Book review: Ganesh Chella,Harish Devarajan and V. J. Rao,HR Here and Now: The Making of the Quintessential People Champion

This book is a learning tour for people interested in understanding how HR function has evolved over a period of time and how it is strategic to a firm’s ability for sustained competitive advantage. The authors provide an exploration of the advancements in HR, as a function and as a profession, in a very comprehensive and encompassing way, with many practical examples in the changed context and uncertain environment.

The book has 26 chapters divided into seven parts. After the introduction, the first part with four chapters sets the context, presenting how HR has reinvigorated over a period of time. Chapter 1 talks about the importance of positioning of HR for its success. Chapter 2 describes new meanings of HR and emerging specializations like HR analytics, organizational development, among others, which have imposed new demands on HR. The authors suggest that, moving forward, the success of HR will depend on embracing technology and integrating psychology, sociology and economics, inclusively. Chapters 3 and 4 stresses on the importance of understanding how HR is doing currently to clearly understand expectations, for facilitating changes and being a key enabler for business success. The authors stress on delivering results, while being empathetic and caring for its employees and constantly striving for strategic orientation and innovative ways for planning and problemsolving.

The second part presents chapters 5, 6 and 7 describing concerns related to bringing people on board, on the basis of demand and supply. In Chapter 5, the authors acknowledge the importance of contingent and contract employees and call for the need of fairness and capability building in managing employees. They describe different types of organizations which may rely on making or buying talent or a combination of both, with specific organizational examples. Chapter 6 focuses on creating a compelling employee value proposition and employer brand for attracting and retaining talent, and Chapter 7 stresses on the strategic role an HR can play in three phases of selection—before, during and after.

Part three (Chapters 8–12) focuses on managing people. Chapter 8 talks about the importance of managing good relationships with all the stakeholders of the company, including the community. Chapter 9 looks at emerging trends in learning and development and the requirement of focusing on learning styles and preferences for learning effectiveness, according to business requirements. Chapters 10 and 11 looks at different ways companies are working on performance management, looking for options beyond bell curve and compensation professionals are implementing various programmes, with line managers to attract, reward and retain employees. The authors highlight the shift towards market-oriented pay practices and the reduction in merit pay increases, which means that many organizations don’t increase pay necessarily at the end of performance cycle. Chapter 12 focuses on the importance of examining how HR fares as a process for service quality and the reasons for gaps. The authors have identified four gaps—our understanding of employees’ needs, design of HR processes, HR service delivery and employee expectations.

The fourth part comprises Chapters 13–16 on management and leadership development. Chapters 13 and 14 talk about the importance of understanding aspirations and needs of employees for the interests of organization, which calls for respecting all forms of diversities like education, tenure, gender, among others. Chapters 15 and 16 provide direction on how to institutionalize the process of management and leadership development.

The fifth part comprising Chapters 17–20 describe ways to make organizations more effective. Chapter 17 deals with the requirement of leading planned and in some situations unplanned change for organizational effectiveness. Chapters 18 and 19 describes the way an HR can contribute in organizational design and leadership effectiveness. In Chapter 20, authors shed light on the importance of developing appropriate culture, with well-thought actions, rather than allowing culture to be shaped by random occurrences and situational responses.

The sixth part (Chapters 21–23) deals with the importance of managing the relationship with employees. In Chapter 21, authors highlight redefined boundaries in employer–employee relationship like contractual and legal which have affected people management. In Chapter 22, the authors stress on engaging employees, as engaged employees can offer various benefits to organizations, including longer tenure, discretionary efforts and display of pride for being associated with the organization. Chapter 23 provides food for thought on how progressive employee relations may be developed by building trust and collaboration.

The last part of the book (Chapters 25–26) describes the making of a quintessential people champion. Chapter 24 describes the three broad stages of advancement for HR professionals—the competent HR professional; the trusted partner, manger and specialist and finally the strategic HR leader and expert. Chapter 25 offers guidelines on how young HR professionals can better serve the organization by understanding organization’s policies, products, programmes and practices. Chapter 26, closing the last part of the book, culminates in the presentation of the requirement of CEOs to learn about HR, to have a balanced view about the function and functionaries.

The book successfully offers the big picture, covering a lot of ground in an organized way, without digging subtleties that would be a distraction from the theme. The book also provides pragmatic advice and explicit recommendations on how to effectively use HR for organizational effectiveness. Practical content and numerous case examples on various perspectives of HR make it a decent read for HR managers and management students specializingin HR.