Making Human Resources Human:
A Path to a New HR
Having quality, motivated staff is crucial to the success of any organization. Multiple studies have shown that having diverse viewpoints leads to more efficient and effective decision making. (See the 2017 Forbes study and the 2022 Dimensional Insight blog which further references two Harvard Business Review articles including Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter.) Having inclusionary board and management is of even greater importance in the nonprofit sector, where those giving input to the programs should reflect the client-base served.
The Human Resources (HR) function is to obtain, motivate and retain the best people to achieve the organization’s mission. This is even more important in the nonprofit sector where salary is frequently not the most important consideration, rather job satisfaction and being part of changing the world for the better are motivators.
Numerous unconscious biases still affect hiring and promotion. For example, people have a bias in favor of preserving the status quo; change is uncomfortable. So because 95% of CEOs are white men, the status quo bias can lead board members to unconsciously prefer to hire more white men for leadership roles.
In addition, The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial reckoning have exposed unhealthy and unsustainable work cultures (environments) that leave nonprofit teams disengaged and experiencing burnout.1
Considering that many Human Resources practices consist of doing things the same way they have historically been done, it is perhaps not surprising these HR practices are not viable today. Back in 1998, in “A New Mandate for HR”2 David Ulrich posed the question: “Should we do away with HR?”
Despite some doubts about HR’s contribution to mission, Ulrich affirmed that HR has never been more necessary. The community needs effective organizations that make a difference. The way organizations get things done and how people are treated are central to achieving that goal.
How might HR achieve that goal? Imagine an HR department that did the following:
- Centrally focus on aligning strategy and talent by moving away from purely administrative, policy-focused, and procedural concerns.
- Infuse HR with a diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice lens.
- Co-create solutions up and down the organization.
- Sustain organizational culture—serving as stewards of work-life wellness.
We can act like the frames of HR we use still make sense. We know better. The time to develop a better HR is now.
History
Like many other employment sectors, the socioeconomic and political climate has influenced HR. Historically, paternalism and white supremacist norms were pervasive, which disproportionately negatively impacted Black people and other people of color as we move through the history of human resources management. In addition, the language used in the world of HR, and the world in general, evoked sometimes subtle, and at times overt, racism.
“Welfare Capitalism” gained prominence in the 1920s. People were considered “assets.” If people are assets, then organizations expect to profit from them, and they are carefully tracked as “headcounts”—another basic HR term that treats people as part of a herd.
In the 1930s, the Great Depression brought record-breaking unemployment, which only truly ended with the full-scale mobilization that World War II required. In the drive to win the war, the country had to solve phenomenal talent shortages by employing women to take on a variety of jobs. Yet, gender inequity persisted and the military remained racially segregated until President Harry Truman ordered integration of the armed forces in 1948. After the war, HR practices in the military carried over to the corporate world, with the system’s values upheld by white males.
A few businesses began to realize that employees are motivated by more than just money. Benefits, job security, and participation plans were put in place to win employee loyalty.
The Civil Rights Movement has changed HR—somewhat. Notably, civil rights legislation—such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 have resulted in HR “compliance” strategies. However, that’s far from building equitable workplaces that allow every employee to achieve their greatest potential.
Today, the “gig economy” of short-term contracts and freelance work, has made employment more unstable. The term “human capital” appeared, as if people were money. These developments engendered thoughts of: “Are humans resources?”— a question raised by NPQ’s Jeanne Bell.
A Path to a New HR
Fundamentally, to me, creating a new HR means three things:
- Evolving Human Resources Language
- Rethinking the Human Resources Basics
- Repositioning the Human Resources Role
Evolving Human Resources Language
The racist roots of Human Resources management that reinforce structural racism in the workplace are mirrored in language. Consequently, language matters in liberating HR from its racist roots. As simple as it may sound, changing language is difficult, much like learning a new language. It takes practice, commitment, and more practice.
Imagine the mental shift that results from aligning the HR language we use with the language of the liberation movement and racial reckoning that have consumed us. Although this process has already started, we have a long way to go.
Let’s start with the term Human Resources. How about changing it to People and Culture, which is already used by some organizations? Let’s change from viewing individuals as a commodity to elevating the importance of the people and their inherent wholeness.
Rethinking the Human Resources Basics
Another shift in language centers on the terms as well as the messaging used in specific HR practices and functions.3 A lot of HR work concerns what I might call the basics—recruitment, retention, compensation, and performance. Improving HR would involve changes in language and practice in all these areas. Happily, some nonprofits have begun to adapt parts of the language and practices listed below.
Recruitment
- Job Descriptions: Evaluate for bias
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statements: The law requires an Equal Employment Opportunity Statement; add your organization’s value statement reflecting your commitment to equity.
- Outreach: Conduct focused outreach directed towards diversity, ensure that there are at least two BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color) candidates in the finalist pool. (See the 2016 Harvard Business Review article.)
Retention
- Onboarding: Include an honest overview of racial equity work (including recognition of shortcomings).
- Support Strategies: Employees of color in predominantly white organizations can face a great deal of social isolation and bias within the workplace. Examples of support strategies are helping them build social networks; connecting them to affinity groups, professional associations, and other social groupings; and providing mentorship.
- Stay Interviews: Conduct regular check-ins.
Compensation
- Job Posting: Income secrecy is divisive. Everyone, especially funders, need transparency.
- Pay Equity: A move to jobs that require increased cognitive labor results in an average of 8.8% wage boost, but a shift to positions that demand higher emotional labor results in a 5.7% cut.
Performance
- Team Contributions: Shift language from Performance Management to Team Contributions.
- Talent Enhancement: Infuse learning opportunities with a DEI lens; ensure equitable access to learning opportunities.
Repositioning the Human Resources Role
Role repositioning must be based on the following ideas to change HR practice successfully:
- The HR position is a strategic partner to, and reports to, the highest level of decision-making in the organization.
- Its responsibility is bolstered by the appropriate level of authority. The level of decision-making incumbent in its role supports its authority level.
- The HR role is not monolithic and therefore its scope must encompass the key pillars of the function—the distinct competencies or specialties around strategy, organizational design, talent search, talent enhancement, staff engagement, rewards and recognition, and the leadership pipeline.
- It is not a solo act. It requires the collaboration of those responsible for guiding and advocating for staff and requires at least one other HR team member.
To read more about what a repositioned HR role would look like, see Jean Lobell – https://nonprofitquarterly.org/liberating-human-resources-finding-a-path-to-a-new-hr-paradigm/
Learn more by attending the Sunshine Certificate in Nonprofit Management class on Human Resources & Volunteers. See the Sunshine Certificate in Nonprofit Management schedule for the date of the next class.
Source: Nonprofit Quarterly Jean Lobell – https://nonprofitquarterly.org/liberating-human-resources-finding-a-path-to-a-new-hr-paradigm/
Nonprofit Quarterly has been a trusted source for Florida Nonprofits since 2005 and we also are a source for over 500 titles to nonprofit books and pamphlets in our resource library located at our headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.
1 Jennifer Robinson, The Emotional State of Remote Workers: It’s Complicated, Gallup, December 15, 2020.
2 Dave Ulrich, “A New Mandate for Human Resources,” Harvard Business Review, January-February 1998.
3 Desiree Williams-Rajee, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Recruitment, Hiring and Retention, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, October 4, 2018; Mala Nagarajan and Richael Faithful, Brave Questions: Recalculating Pay Equity” Network Weaver, July 8, 2020; Andrew O’Connell, “Emotional Labor Doesn’t Pay,” Harvard Business Review, September 29, 2010; Jasmine Hall, Reimagining Compensation Decisions Through an Equity Panel, CompassPoint, December 11, 2019.
4 Dave Ulrich, Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 1996.