Selling HR: How to Get CEO Support

You can have wonderful ideas for HR programs, but if you can't convince the CEO to proceed, they don't mean anything. HR professionals, top executives and management experts who work frequently with CEOs share their observations.

John Shamley isn't the only HR manager who's had a program rejected after putting a lot of time into designing it and presenting it to the CEO. As frustrating as this kind of rejection is, it isn't the end of the world-although it sometimes can make you wonder if you're in the wrong business.

Shamley, however, who is VP of HR for Kentwood, Michigan-based Keeler Brass Automotive, doesn't get many rejections these days. His years of experience have taught him what it takes to win the boss over to his side. If he doesn't get everything he wants, he takes it in stride. "I really think that it's a normal part of doing business. If you want to do things that are new and innovative-things that you think will affect profitability in a positive way in the long term but may have a cost factor that will affect short-term profit-there can be difficulties," he says.

Learning to develop and present programs for approval is one of the most important development goals for rising HR professionals. The job of training them for the task often falls to the person who's in charge of running the function for the organization, often the VP of HR.

Ed Dunn, corporate VP of HR for Benton Harbor, Michigan-based Whirl-pool Corp., for example, often finds himself coaching less-experienced HR professionals so that they can present their proposals to the top executive. He says that people are almost paranoid about having to sell HR issues. "It speaks to the state of our profession," he says. For years HR has been trying to gain credibility with upper management. Now upper management acknowledges the importance of managing the work force, and it wants HR to provide programs. Dunn compares this situation to the scene in Jaws in which a man on the bow of a boat looks down at the shark and says, "We need a bigger boat." "HR needs a bigger boat," Dunn says.

Once you've built the bigger boat, many factors can influence your ability to get your program approved. Is the timing right? Does the benefit outweigh the costs? Will the culture of the organization allow it? Does it solve business problems?

To Download this Whitepaper, click on the following link to the EPIC Software web site, click on "Whitepapers" and then download Whitepaper Number 31: Selling HR - How to Get Great CEO Support.

http://www.epic-soft.com