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Fearless HR

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Fearless HR

Driving Business Results

CreateSpace,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Human resources departments and professionals should be bold, confident and unafraid.

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Human resources educator and consultant David Forman demolishes every prejudice against HR departments and professionals with data, facts and evidence – but he doesn’t let HR off the hook. According to Forman, HR leaders are failing to keep up with rapid changes in the economy and their impact on organizations. He urges HR executives to earn credibility and make a greater contribution by studying the business and the goals of their parent companies. He tells them it’s time to wake up, learn business basics, embrace data and analytics, and boldly position their departments at the highest levels in organizations. Corporate leaders will find much food for thought that they can apply effectively to their HR departments. getAbstract recommends Forman’s call to action to HR professionals, who will embrace his message, advice and tools.

Summary

“Fearless HR”

The economy’s evolution from industrial factories and physical labor to the white-collar knowledge industries of the Information Age took more than a century. Yet, a new Creative Age has emerged just since about 1995. Today, organizations in advanced economies derive the majority of their value from “intangible assets,” including skilled leaders; talented employees; and the ideas, networks and enthusiasm they provide. Human resources professionals manage the critical resource that drives success, mediocrity or failure for today’s organizations: their people.

In the past, administrators deliberately kept HR’s work separate from the mainstream business. Able but isolated, HR managers helped their firms stay out of regulatory trouble, deal with unions and manage workers’ needs. Since the turn of the 21st century, however, increasing pressure on HR pushes it to step up, transform and contribute more to the business and the bottom line. HR must “multiply” its impact by driving greater performance and stepping into a more strategic role.

“The Evidence”

In the 1990s, Sears’ stores found that investing in employee engagement led to subsequent improvements...

About the Author

Dave Forman is a prominent HR educator, mentor, consultant and author.


Comment on this summary

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    S. C. 7 years ago
    it was inresting
  • Avatar
    S. D. 9 years ago
    This was an interesting read, but I think to focused on old dichotomies that haven't truly existed in many HR depts for awhile now (i.e. it's HR vs the rest of the company). There are many silos in companies' corporate functions and breaking down those walls to invest in tech solutions for better partnering as well as drive the communication between them is more important to keep operations going. I think culture and C-level leadership drive this more than anything

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