I, Jack P. Bucalo, of Washington, Illinois, a retired Chief Human Resources Officer, being of sound mind and memory, and having over 25 years of Human Resources executive level experience in Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 domestic and international companies, do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament, revoking all prior wills and codicils.
- Executors. I name the current nationwide cadre of Chief Human Resources Officers and HR Leaders as my Executors, who from time to time have my consent to affirmatively take action to implement any of the contents of this will or my various published articles.
In doing so, they have the power to distribute and use any or all related documents or knowledge from my various articles to any other group or person as they deem appropriate, without authorization of any court.
- Bequeathing. I give or bequeath the content of all my articles to the Chief HR Officer or HR Leader in any organization for whom they were written and intended. My over 75 articles do not include any far-reaching generalizations, overly broad concepts, or theoretical viewpoints on various HR subjects. Rather, they cover many critically important HR subjects and issues that the Chief HR Officer or HR Leader faces every day. In sum, they are PRAGMATIC, DETAILED, INNOVATIVE, AND ACTIONABLE documents that represent what I feel are the BEST PRACTICES on the subject.
These articles have been cataloged on two websites:
https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/column/applied-hr-with-jack-bucalo and
https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/author/jackbucalo/
- Attesting. I certify and attest to my observations of outside business experts and line management executives’ evaluation of HR’s overall business reputation and worth is true and genuine, as the function strives to be viewed as an equal business partner to its line management peers. Most of these observations are critical of the function which can be summarized as HR having little or no practical business acumen, though it is recognized that HR typically performs its administrative duties in an effective and efficient manner.
As a proud member of the nationwide HR profession, I offer these observations in a constructive effort to help HR improve its reputation as a business partner with the CEO and line management so that it will have a better chance of having its viewpoint on various business issues prevailing more often than before.
a. Whereas, recent surveys from Fortune and McKinsey are evidence of line management executives’ comparatively low evaluation of the function. In the former survey, only 10% of CEOs believed that HR or their leadership development programs had a clear business impact. In the latter survey, only 11% of over 500 executives agreed that their leadership and management development programs achieved the desired business results. In other words, such programs do not directly help them operate the business, even though the company’s CEO and line management executives are HR’s ultimate customer.
b. Whereas, line management executives believe that HR is solely an administrative function that does not and cannot help them to operate the business, in stark contrast to Finance and line organizations who play a major role in it.
c. Whereas, all other functions of a company have a much more direct impact on the operation of the business which allows them to have much more influence and power in the company’s decision-making hierarchy.
d. Whereas, investors and the market hold top management of any company accountable for achieving certain financial, strategic, and operating business objectives every fiscal year and over the long-term. Therefore, these business objectives are the top priority of the CEO and line management executives. They should be HR’s top priority too.
e. Whereas, in their August 19, 2020 article in the Chief Learning Officer magazine, Jack and Patti Phillips indicated that the estimated $200 billion spent globally each year on leadership development receives little practical return on investment for the business leaders who sponsored the programs.
f. Whereas, in his classic January 2016 article in the Harvard Business Review “A 10-Year Study Reveals What Great Executives Know and Do”, Ron Carlucci identifies the four recurring patterns of executive-level skills that distinguish exceptional performance, three of which are hard skills and only one is a soft skill.
g. Whereas, in his equally classic January 2016 article in the McKinsey & Company Quarterly “Getting Beyond the BS in Leadership Literature”, Jeff Pfeffer concludes that the overwhelming emphasis on singular soft leadership skills substantially oversimplify the real complexity of the leadership issues and dilemmas leaders face.
h. Whereas, line management executives believe that the hard/soft skills mix is 25%/75% for lower management, 50%/50% for middle management, and 75%/25% for senior and upper management, while HR believes the mix to be 25%/75% for all management positions.
i. Whereas, senior and top-line management believe most leadership and management development programs, especially those intended for middle management and higher, have failed because they: (a) concentrated almost exclusively on soft skills development, (b) excluded any hard skills development which they feel are critical to job success, (c) provided little or no practical return on investment in relation to the amount of line management time expended on them and (d) refrained from providing any practical business value for the leader’s real-world business objectives and plans for which they are accountable to top management, the CEO and the Board of Directors.
j. Whereas, every fiscal year most CEOs and line management executives establish various business objectives regarding its financial, operating, and strategic matters. Typically, these business objectives have a direct effect on increasing sales, improving market share, improving cash flow, reducing costs, improving productivity, enhancing customer care, fostering new product development and market introduction, improving product quality and so on. All other functions in the company are interested and involved in achieving one or more of them. Conversely, HR is apparently concerned solely with fulfilling its administrative duties.
k. Whereas, line management executives value hard skills much more than soft skills because, in their eyes, they are far more predictive of job success.
l. Whereas, most CHROs and HR Leaders expect that they should be respected as an equal business partner by their line management peers because of their job title, they do not understand that such respect must be EARNED by their participation with their peers in the practical operation of the business.
m. Whereas, almost every CHRO or HR Leader desires a seat at the C-Suite table, few will achieve this much-desired goal because of their lack of business acumen and direct involvement in the achievement of the company’s business objectives.
n. Whereas, line management executives believe that leadership and management development programs covering soft skills are intended primarily for first level supervisors and are not relevant or important in helping them to achieve any of their major business objectives.
o. Whereas, management succession is of major importance to the CEO and the Board of Directors, it is either not performed at all or is administered by some other department without any HR involvement. If improperly performed, it stands the risk of being considered “another HR paperwork exercise” by line management executives.
p. Whereas, line management executives believe that HR simply completes the necessary paperwork regarding salary administration matters with little or no input regarding its planning or content, which is similarly true of management bonus, incentive and stock plan design or administration.
q. Whereas, the harsh reality of today’s highly competitive business environment requires a comprehensive and ongoing approach by line management to team or agile management and achieving innovative results in all aspects of the business to acquire and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Line management executives feel that HR’s support of both these critical companywide efforts has been lacking or minimally effective at best.
