Define Success Before Someone Else Does

How can you prove to your boss you are doing a good job? While I know most of those in the blogosphere can readily rattle off metrics and measures to define success I still see too many HR professionals floating in the wind as far as their basic HR duties. On the basest level many HR pros simply are reactive to the wills of their partner managers and because they meet their needs after they ask they say they are doing well. Here is a tip: If you cannot define success and how you measure it; YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! While their are many subjective aspects to good HR management, if you have absolutely no measures based on cold hard cash you are setting yourself up for failure.

If you really want to succeed in the HR arena you have to prove that you are saving the company money or adding value in some way. Talk to your manager about what his/her priorities are and add to those priorities your expertise on what HR needs to manage to accomplish or execute those priorities. Some people call this an HR scorecard, I simply call this being proactive verses reactive. Define early what exceptable turnover ratios are and track those numbers, do the same for retention. There has to be someone in your organization who can tell you what acceptable numbers are and, if not, make some up by using your business knowledge about where your organization is in the market and what it's goals are.

Business people like to talk in money. While HR pros tend to opt out of this means of conversation, it really is to our detriment despite any high and mighty ego we have. It takes some work but an ROI can be ballparked for almost anything. Sometimes starting with the goal helps as well, such as wanting to increase employee engagement by %30 thereby (insert study here) increasing profit levels and efficiency apropriately.

If your boss is distant from HR processes develop the metrics you would like to be evaluated on and start the conversation based on those metrics. He/She can never say that you didn't fulfill their expectations if you are that forward with what you think is important and force them to either accept or change those metrics.

It is good to be flexible, but if all you do is react in your HR job you are doomed to failure.