Focused Program on People Management

Human Resources or Resourceful Humans?

The fashion for “human resources” is fading. The best and brightest companies are no longer behaving as though people were just one more resource. “People management” is the Next Big Thing. In May and June, IESE Professor José Ramón Pin will explain how to transform a company’s mindset.

It’s clear: Human resources are dead. Long live people management! The upcoming Focused Program, “From Human Resources Management to People Management Strategies” will bid farewell to the antiquated human resources way of dealing with the issues relating the people who form a company. Taking its place is “people management,” which underscores the value of people. With this change of approach, organizations change the way they operate.

Needed: A New Way of Thinking

“Those who have until now been called directors of human resources must broaden their view of their departments. People management is a core element in an organization, and the department’s role must therefore be much more effective to ensure that employees not only help to carry through the strategies implemented by management but also participate in their creation,” said Professor José Ramón Pin, who will lead the program in Madrid on May 30 and 31 and June 1, 6 and 7, 2005.

“A people manager,” he said, “must act as a strategic partner to senior management, because he or she plays a decisive role in ensuring that employees identify with company strategy. No strategy will work without a work force that is committed to following the basic lines laid down by the management.”

So, what’s the key? It’s the ability to bring off a change of direction within this area. “And that’s not easy,” acknowledges Pin. “On many occasions, routine overwhelms all the good intentions and this step forward is never made. The heads of these departments often have ideas that are very good but fragmented. What is needed is a completely new way of thinking that will lead to the creation of a real people management department.”

An Agreement Between Departments

In order to achieve this aim, it is not enough for “human resources” to disappear from the company’s organizational chart. This transformation must permeate all of the company departments. “There must be a quality agreement between the new department and the remaining sections of the company, which will become the department’s internal clients. It must be possible for the work of the people management department to be assessed on the basis of this agreement with the other departments,” said Pin.

In other words, each department will list its requirements (number of people required, profiles, training, etc.) and the people management department must respond accordingly. At the end of the year, each party will review the results, which will be measured on the basis of the agreement that each department has entered into with people management.

Start With the General Manager

Of course, this change of approach will not be successful without the support of the general management. It is the “senior people managers who delegate some of their duties to a particular department. They must therefore be the first to convince themselves of the need for this change, so that it can be implemented in spite of all its complexities,” observes Pin.
“It is first necessary to identify the aims of the new department. Then, it is important to identify the main tools that can be used in order to implement this transformation successfully and the bases that are to be used to measure the success of the new policy.”

For more information on the program, visit IESE’s website.