HR is the central point of the organization -- Stanbic Boss

By Bernard Yaw ASHIADEY

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stanbic Bank, Alhassan Andani, has tasked Human Resources practitioners in organisations to take up the lead roles in their organisations because they are the central point of these institutions.

“Human Resource (HR) Managers should not look at themselves as outsiders in organisations, but as the central part of the organisation. Whatever the long- or short-term plan of the organisation is, HR is part of it; be it the people or business,” he said.

He advised HR managers to rise above just serving the short-term needs of employees and serve the interests of all stakeholders in the organisation: “So that your interventions are more acceptable and implementable.”

Mr. Andani said these at the first breakfast meeting organised by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Forum Ghana in Accra, under the theme “HR’s Contribution to the Bottom Line -- Tactical or Strategic?”

President of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Forum Ghana, Kojo Amissah, said the main aim of the breakfast meeting was to get HR people to know more about their profession.

“HR is a business so HR Managers should network and set priorities and try to change the situations by writing business plans for the organizations -- and also they should not sit in their offices.  They must also attend international conference to learn what other HR practitioners have in the global environment, so they can make informed changes in their organisations,” he said.

The Stanbic boss added that HR helps create a long, sustainable and productive organisation.  According to him, HR also puts together a very effective workforce that promotes growth in any business year on year to meet expectations of the stakeholders in every organisation.

“HR is actually the part of the organisation that pulls together the critical Ms (money, machinery, material). The fact that some organisation have been in existence for centuries means HRs of those organisations have played very significant long-term roles,” he said.

“If I have numbers to deal with, I expect HR to draw up a people-plan for my organisation to deliver the strategy of both short- and long-term goals, making sure we don’t over-emphasise the operational issues.

“When we present financial results, those results can be traced back to how people behaved, conducted and performed within the organisation. HR can therefore take credit for good financial performance and blame for bad financial performance.”                  

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