By Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP

It was not SO long ago, there stood a general consensus that each of our behaviors was somehow localized in our brains. Our every behavior and thought process was categorized and housed in a specific area, which was solely responsible for the administration of its designated behavior.

As we grew to understand each other and ourselves more, it became apparent that the brain was much more complex than a compartmentalized clearing house for our behaviours. Eventually, it was realized that our thoughts, feelings and behaviours were intricately networked within the synaptic confines of our brains.

Perhaps as an extension of this thinking, the economic world similarly viewed its businesses as composed of isolated compartments working toward the common goal of profit maximization. There is a reason, it turns out.

A neuroscientist in Michael Shermer’s The Mind of the Market is quoted as saying, “in order to make progress in science we need to simplify and abstract, especially when studying complex systems.”

However, perhaps we’re losing sight of the benefits of complexity by oversimplifying our workplaces…

In today’s economic world, we continue to simplify the interconnectedness and complexity that arises from the traditional business units of an organization. We see Human Resources, Marketing, Accounting, IT and Finance (among other disciplines) as isolated specialties working toward a greater purpose. Unfortunately, this cannot be our mode of thinking as we progress to an increasingly connected and competitive economic landscape.

Movers and shakers have taken notice. Take this quote from the article ‘We’re all marketers now’, in the third installment of this year’s McKinsey Quarterly:

“At companies where the marketing organization’s responsibilities will be split between core and distributed activities, CMOs will increasingly be held accountable for the performance of groups that don’t report solely to them. When CEOs ask for the marketing-org chart, they will see a complex web of solid- and dotted-line relationships showing the roles that marketing plays in designing, building, or operating touch points across the whole organization.”

McKinsey research further suggests that a fully networked organization outperforms other network types, so HR (and the rest of business) must take notice.

The cross-functionality of marketing illustrates the shift to a more internally connected business, which increases adaptability and responsiveness of organizations in hyper competitive markets.

As we grow to understand our organizations and our stakeholders more, it’s easy to see that HR needs to be similarly interconnected to properly align and achieve broader purposes.

Here are some ideas to help interconnect HR and move it away from the silo-istic philosophies of yesterday:

• Plant HR representatives in other functions, acting as specialists/advisors to each process or project – over time, acceptance of people practice philosophies will become embedded into every task, process and system that makes up an organization;
• Use communications channels (chat, IM, texting) to create a robust communication link from other disciplines to HR; and
• Create an social media network for the purpose of internal communications (i.e., Facebook chat among employees; Google+ Circles for the workplace).

How can your organization spread the HR love?

Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP, is the membership and CHRP administrator at BC HRMA. After several gruelling years in school, Nilesh graduated in October 2010 from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, First Class Honours. He majored in Human Resources Management and tacked on an extended minor in Psychology. He’s a self-confessed nerd (the first step is admitting), likes to read, loves hockey and is struggling with the complexities of learning the game of golf.