HR leaders engaged each other on the delicate art of business and the role of HR in business.
The CHRO South Africa Art of Business Summit, which took place on 18 April at the 180 Lounger in Cape Town, exploited the qualities required from HR leaders to drive commercial performance and agility in today’s VUCA world, creating a perfect balance between finance and human capital, as well as how to prevent burnout among HR personnel.
Keynote speaker, author and non-executive board member Professor Shirley Zinn, started the night by challenging attendees to re-think the purpose and role of HR within an organisation.
As a person who has sat on numerous business, NPO and academic boards, Shirley said there is a paradigm shift where boards are looking at HR for business solutions.
“Nowadays, there is more scrutiny around the role and function of boards and their members. The things we do and take care of such as remuneration, well-being, talent and inclusion are making headlines. That simply means the board wants to know about them too. Boards are now looking to HR for business solutions. As HR head, we need to lead in strategy.”
Shirley also encouraged leaders in the room to be more intentional, mindful and precise about the type of message they want to put across to the board. “There is no need to speak business language when addressing the board, as business is starting to realise that with people there isn’t much strategy. What you need to do, however, is capitalise on the opportunities presented, be informed and prepared and be purposeful in meeting the business objectives.”
Mind, body and business
The keynote was followed by an interactive panel discussion facilitated by CEO of Mercer Tamara Parker, Avanthi Parboosing, CPO at Life Healthcare and Mbali Khumalo, MD at Simeka Health. The trio delved into creating a delicate balance of managing the healthy tension between people, finance and boards.
Tamara, who narrated a personal experience that led to her own burnout in her professional career, said more people are now prioritising their mental wellness.
“A recent study in the US revealed that the vast majority of young people entering the workforce want to work in an office, and they want leaders like us to be there to guide and mentor them. A third of them said they would give up their salary increase if the company focused more on their health and wellbeing.” Businesses, she said, cannot afford to lose what was learnt and gained during the Covid-19 pandemic. “If we don’t spend the money on health and wellness, what will happen to our people?” she asked.
Avanthi said there is change afoot among boards – albeit slow change. “The CEO role is changing because strong CPOs and CHROs are mentoring and motivating them to think in a way that’s people-centric. Historically, CEOs thought about profit and strategy, and they left the ‘people stuff’ to HR. Now, however, HR is treating CEOs like partners when it comes to cultivating culture, and holding them accountable.”
Accountability, said Mbali is a big part in cultivating the needed change:
“Human capital needs to start holding leaders accountable. Every leader needs to understand what their people are going through. You can’t expect results without getting to know the people who are delivering them.”
Caring for the caregivers
During the last session of the night – a workshop for the leaders – mental health activist Lauren Davis and BREATHE co-founder Lana Hindmarch spoke frankly about how caregivers need to prioritise themselves.
The duo highlighted that there are hidden struggles that HR workers face on a daily basis as a result of the selflessness that their roles require.
“We once hosted a workshop or experimentation camp, and on the subject of to what extent people were struggling. At least two of the executives who attended revealed that they were admitted to hospital for exhaustion,” explained Lana.
During the workshop, the next 30 minutes were dedicated to the executive themselves (this was the welcoming instruction at the workshop), and one HR professional revealed that having these 30 minutes to themselves or focused on them was extremely overwhelming, and compassion given to them was equally unusual.
At this point Lauren spoke of compassion fatigue, saying through her work she has observed that this type of fatigue is more applicable in the HR profession than another.
“Compassion is not about running out of compassion for others. It comes naturally to us to have compassion for others as human beings,” Lauren said. “However, the overlap is not having enough left over for ourselves: when you’re essentially continuing to pour from an empty cup.”
By the end of the evening, both Lauren and Lana concluded that HR practitioners have an ethical duty to ‘put on their own oxygen mask’. “Not taking care of yourself actually does more harm to you than you think, and is our ethical duty to maintain our own emotions, and then have the ability to help others and avoid harm,” they said.
|
Our Partners
|
