Fast HR—Enhancing service excellence

Abstract

We are a people who love speed. From the Inc 500 that extols the virtues of fast-growth firms to sports, where a record number of more than 100 million people are fans of NASCAR, speed is important. Going fast is not just a USA phenomenon; consider the numbers of BMW and Porsche owners (and others) who flock to the Autobahn to ‘‘put the pedal to the metal,’’ as they say, in an effort to experience the thrill of high-speed driving. Fast also characterizes the business environment most firms work in today. The pace of change is escalating, the speed at which new products are brought to market is faster, and the adoption of new technologies have led to breakthrough ways of communicating and doing work. Globalization and technology have contributed to speeding up almost everything we do. The Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, laptop computers, batteries that last much longer than in the past, smaller handheld units and fast airplane travel all contribute to business and people going faster. What about the human resource (HR) function? Is it fast? Type in the term ‘‘fast HR’’ into your favorite browser, and you will find many articles and references to fast heart rate. You will be lucky to find anything that puts the words ‘‘fast’’ and ‘‘human resources’’ together, because in general, high speed is not a term that is married to the HR function. In this paper, two studies of fast HR will be reported. The first one is a survey of executives; in this piece of work, we found that about 62% of the respondents said their HR functions were slow; more telling are the comments these executives wrote. Even worse was some of the feedback from HR executives, claiming they want to leave their own jobs and companies because the slowness at which they respond to the business’s needs is demoralizing and is leading them to rethink careers in HR. In the second study reported in this paper, I briefly review a body of findings from firm-level studies of fast-growth firms showing the impact of HR on firm performance using metrics like earnings and stock price growth. Both the fast HR survey findings and the firm-level research studies tell a story about the way in which HR helps firms when the organization is going fast. However, when business slows down, something happens, and HR has a negative effect on the company’s performance. The remainder of the paper discusses a solution to the ‘‘something’’ about HR that leads to negative outcomes in an organization. That something is big, bulky HR tools and systems that slow down managers and business process. The two research studies discussed demonstrate that speed is important for HR, and in order to help HR take action and go faster, in this paper, I review a body of learning from extreme and agile programming. This work is being used by software developers to speed up and improve the delivery of their programming code. There are lessons learned from the discipline and process used in both agile and extreme programming that companies like Telefonica, American Express, and the Knowland Group are using to improve how HR services are delivered to their internal stakeholders.