WHO ARE HR’s CUSTOMERS

What Customer?
For HR to become more effective as a function and as individual players, the most critical question to be resolved is often: Who is HR's customer? It's a question which rarely is asked because everyone assumes the answer is obvious. But when you ask different people in HR, you get different answers. It's no surprise that many of the actions that HR units initiate are confusing (or downright infuriating) to the organization. The question of who the real customer is, often the most difficult and the most impactful decision an HR professional can make. It's a classical double-blind problem. Most "don't know what they don't know." Most don't even realize they should be dealing with the question. What makes the question even more troublesome is that there's no right answer. There are competing right answers. It's a classical dilemma. You're damned if you pick one and damned if you pick the other. Picking either has opposite advantages and disadvantages. But you also can't avoid making the choice. To not choose consciously and to not communicate a choice clearly guarantees that an HR unit will get caught in paradoxical situations as illustrated throughout this story.

Stakeholders Vs customers:
The distinction between different types of stakeholders is also one which is often fuzzy and problematic for HR and other internal staff units, and contributes to the problems in the classification of HR’s customers. Globally stakeholders are divided into four categories. Customers, influencers, end-users and partners.
•Customers: A customer makes a buying decision (to use you or someone else) and negotiates a formal or informal "contract" with you, the service provider.
•End-users: An end-user (sometimes called a consumer) receives the service.
•Influencers: An influencer sets the parameters within which you can or must operate, but doesn't buy the service.
•Partners: A partner works with you to provide a service. With partners you have mutual need, common objectives and shared risk related to that service.
What makes it difficult is that sometimes different stakeholders in your marketplace switch roles for different projects or demands they're making. So HR has to be careful to know not only what the HR business strategy is, but what role they're in at the time and what your commitments to the stakeholders are in that role. Remember, all of them make demands, but only a trained HR leader in place at the time can sort out these issues, plan an appropriate response and know what the appropriate limits, possibilities and flexibilities need to be
-Anshumali Saxena www.soilindia.net