Getting HR on board, by Kathleen O’Donovan, Personnel Today, June 2009

I remember Kathleen O’Donovan as the first female to be Financial Director of a top 100 company and who, after a period of impressive performance, lost her job. However she seems to have found a niche as a mentor and serial non-executive director. Here she writes about the role of HR and the ways in which HR people can and should reach board level; it is clear that her career gives her a different perspective from someone with a more conventional HR background.

My reason for liking this article is perhaps because it ties in with our own views and the trends that we see - the need for HR people to have business as well as personal skills. The author stresses that, to have a chance of being successful at board level and achieving the desired ‘strategic relationship’ with the CEO, the HR person must be confident and fluent in financial topics. This would include general knowledge such as understanding company accounts as well as hot topics within the HR orbit, such as the financial implications of pension schemes (An example of a company taking a similar view is MTP’s biggest project this year, the on-line delivery of a business acumen programme to all the senior HR people of one of the world’s biggest high tech companies).

O’Donovan believes that HR people with a desire to ‘go plural’ like her can use such skills to obtain non-executive directorships with other companies; she suggests that many major companies are looking for people who have business skills, understand executive remuneration and would be suitable for the increasingly important remuneration committees within the main boards of public companies. She does however fail to mention the problems of getting yourself into the non-executive network - often much more closed than it should be - or the fact that such roles can often be poisoned chalices, as the members of the remuneration committee of RBS has recently found!

The article also suggests that the HR person who wishes to rise further should try if possible to spend time in a line management role in another function, not just to improve business skills but also to understand how HR is seen by the internal customer. She also believes that there must be a good relationship with the Financial Director, a powerful axis based on mutual support, a powerful combination of the hard and the soft side of board level decision-making.

Financial and business skills are not the only ones mentioned in the article. She emphasises emotional intelligence as a quality possessed by most HR people which is sorely needed at board level. But it is only possible to use it to influence others at board level if the confidence and competence in business skills are there.

Maybe I liked this article because it told me what I believe and want others to hear, but it is certainly worth a read by the ambitious HR person who is prepared to take on that poisoned chalice.


To access this article go to:

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/06/01/50923/how-to-get-board-ready-trade-secrets.html