HR's Seat At the Table Doesn't Have to be a High Chair. 8 Ways to Get Seated

At some point, every Human Resources professional is involved in the infamous discussion with customers or peers. You know the one. It goes something like: "I need to be invited to attend your meetings. It is important that I be there to help provide you guidance. I want to be your business partner."

Sometimes this is enough. Usually, it won't be sufficient.

Much has been written about the professional role of Human Resources, and what we should do to be perceived more favorably by our customers and business colleagues. You can exercise strategies, practice relationship building, and even plead your case. It may help and it may not.

It has been my experience that a so-called place at the table must be earned, over and over again, every time you work with a new team or a new group of colleagues. Your place at the table is never conferred on you, and it is not permanent even if you manage to attain it. A change in leadership or jobs can put you right back at the ground floor.

Following

Here are the things I have found that helped me to earn my seat at the table.

1. Making Stuff Happen. Working with managers or associates to resolve issues goes a long way to build your street cred. Being a provider of solutions is invaluable.
2. Customer Service. I try to answer phone and email within the same day, and never more that 24 hours out. If totally unavailable, I try to leave an alternate contact. People need to be able to reach you when they need you.
3. Business Knowledge. You can't be effective to your business colleagues unless you know your business. Learn your processes, KPIs, and customers. Acronyms are critical. You don't want to look like a dope, or worse, a tourist lost in a foreign country who only speaks English.
4. Reliable results. By being a doer, you earn one kind of rep. By being a doer who provides solutions that stick, or answers that are right, people begin to see you as a confidante and a counselor who can help them. Any leader finds such people invaluable and wants you in the room with them.
5. Provide real world advice, not just policy guidance. You have to be able to step outside the HR policy manual and the statutes and come to grips with both sides of the problem: the business case and the HR case. When you see both sides, you can usually mediate a solution that works for the business group while protecting the HR interests at the same time.
6. Not being overly obsessed with policy and lawsuits. Making fact based, ethical business decisions that consider the interests of the business and your employees will take you miles down the road. I am not saying be reckless, just realize you WILL be facing some litigation. If you do the right thing, you have less to fear, and win more allies in the end.
7. Challenging the Establishment. Business partners don't need yes men. String leaders don't want people who rubber stamp their decisions. Be thoughtful, but act as devil's advocate. Doing this may mark you as a bot of a rebel, but if you do it effectively, you will be appreciated by your peers.
8. Be an early adopter. Stay ahead of the technological and informational curves. Use the tools and resources that are out there to give yourself a business edge. Let Google be one of your best friends. It can't hurt!

By doing all this, you can enjoy your seat at the table for a while. But remember, like most sports coaches, you are only as good as your last win. In this on-going contest, it will always be "what have you done for me lately"...