations that ignore the value and benefits that HR can bring do so at their peril. Although many organizations think that HR is simply there to conduct recruitment and provide support in disciplinary and grievance procedures, the ones that truly understand how HR can add value and tap into motivation through leadership and employee engagement are the ones where employees, leaders and the organization flourish."
Janice Haddon
Janice Haddon is the Managing director at Morgan Redwood and founder of Thrive in Life, Windsor, UK.
About the author
Janice Haddon is managing director at Morgan Redwood and founder of Thrive in Life. She has over 25 years experience in strategic and operational HR and management consultancy. Working across a range of sectors and with start-ups to top 20 companies, Haddon is a qualified coach and has a passion for integrating performance, personal positivity and wellbeing into the work place. A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, an MA in Psychotherapy and an MBA from Henley Management College, Haddon is also a master practitioner in NLP, a cognitive hypnotherapist and psychotherapy counselor. Janice Haddon can be contacted at: janice@janicehaddon.com
