My #HRevolution Session: Moneyball and the Art of Figuring Out if HR Leaders Are Overpaid...
September 30, 2011
I'm in Vegas over the weekend to participate in HRevolution - a great unconference for HR Pros. The title of my session is FOT Live. Catchy, huh? A placeholder of sorts because I really didn't know what I wanted to talk about.
But as I began seeing the promotional lead-up to the movie Moneyball, my thoughts on the session became pretty specific. I'm going to talk about how you figure out if an HR Leader is undervalued or overvalued. Are you paying too much? What metrics can you look at to figure out who (if you had access to the right information) is undervalued in the HR marketplace?
Moneyball for HR Leaders. Not for HR Pros to determine what others are worth. To determine what different HR Pros are actually worth.
The good news is I don't need to have all the answers. HRevolution is set up in a way where dialog and conversation drive the session. So really what I have to do is start the conversation and keep it out of the ditches.
I do have one strong opinion from which my worldview on HR pros is based. I also think that the value/worth question for HR leaders applies to any generalist who is responsible for a client group of employees. Unlock the Moneyball for HR formula, and you can apply it all the way down to the HR Manager. As long as they're responsible for a flock.
A cautionary note: As I thought about the best way I would go about determining whether an HR Leader was undervalued or overvalued, my thoughts were a little chilling. If any of the past CEOs I've worked for walked up to me with the ideas that came into my head, I would have automatically protested.
You can't measure me like that. I don't control all the levers that type of measurement implies.
You're right. Most HR Leaders don't have as much control as they would like. But the talented ones find ways to get results without the assigned authority. That's why they're undervalued in the marketplace before the market figures out what's up. Then their value gets driven up in a hurry. Sometimes.
I'm looking forward to the conversation and learning from whoever joins me. Whether it's 2 people or 50, I suspect I'll learn more than I give.
Moneyball for HR Leaders. Should be fun. Join me if you're attending, I'll do a series of posts related to what I learn from the HRevolution tribe next week.