Mike Pulliam, Sr. HR Specialist, Carhartt Inc.

I recently asked Mike Pulliam, Sr. HR Specialist for Carhartt Inc. the questions, “What do you feel is the most pressing current issue in Human Resources/ Human Resource management, why, and what is a possible solution to this problem?” I wasn’t too surprised when one of his answers had a lot ot do with Organizational Development and change. Here is his response:

“In the days when Human Resources was called Personnel, Human Resources did not have a strategic position within many organizations. Human Resources professionals were the high paid administrative assistants to industry. Most organizations did not recognize or act upon how Human Resource initiatives can positively affect the bottom line and the
productivity of the organization. Many times Human Resources simply considered a cost and not a business partner.

Over the past 15 years or so there has been a major shift in most organizations focusing on Key areas within the Human Resource function allowing Human Resource Professionals/leaders to have a seat at the table where the decisions are made. The main areas of focus, depending on industry are Human Capital, Compensation and Benefits, Change Management and Organizational Design. Human Resource initiates affect the bottom line in a variety of ways.

Human Capital is the management of talent within an organization. It deals with professional development, succession planning, strategic recruitment efforts and retaining your high performing employees. All affect the bottom line in one way or another. One example to think about could be to start with strategic recruitment efforts matched with an effective training and development plan partnered with succession planning. This allows the organization to show each employee their value and how the company plans on developing and using them to get the job done at the end of the day. This increased communication, productivity and morale. Lessens retention issues and also empowers employees to work harder with a purpose. High productivity, high level of talent, low retention translates to less bodies and more production, less layers of management and a stronger clear organizational design. All affects the bottom line and how effective
organizations can adjust/adapt to industry changes.

The economic state recently has really put an emphasis on the human capital, Change management and organizational design areas as more companies attempt to work and grow with less. I touched on Human Capital so let’s take a look a Change Management. Organizations that are not changing or adapting are likely not competitive in today’s market. Unfortunately with a lot of change, come issues. People inherently feel change is more of a negative aspect. It has become more important for Human Resources to coach leaders and in turn those leaders coach their employees how to deal with change. Simple ways to positively affect Change is strong communication and planning upfront. Communication what the change is, the purpose and timeline, who will be involved and what the desired outcome will be up front generally creates a strong buy in.

Most organizations struggle with effective planning and communication, two areas
more Human Resources should be considered subject matter experts in. In my organization we are implementing SAP which will change most of the processes within the organization. It is forcing us to rethink the way we do business. Do it this way versus the way you have for 10 years. This will also unfortunately displace a few people because of the skill sets that will be needed after SAP is implemented. But the company is trying to avoid as much hardship as possible by properly planning for change and managing it throughout the process. Human Resources are the guide. We have set up a communications team, set up training sessions to attempt to bring those who will be directly affected up to speed.
We have subject matter expert’s onsite to help with the implementation that teaches our current employee base. We identified process heads from all areas of our organization and have them strictly working on the new processes and collaborating with each other. That way we don’t loose our culture, keep our style even with changes. The organization
has office meetings and news letters communicating all the changes and shares deadlines with the entire organization. These are just some of the steps we have taken to properly manage the change.

This, in my opinion is a pressing issue simply because of the impact Human Resources can have on an organizations performance. We have a strategic business opportunity that we are making apparent.”

I’d like to sincerely thank Mike Pulliam of Carhartt, Inc. for taking the time to answer my questions, and his detailed response. I will respond to his answers and add some comments of my own in the next post on this blog, so stay tuned!