Regardless of whether you believe Standard & Poor’s assessment of the USA being AA+ it has brought to the forefront a key component of Human Resources, and Businesses. Accountability. A large reason for the USA’s downgrade was based not on their ability to pay (countries are never at risk of failing to pay), but whether or not they would pay. S&P felt American politicians were willing to voluntarily miss a payment in their game of political brinkmanship. This showed a remarkable willingness to ignore accountabilities that previous decisions left them with.
Organizations are no different (and I don’t just mean your corporate debt issues). Organizations need accountabilities to function properly, and helping employees and management align accountabilities and responsibilities is a key function of a well performing HR department. HR’s role with accountabilities and responsibilities is two fold:
- Work with line area managers to ensure processes and roles have detailed accountabilities, and performance plans and other tools are clearly tied together to meet the business area’s needs.
- Assist in creating high quality control mechanisms that reward, punish, and develop employees depending on the situation.
So how can HR help line area managers with aligning their people with processes? I’m personally a big fan of Bain & Co’s RAPID method (also an incredible book for anyone doing process or organizational design). Once the line area has highlighted a key process, use the RAPID process to help clarify the decision, and employee responsibilities. RAPID isn’t a set series of steps, it just helps you remember to gather (I) Input, Make a (R) Recommendation, Get the parties to (A) Agree, then clarify the (D) Decisions (who/what) that people make to initiate the next phase to (P) Perform the decision.
- Gather extensive information about the process (who/what initiates, who needs to be consulted, who needs to have input, who is accountable for the process getting done, who is responsible for the actual execution of the process)
- Recommendations, and it should include a RACI around the project (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed)
- Get agreement from stakeholders in the business process, and the recommendation should outline clear decisions (and who) makes them
- Decide (Who decides, and when, based on…)
- Perform the process
Ensuring you have met these, can help when it comes time to create job descriptions, or align performance management programs to the employee’s work. Having these documents with clear responsibilities and accountabilities also makes the second phase of HR’s role easier, as it is far easier to compare employees performance to the appropriate control mechanism (rewarding them for good performance, coaching them if they need development, and in sever cases punishment, particularly important around key processes required by legislation or safety).
In Fact, by performing this well HR can help organizations meet the competencies required to succeed (according to Forum Corporation). Forum has identified three items (Clarity, Unity, and Agility) in Strategic Speed that great organizations have that allows them to rapidly adapt and deliver on their strategic objectives. Clear responsibilities accountabilities would certainly tie into Clarity within an organization.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this, because it’s time for me to go enjoy one incredibly day outside.
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