Creating A Business Case For HR Staffing

So much of the time we look through the lens of our past experiences without even realizing it.

Being raised by a single mother working two (or more) jobs, receiving my first introduction to "business" in the tightly funded military, earning my HR business partner wings in a small but growing privately held family business and now practicing HR in a federally funded organization - I view money through a rather conservative lens.

It impacts my approach to HR staffing.

Using the word "approach" denotes that something is a conscious decision and that's not accurate in this case. Most of the time, it is so ingrained in what I do, that I am not even aware of it.

HR staffing, for me, is an elusive, rubber-band dynamic between fiscal responsibility and service. I tend to do everything I can to make due with what we have until we can't do it anymore. By the time I accept that we can't do it anymore, my staff are on the window ledge preparing to jump.

The HR staffing ratio goal in the Federal sector is 1 HR Specialist for every 80 employees, my staffing ratio is about 1:150 and the optimum number for my department (and me) is somewhere in between.

Notice how I ever so smoothly inserted "and me" in there.

For the good or the bad of it, I am a pivotal part of the equation. I won't (I can't) stand before my colleagues, peers and boss and and ask for something that I don't believe in or can't support. And, because of my lens, I know that I get in my own way.

So, can you imagine interest when our headquarters sent out a request for volunteers to develop a business case for HR staffing in our agency? 

Long story short, I am on the workgroup. We will start by identifying data we can gather and factors to consider in developing business model. I vision the model as a resource available to all facility HR offices and not a prescriptive "if a than b" model.

Since HR is not one-size-fits-all, the "factors to consider" will be key. Mike Haberman has some great info in his post, The HR Ratio or "How Many Employees Does It Take To Screw Up an HR Department?"

And now I am itching for more. Help me me look smart. More importantly, help me see past my staffing lens.

Tell me, what resources, guides, models, tips or factors to consider would you include in a business case for HR staffing? 

Life Out Of Control

Monday morning. 5:14 am.

I am in Gmail sending a message to two of my cohorts in crime Shauna Moerke and Trish McFarlane. We are scheduled to be on HR Happy Hour this Thursday to dish about this powerful, break the mold, build community, recognize leadership, kind of thing we call Women of HR.

Women of HR is a multi-contributor, multi-voice, multi-gender (ok, two gender) blog about women, business, the issues that effect women and how women are making it all work.

How do women make it all work?

It's not always easy, it's not always pretty and it doesn't always work but it's real, it's honest, and it's inspiring.

I was not feeling too inspired this morning.

I have a conflict on Thursday night. My husband is being recognized for kadoodles of years of service and the dinner is right during HR Happy Hour. I didn't put all of this together until Sunday night as I was looking for a sitter for the kid, doing laundry, and getting my thoughts and notes together for the show (on the date I helped to set nonetheless).
 
HR Happy Hour can go on without me. I may be able to dial in from the dinner, I can give my cohorts my notes and, no matter what, I know they will represent us well.

So, my frazzle it's not really about that. It's about me not putting 2 and 2 together until Sunday night. It's about my days being held together by the wisp of a string. It's about the teeter. It's about the totter.

It's about waiting for it all to come tumbling down, which I know won't happen, because I simply won't let it happen.

I am a Woman of HR.

Now, do me a favor and go check us out now. We're awesome!