As an external provider, working with HR staff has been an absolute pleasure and one of the highlights of the work that I do, particularly the creative design and development of programs that specifically meet the business and organisational needs. A HR Manager in a program that I was running made a rather bold claim… “Any program will fail without HR input.” She went on to say, “If you don’t involve HR in the processes and design of the program, we can make sure that it never goes ahead!” It was partly a threat, partly a warning, and partly an ego-driven attempt to assert her self-importance. It also shocked the group on the program and gave HR a very bad name!
Coaching in Australian Workplaces
Now the truth is, in some Australian workplaces that I have seen, coaching has not gotten off the ground because the HR team has not been able to get their act together. They can’t decide who should be running with the program and they can’t decide who should be championing the organisation strategy, or if there should be one in the first place. They are very caught up with the operational side of HR, rather than leadership and development and egos are definitely involved. Worse still, if the HR General Manager does not sit on the executive team or board, then their ability to champion a coaching culture can be diminished along with all the other initiatives that they would like to drive.
The Value of HR
But I would like to consider the first part of the statement without the threats and political implications. In the best implementations of coaching programs into the workplace in Australia that I have been privileged to observe and research, suggest that there is no doubt that HR professionals play a vital role in the development and implementation of a coaching culture in their organisation. For the following reasons:
- HR have an enormous amount of value to offer.
- The championing of a coaching culture and the implementation and support of the culture sits very firmly in the HR domain of responsibility.
- The HR Managers are talented coaches and many have been formally trained.
- HR are in the best position to design the strategy for coaching in the organisation and to align this to organisational objectives.
- HR specifically ensures that all the HR artefacts have coaching embedded (for example, performance reviews) and that they are coaching people in the use of the coaching artefacts.
As an external provider, working with HR staff has been an absolute pleasure and one of the highlights of the work that I do, particularly the creative design and development of programs that specifically meet the business and organisational needs (Claire, Paula, Alison, Leisa, Tracy, Jill, Lesley and Corianne… I’m thinking of you!).
