Hunting for Human Resources

Pardon us while we plagiarize ourselves: “It’s incredible, but even promotion’s biggest agencies typically do not have a human resources department dedicated to finding, training, and retaining quality talent.”

That was just a toss-off from our October screed, but the issue deserves a column of its own. One of the biggest gripes in the promotion business is that there’s a lack of quality people available for hire. A major causative factor of promotion’s talent dearth is that too few promotion agencies have evolved their human resources functions beyond the basics.

We thought it would be illuminating to get the perspectives of some folks who take the human resources function seriously, who see it as a pivotal factor in the continued successes of their fast-growing companies. We spoke with individuals at agencies small (QLM); medium (J. Brown/ LMC Group); and large (Frankel).

Our first question was, “At which point should an agency formalize a human resources department?” QLM president Bob Lipsky thinks the function should be in place from the beginning. “When we had about 10 people, we had someone handling human resources, but it was not nearly as sophisticated as it is now.”

J.Brown/LMC Group cfo Jim Plattner says a human resources department should begin to take formal shape when the agency numbers about 20 employees. “We’ve had a human resources department for as long as I can remember,” he says, noting that staying on top of legal issues and limiting the agency’s exposure are key reasons to formalize the function.

Lipsky agrees: “The legal complexities of today’s world are such that I don’t think you can run a business without an HR department.”

At Frankel, where the Chicago office population totals about 750, Chris Shoemaker, vp of human resources, heads a department of 13 people. Shoemaker herself has been in human resources for 13 years and has a degree in the subject. When she arrived at Frankel in 1989, the HR department numbered just three people. Before that, an office manager did the hiring and new employee orientation, with other company officers involved in recruiting.

“The reason we’ve put a lot of resources into people is that the job market has never been tighter,” Shoemaker says. “It’s so difficult to attract and retain really talented people. We need to have a dedicated focus on HR to do that.”

Of course, it’s not necessary to build a large HR department like Frankel’s to attain an adequate level of human resources sophistication. At both QLM and J. Brown/LMC, HR is a department of one. “You can have a great HR group exist in one person, depending on the agency size, of course, if that person has the right experience and training,” says Plattner. “Having more human resources people will not necessarily widen your pool of applicants.”

What the HR department does certainly is far more critical than how big it is. At its most rudimentary, the human resources function deals with “tangible” issues – like benefits – which are fairly standard and nearly always considered a given by current and prospective employees.

The real edge is realized in the realm of the “intangibles,” those extra-special cultural comforts or psychic rewards the agency offers. On-the-job development is one such reward, says Shoemaker.

“We’ve got recruiting down, but now we’ve got to have people learn and grow on the job,” she says. Lipsky says that QLM has what it calls a “coaching program,” an outside person who is “coaching people on how to handle personal, family, and business issues.

Take the human resources issue all the way up the food chain and you ultimately arrive at the all-important matter of the agency’s “vision.” We see something less than total agreement that human resources folks should be involved in determining long-term strategic organizational issues.

“Human resources should take direction from senior management, from the people who are setting the agency’s strategic direction,” holds Plattner.

Lipsky essentially concurs: “I view the HR function more as the implementation, rather than the leadership, of where our long-term strategic vision is headed.”

The perspective is slightly different at Frankel, where Shoemaker says the HR department is “very involved” in the company’s vision. “I sat in on a vision strategy task force,” she explains. “We not only need to be really strong and developed HR people, but we also have to be really smart about what is going on in the agency.”

We need more of that kind of thinking in the promotion business today. Too often, the department of human resources amounts to little more than the department of missed opportunities.

Think about that the next time you start complaining about the lack of talent in our industry.