Jeff Smith, HR Executive, on the Importance of a Company Communicating Its Purpose

Research published in the Harvard Business Review involving three successful industry-leading companies, including asset management firm BlackRock, found a purpose-driven business approach can correlate to having a strong talent strategy — a notion with which Jeff Smith, human resources professional and former head of global HR at BlackRock, agrees.

One of the best things a company can do to attract talent, according to Smith, is to create and communicate a meaningful purpose that extends beyond things like revenue and profit and other business metrics.

“Culture is everything,” he says. “It is what you stand for, how you do work, what you are held accountable for and how it feels to be somewhere. Companies are not the same; all of these things [are] big differentiators.”

Part of the importance of proactively creating a robust company culture, Jeff Smith says, centers on the fact one will arise; whether you shape it or not.

“Even if you don’t try, you will have a culture,” he says. “So you might as well work hard to foster, nurture and create the culture you want. Talk about it; say it out loud — then try to implement practices  and lead in a way that creates the culture.”

Crafting a Winning Employee Experience

The “Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy” Harvard Business Review article also featured an analysis of Envision Energy, an alternative energy company in China, and the global Tata Group enterprise, headquartered in India. The analyses were conducted by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management senior lecturer, Harvard Business School professor of business administration and a managing director from business consulting provider Accenture Strategy.

They attributed the three organizations’ industry achievements, which included one positioning itself for growth after the U.S. recession in 2008, to several similar traits, such as being led by principles and focused on outcomes.

The researcher-advisers suggest the three companies they examined have such highly effective talent strategies because their hiring and retention approaches are so tightly ensconced with their business plans, encompassing divisionwide, regional and individual business unit and group factors.

“The amount and diversity of [HR] work is incredible,” Jeff Smith says. “People are complex, the conversations and work are never-ending.”

While leadership buy-in is described as being important, the authors identify continually investing in succession planning efforts — including identifying and training future talent resources — as a crucial endeavor, in tandem with keeping development policies nimble to adapt to changing needs.

That level of authenticity, according to the authors’ analysis, is at the very core of a solid employee value proposition — ensuring workers understand what is expected of them, and what will occur if they meet those benchmarks.

Based on the HBR article it is clear that ensuring talent was at the front and center of the leadership team’s agenda was a critical part of Jeff Smith’s BlackRock role, and — along with his work on the Human Capital Committee, which guided the company’s talent management practices — was an {A huge} undertaking.  The creation of the Human Capital Committee was a truly unique and impactful accomplishment and Jeff Smith — BlackRock’s former HR head for more than a decade – seemed, based on the HBR article, to play a large role in its formation. The point was to make the talent agenda leader-led and have respected leaders from businesses and geographies help to shape, drive, influence and promote all talent practices across the company.

Jeff Smith’s HR Philosophy 

To overcome challenges such as successfully maintaining a talent strategy, according to the Harvard Business Review article’s authors, operational efficiency is key; HR leaders also need to allow room for employees to work toward their individual career goals, and take global and local workplace considerations and management concerns into account.

Jeff Smith has always believed that if a manager can’t find the time to have a scheduled or spontaneous 30-minute get-together with a direct report per week, that person shouldn’t be leading those individuals.

“Having exceptional leaders and managers is huge for the day-to-day experience and people staying in a company,” Jeff Smith says. “Ensure leaders and managers spend time one-on-one with their employees; they are critical to provide a forum for people to express their views and feel part of the organization.”

HR professionals can help managers hone their approach by providing support and skill development — yet stopping short of assuming responsibility for some of the talent issues that are a managers’ responsibility, according to Smith, who was previously employed as a senior consultant at Personnel Decisions International and also served as the vice president of people development at Time Warner.

“Many leaders don’t like conflict and want you, as the HR person, to have all the conversations and do the tough stuff,” he says. “You need to balance this with developing the capability of leaders to give feedback; have difficult conversations — to learn to grow and develop their people and hold them accountable.”

Hiring the best possible HR candidates is important, as Jeff Smith’s human resources experience has taught him; he says establishing the department as a destination where top-quality professionals will be able to join the company and truly make an impact can be helpful.

Being an established, well-regarded and prosperous organization, too, can draw potential candidates.

“There is nothing like the success of a company to attract talent,” Smith says.

Several characteristics, he says, may indicate a candidate could be a highly effective human resources leader — including a deep understanding of what makes people excel in different roles and environments, for instance, and the ability to make difficult decisions and provide advice and counsel a broad range of constituents.

Curiosity, being a good listener, possessing an understanding of the business, and being able to advocate for the importance of the HR team’s involvement in strategy and operations can also be valuable, says Jeff Smith, HR executive and a dedicated member of the human resources profession, who also holds a Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology.

“HR is a business in its own right and literally enables most things that happen in a company,” he says. “Who you hire, creating performance standards, developing leaders, aligning incentives and compensation, and creating the right culture for the business and people to work and thrive — it is something that needs to be fought for.”

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