Sherry Cadorette hears voices – metaphorically speaking.
One speaks to her past as a senior human resources (HR) professional.
The second talks to the present, and her role as North American president of international human resources firm DBM.
Blended as one, the voices give her a unique view, “two lenses,” she says, on the role of HR professionals in today’s workplace and the challenges they face maintaining employee programs in the face of shrinking budgets.
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| Sherry Cadorette has seen how shrinking budgets have affected employee programs. |
“I’ll have the little (HR) voice going behind me saying, ‘You know this is what you should do,’ ” she laughs.
“And then I’ve got the other little voice saying, ‘There are so many darned demands on the budget right now.’ ” Just how do you weigh those issues?
Earlier this month, Cadorette spoke to an annual conference of Alberta HR professionals at Calgary’s Westin Hotel. Her presentation focused on the importance of selling HR strategies to company leadership.
In an interview with Business Edge, the North Carolina-based Cadorette said it has become critical for HR professionals – if they haven’t already – to fundamentally change the way they view their roles in business.
With today’s financial demands there just isn’t any allowance for the ‘people side’ of the business to be soft any longer, she says. Money spent on HR initiatives has to be focused on, and linked closely to, organizational strategies and outcomes.
Historically, HR has had difficulty making that connection, she says. But trends suggest it must adjust or be cut out of the loop.
Cadorette cites a number of surveys including a 2003 poll of CFOs, in which 28 per cent said they viewed HR as a “cost centre,” not as a strategic player in the business.
Another study said that in 13 per cent of large organizations, HR reported to finance and not directly to the company leadership. In nearly 22 per cent of smaller organizations HR reported to finance, which in effect removes HR from the executive team and the decision-making process.
Fifteen or 20 years ago, HR people sat at the corporate table as the employee conscience, as an advocate. While their hearts may still be in people practices, Cadorette believes, there is also the reality of business to consider.
“It’s the way I have to think about it in my world and it’s how I make those two voices make peace with each other,” she says.
“I need to be a business advocate. And if I’m a business advocate I’ll find a way to maximize our human resources and everybody will win. That’s the message I say to our HR players.”
As an example, Cadorette points to the issue of training. As soon as budgets tighten, many companies pull their training dollars.
But the reality is that HR has probably created disciplined, appropriate training programs that have clear objectives. A good model has been developed and followup measures have been created to ensure learning is tested.
“But have we really made the link of what the outcome of that training is doing to impact the business? If we’ve really made the link, then those dollars won’t be pulled away.”
When a good business case can be made, then the HR professional becomes a part of the strategic team.
Cadorette confesses that she didn’t always think this way. She took great pride in HR initiatives that she created or championed, and valued the reaction from her peers more than her bosses.
“I talk to a lot of HR professionals. They sense their identity with their professional colleagues, but I want them to have an identity inside the business.
“I want them to understand when the operating margin slips by a couple tenths of a per cent, or goes up . . . what that means to the market, to the organization itself and how we can use that money to invest differently.”
As the president of DBM and its former senior VP of human resources, Cadorette says practical hands-on experience shaped her career and guides her decision-making.
Curiously, her rise up the corporate ladder began by climbing telephone polls.
She started at telecommunications giant BellSouth as a 23-year-old installation supervisor. Displaying successful leadership traits, she moved throughout the organization in training, curriculum management and executive development before switching to DBM in 1992.
In 1995 she was made senior HR person, then chief learning officer. Two-and-a-half years ago, she was tapped to become president.
Though she continues to look through two lenses, Cadorette concedes she doesn’t always see HR practices with unfettered vision.
When a leader is “under the fire” of the financial numbers, it’s not always easy to dial back to HR issues, she says. That’s why leaders need strong advisers/counsellors in HR to remind them of their value.
“I’m living and dying by the numbers. But I have to remember that the numbers are coming in based upon what the human capital is doing.
“I have to ask what am I doing with the 36 per cent of my cost structure, which is labour, so that it is fully engaged, creative, innovative, that their hearts and souls are in this . . . I have to understand that if I pay attention to that, I’ll see it in the numbers.”
Good leaders understand the importance of good HR practices. But it is incumbent on HR professionals to assert themselves.
If a company is under the financial gun, she says, HR must find ways to develop initiatives that have an immediate return on investment. HR has to be the business advocate around using a company’s most expensive and valuable asset – human capital.
“Be a part of that sense of urgency,” Cadorette says. “Then you will be seen as a partner.”
It’s what the voices of experience tell her.
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