Transitioning from Personnel & Administration to HR: Why Is It So Challenging?

Understanding the Transition to HR

In many organizations, Personnel & Administration have not yet transitioned to HR, while in others, the HR concept is either unsuccessful or still in its early stages. Why is this the case? How can we initiate and anticipate a successful transformation to HR?

Regards,
Suresh

You have written that "Still in many organizations Personnel & Administration could not be transformed to HR and in many other organizations."

Have you done any study? If yes, then how many organizations have you studied? What were the parameters of your study?

Your second statement is "the HR concept remains unsuccessful or in a nascent stage itself; why?"

Would you mind sharing your definition of "nascent" and "unsuccessful"?

Your third statement is "How can we initiate and expect a successful transformation to HR?"

Have you earmarked boundaries for "personnel" and "HR"? If yes, would you mind disclosing them?

Final Comments

Dear Suresh, do not worry about the name. As long as you are able to give value to your function, everything is fine. Nowadays, it has become fashionable to call "HR" without understanding the real meaning of it. The trouble with today's HR professionals is that they have disowned "personnel," but then they could not become "HR" as well. What is the use of being in this transgender stage?

Ok...

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

It is not known how big your organization is in terms of employee strength. Notwithstanding this, your concern to provide a people-oriented approach to personnel administration in your organization is admirable. In HR terms, you aim to change the personnel function from mere transactional management to transformational management. Any transformation will not be successful without the support of top management. Therefore, you need to discuss the transformation and the initiatives you want to introduce with top management. I would like to suggest a few practical steps based on my experience as an HR professional.

1) Prepare the ground well by taking the following steps before implementing the transformation to ensure desired results.

2) Prioritize gaining the cooperation of top management in your transformation efforts.

3) Work on changing the organizational culture to facilitate the transformation. Culture influences how people perceive and behave. This can be achieved by altering existing practices within the organization. For example, changing the way new employees are introduced to the work environment on their first day or leaving a greeting card with a rose on an employee's desk on their birthday can create a positive impact. Small changes can lead to significant shifts in perceptions over time.

4) Practice empathy professionally. Engage with employees to understand how they prefer to perform tasks and what supports their effectiveness. This approach breaks down communication barriers between HR and employees.

5) Address employee grievances promptly, regardless of their size, to enhance HR's image.

6) Once the groundwork is laid, introduce people-oriented initiatives such as employee engagement programs and motivational schemes like rewards and incentives.

Regards,
B. Saikumar

Mumbai

Let us not focus too much on headings like 'P & A' or 'HR'. What counts is the content if any transformation is to be done in the work culture of an organization. For example, you may continue to call an employee 'Manager Personnel & Administration', but review his/her Job Description to include more functions related to HR. Include, for example, job responsibilities such as: Manpower Planning, Performance Management, Creating Employee Development Plans (based on competencies gap analysis), etc.

Now develop your HR manual in which all the processes related to these job responsibilities are clearly defined. Gradually, when the role change becomes effective on the ground, you may change the designation of the person doing this job to 'Manager HR' and also rename the department as 'HR Department' instead of 'Personnel & Admin Dept'.

But please remember, titles/designations do not matter much, at least in small and mid-size companies. Be focused on the 'Job Description' and try its enrichment from time to time. This is how organizations grow without unduly increasing the jobs inventory. And this is a small example of a 'strategic initiative' by HR.