Have you ever had a rough day only to be buoyed by a kind word from your supervisor? Have you ever stopped and thought “I love working here. My boss truly respects my opinion.”? Is it clear that leadership respects employees throughout your organization? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, the likelihood is your workforce is engaged and satisfied. A new survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found 72% of employees rank "respectful treatment of all employees at all levels" to be the most important factor in job satisfaction (http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/28/pf/employee-job-satisfaction/). This should come as no surprise given the well-studied relationship between satisfaction and leadership.[1] What should come as a surprise is that leadership is not the engine driving satisfaction.
Satisfaction and engagement are key levers for achieving organizational success and the truly-skilled HR professional manipulates these levers. In a typical situation, it is the HR department managing satisfaction surveys to assess what matters most. Beyond that it is the HR Business Partner who takes this information and arms stakeholders like leaders with the tools for generating greater satisfaction which, in turn, can lead to greater effectiveness. This entire cycle is driven by one agent—the HR professional with mad relationship management skills and a true propensity for leadership. This assertion has been supported time and time again by research on HR competencies and their impact on organizational outcomes.[2]
I’m often asked to consider the following question—how does HR contribute to the bottom line? The answer is HR contributes in so many ways. Among the most tangible is ensuring a competitive advantage through effective and engaged talent. My response to business leaders seeking an answer to that same question is—who drives satisfaction in your organization? If HR doesn’t push leadership to satisfy and to engage then who does? Organizations lacking competent HR professionals typically can’t respond leaving them at the intersection of leadership and relationship management without a driver. Don’t find yourself stuck at this intersection. Learn more about key competencies linked to success at www.shrm.org/competencies and www.shrmcertification.org.
[1] Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). The nature of executive leadership: A conceptual and empirical analysis of success. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Knowledge Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.
During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).
Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.
Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.
Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.
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