Nurturing a staff culture that will be most beneficial to the organization’s customers, and managing effective employee development and recognition are part of what it takes to develop thriving companies

However, along with these organizational competencies, HR professionals as individuals need to devote attention to their less obvious, but extremely valuable, roles. These include being a Strategic Positioner, Credible Activist, and Paradox Navigator, and are required so that HR can have the influence it needs to deliver value to the business.

• Strategic positioner: position a business to win in its market
• Credible activist: build relationships of trust by having a proactive point of view
• Paradox navigator: manage tensions inherent in making change happen
• Culture and change champion: make change happen and weave change initiatives into culture change
• Human capital curator: manage the flow of talent by developing people and leaders, driving individual performance, and building technical talent.

• Total rewards steward: manage employee wellbeing through financial and non-financial rewards.
• Technology and media integrator: use technology and social media to drive high-performing organizations.
• Analytics designer and interpreter: use analytics to improve decision making.
• Compliance manager: manage the processes related to compliance by following regulatory guidelines.

Out of the nine critical HR competencies, the role of Paradox Navigator was most closely tied with business performance. Yet this is an area where many HR professionals were lacking expertise.

Paradox navigators need to effectively manage tensions between:

• Global and local demands
• Need for change and stability
• Gathering information and making decisions
• Internal and external hiring
• Individual needs and collective needs
• Employees vs. customers and investors
• Top-down and bottom-up.

• Clarify the poles
• Define best outcomes – how both sides relate to success criteria
• See others’ points of view – how do others experience the paradox?
• Find common ground – where do we agree and disagree?
• Take first steps

Dealing with cognitive complexity is the top skill that helps to transcend paradox. Cognitive complexity involves seeing different sides of an issue, respecting other people’s points of view, learning new ideas (20-25% every 2 years), and seeing patterns in events.

Using employee involvement to improve staff performance takes an organizational approach to the pervasive problem of low engagement. The goal is to move from cynicism to commitment, isolation to community, and for employees to have a sense of purpose and social responsibility in their work.

Initiatives like letting employees choose their next project and being more involved with staffing issues have a positive effect on employee performance.

One of the most interesting ways companies are involving employees is by connecting them with customers for feedback.

This could mean having employees listen to customer service calls, engaging more employees in market research and social media, having customers visit the company’s office, having customers participate in employee training, and even locating employees to work out of a customer’s facility.

Measuring employee performance from an organizational perspective means focusing on organizational-wide talent data, as well as individual data.

• For example, to measure recruitment, you can look at what percentage of hires remain after two years.
• To measure development, look at what percentage of promotions come from inside vs. outside the company.
• To measure succession readiness, look at what percentage of employees know the company’s mission, long-term goals, and business strategy.