By John Viktorin and Lee Downs
As HR consultants, we see our clients struggle with what the future of the HR function will look like in their organizations.
As an HR professional, you may also have been asking yourself about the skills you will need to be a better HR professional tomorrow—especially as HR becomes less transaction-focused over time.
We believe HR’s future lies in HR acting as an internal consultant to its clients. An internal consultant is a fulltime employee who uses consulting skills to influence the actions and decisions of his or her clients. It is a more strategic kind of relationship than HR’s traditional one.
For HR, this distinction is key. As internal consultant, not only do you have to execute your daily transactional HR activities, but also manage the transition away from delivering these transactional activities. Added to this, HR is expected to act in a more strategic manner.
Internal consulting
Many organizations have seen business functions such as product development working as internal consultants for some time, while also outsourcing some of their activities.
The benefit of an internal consulting relationship is that it takes you away from the transactional HR stuff (which is being gradually and progressively being outsourced in many organizations), and positions you as a key asset with a broad knowledge of HR-related topics and how they align with overall business strategy.
From transaction managers to business partners
Business partners access each others’ skills and strengths, making the offerings from the partnership stronger than the individual offerings of the respective partners.
HR offers a variety of products (employee benefits or stock purchase plans) and services (hiring support, staff discipline) that are being increasingly outsourced or being passed to front-line managers. Those internal and external resources will need continued guidance in execution—in other words, a business partner.
What do internal consulting skills look like?
Think of a visual artist: depending on what she wishes to express on her canvas, she chooses the appropriate colours from her palette. HR professionals who work as internal consultants need a palette of tools to help them meet the needs of their clients.
The kinds of skills that will aid us in assisting our clients are ones you would expect when working with a good external consultant. They include:
- A specific ‘technical’ expertise (HR knowledge and experience)
- Communication skills
- Listening skills
- Problem solving
- Analytical skills
- Customer service
- Connections to other service providers
- Understanding of our clients’ “business”
- Understanding the big picture
And most importantly: the ability to act as influencer and enabler.
There are plenty of high-priced consultants who create reports and fill binders with data, but end up having their work shelved. Whose fault is that? Both the client and the consultant need to share responsibility.
However, as an internal consultant, you can’t allow this to happen. Your organization’s success depends on your various clients’ successes. Use your internal consulting skills to influence and enable the actions of those around you, and you will influence and enable a thriving and growing organization.
Lee Downs and John Viktorin are partners in Amoeba Communications a consulting firm that creates communications that engage people and drive performance. They are the go-to team for leaders seeking high impact, high value solutions in four areas: organizational communications, change management, HR communications and leadership communications. You can reach Lee and John at www.engagecanada.com or by calling 416-535-3350.
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