Not all VPs and the departments they represent are equal: Attend an executive meeting and the pecking order quickly becomes apparent. And Human Resources is often one of those getting pecked.

It doesn’t make much sense since the success of every organization depends on its people, a fact many like to claim with little evidence that they believe it. As a result, the people responsible for recruiting, hiring, training, retaining, engaging, protecting, motivating, and satisfying employees do not get the respect they deserve for the critical jobs they are doing.

That’s why HR needs Baldrige: The Baldrige model values the workforce. As the Baldrige Criteria state, “An organization’s success depends increasingly on an engaged workforce that benefits from meaningful work, clear organizational direction, and performance accountability and that has a safe, trusting, and cooperative environment.”

Organizations that integrate Baldrige value their people and they value Human Resources for its ability to build an engaged workforce, provide meaningful work, align with a clear organizational direction, establish a performance accountability system, and create a supportive work environment. As an organization integrates Baldrige, HR’s stock rises.

Workforce Focus is one of seven categories addressed by the Baldrige Criteria. You cannot score poorly in this category and claim to be integrating Baldrige. The category asks how you engage your workforce and how you build an effective and supportive workforce environment. Specific questions ask about your processes for communication, diversity, performance management, learning and development, career progression, assessing satisfaction and engagement, assessing capabilities and capacity, health and safety, services and benefits, and other HR areas. How effectively do you address these areas? How repeatable are your processes? How widely deployed are they? How do you improve them? By asking and answering these questions, Human Resources can strengthen the workforce—and HR’s value to the organization.

Yet Baldrige asks more of Human Resources than the questions in one category. HR needs Baldrige because it demands contributions from Human Resources at the highest levels of the organization:

• You need to know and communicate what factors motivate employees to engage in accomplishing your mission.

• You need to help senior leaders:
  • Communicate your organization’s mission, vision, and values to the workforce
  • Promote legal and ethical behavior throughout the organization
  • Create an environment for organizational and workforce learning
  • Develop and enhance their personal leadership skills
  • Communicate with and engage the entire workforce
  • Participate in reward and recognition programs

• You need to support your employees’ ability to contribute to your key communities.

• During strategic planning, you need to add the HR perspective on:
  • Your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as they relate to your workforce
  • Shifts or trends related to Human Resources that may affect the strategic plan
  • The long-term sustainability of your organization
  • The workforce’s ability to execute the strategic plan

• You need to identify the key human resource plans needed to accomplish the strategic plan, taking into account the potential impact of the plan and the potential impact of any changes in your workforce.

• You need to make sure employees who interact with customers know the requirements for those interactions.

• You need to ensure that employees know how to use data and information to manage and improve their processes.

This is human resources from a systems perspective. An HR department that can add value in all of these areas becomes an indispensable partner in the organization’s plans.

That’s why HR needs Baldrige.

To learn how you can put your organization on the Baldrige path, click here.

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