Interviewer: Mariham Magdy
“When HR is not involved in decisions like this (either to bring or not to bring a consultant), for sure they would be suffering skepticism and doubts and for sure will push back against consultants…”
Sherif El-Ebrashy
Managing Director of Swift Services
INTRODUCTION
Throughout my career I have had the pleasure to meet and deal with a number of professionals managing different HR consultancy firms, responsible to provide a wide range of HR services aiming to support the business, and interpret the HR professionals’ strategies into authentic results.
When dealing with “Swift Services” you will find a very distinguished concept of HR consultancy provided by their professionals, inspired and led by their respectful Managing Director Mr. Sherif El-Ebrashy.
A personal support sincerely given to each HR professional they are dealing with considering him/her not only a partner of success, but also a member of their professional family aiming to support him/her with all means as a “Human” not only as a “Client” to achieve his/her professional fulfillment; this is how SWIFT SERVICES apply the real meaning of what we have learnt and studied in marketing “Capitalize on your customer experience”!
SWIFT SERVICES, are able to capitalize on your experience on all the steps of your dealing with them, simply because the GODFATHER of this HR firm Mr. Sherif El-Ebrashy, was so professional to decide simply to manage an HR business from an HR perspective unlike many others who choose to manage HR businesses from a sales perspective, although it is an HR Company.
THE INTERVIEW
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HR Revolution Middle East: Mr. Sherif it is really a great honor for me to interview your good-self and learn more from your valuable experience. Thanks a lot for accepting my invitation, and thanks more for inspiring the HR community with this respectful model you provide for an HR consultancy firm as it should be.Please let us know, how were you able to create such an authentic mission to SWIFT SERVICES? How could this supportive approach facilitate as well the mission of your clients themselves?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: Throughout my career in HR, the basic principle I grew up with, is that HR is a “Support Function”. To me, this means: we are here to support all company functions to achieve their business goals and mostly, the organization’s. These functions are the customers for HR who is acting as their people (employees) consultant; and the satisfaction of these customers is the prime “Key Performance Indictor” for HR.
HR has to come up with all it takes from the people’s perspectives that perfectly satisfy the customers. Designing supportive people policies, effective rewards systems as well as workable succession planning schemes and an effective recruiting processes, are just few examples of what HR has to design/implement to flawlessly help their customers/organization achieve their goals. Hence, if this is how we operate in a business environment, then it is quite obvious that this should be the norm and principles for how private consultants should operate.
Our mission was created simply to make sure that all of in Swift Services applying and before we proceed with any client our pre-visit research will involve getting into know their mission/values to understand their culture. Actually, as founders to structure our mission, we spent so many hours trying to see what others have defined and how can we create for ourselves a direction that make us different to the best we can, in the market.
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HR Revolution Middle East: As a seasoned HR professional with an extensive experience throughout the Middle-East & Africa not only “Egypt”; what major problems do these regions’ companies have in their HR SET-UP? And what crucial competencies do HR professionals need to have to be able to deal with these problems?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: Working in these regions was the highlight of my career; I was quite astounded by the diversity of the people and the richness of their culture which definitely impacts the way they operate their businesses. However, within the culture itself there are other factors that hinders the day-to-day activities; such are defined by the tribal influence and political arena. Specifically, in most of the African countries, you can find senior managers coming from the same tribe. Similarly, both a number of Middle Eastern and African countries, you may be forced by the political regime to hire or promote an individual and you have to bear the consequences if such was not carried out. The most common thing is that laws can be interpreted in many ways especially when it comes to labor laws.
As an HR practitioner, you can imagine how tough It is to manage such challenges, particularly if you are working in a multinational company with high ethical standards you cannot break. The key here is how strong top management are to never tolerate the professional integrity of the organization and support the HR endeavors. The HR manager has to fully understand the local environment and law and abide to it. Building on local capabilities is a key factor, do not try to think as something worked in country X will work in country B; adaptation or the word I would rather use is localizing world best practices.
Professionally, mingling with your local colleagues is a major support to get closer with your local colleagues and establish the necessary bonds with them and mostly gain their confidence. However, this can be double fold, as sometimes, they expect favors from you being their buddy.
Actively listening to your local colleagues and appreciate their experience is a vital competency that you need to demonstrate to them. Build on their experience and let them see that you jointly work things out, yet you are their “consultant/advisor” is equally important for your success.
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HR Revolution Middle East: One of the most attractive consultancies you associated yourself with is the “Organizational Climate Assessment”; I believe that this type of assessment is not very common in other HR firms’ services, although it can be an essential key to solve many organizational problems. Can you please explain for us how can Companies benefit when carrying on such type of assessment?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: Before I get into the details, let me explain what we mean by “Organization Climate – OC”. The simplest definition comes from the answer of “How is it like to work in this place?” in another term, it is the perception of how people generally feel about the workplace. Exactly like the weather, it is a perception; people have different opinion about how they feel about the weather and it is exactly the same thing people have different perception as to how they like the place of work. Let me elaborate, think about a nice weekend with clear skies perfect temperature, everybody will be happy and eager to go out and enjoy. On the other side, in a cold rainy weekend, people will be reluctant and feeling upset having to stay in door. Similarly, in the workplace, OC can have a significant impact on the motivation/demotivation of employees who work in the organization.
There are many factors that impacts the OC. Swift Services, evaluate the perception of employees based on six dimensions that is believed to have a significant impact on how they would feel about the workplace. These dimensions are:
- Team Spirit: The perception an individual has towards working together with his/her colleagues to achieve common goals, as well as the degree of trust and confidence between employees to one another as well as the organization.
- Alignment: The perception of the individual has towards the kind of knowledge and direction s/he has versus what organization expects from him/her and how the individual perceives his/her role and achievements versus the overall strategies of the organization.
- Rewards/Recognition: The perception an individual has about how s/he are being rewarded and recognized in proportion of his/her actual accomplishments and the results s/he achieve.
- Accountabilities: The perception an individual has towards the confidence and opportunities the organization give him/her to make their own decisions and still be accountable for the results/he achieve and how far s/he feel about the authority delegated.
- Organization Process: The perceptions an individual has about the kind of procedures, policies and general processes prevailing in this organization, and how far they support/hinder his/her achievements or help/prevent him/her to do work smoothly; it also involves how far s/he can take calculated risks and be creative.
The OC Assessment comes in a form of an anonymous, two-sets-questionnaire that detects answers on how an individual perceive the current/actual climate; while the second set assesses how the individual perceives, if s/he have the choice, what the ideal climate looks like. The organization here has the choice to assess the organization as whole, the climate as perceived by the first level supervisors versus senior managers or any set up that senior management want.
However, the process is by far more complicated than just filling and scoring a questionnaire; it involves meticulous analyses through the answer of each question that is done and reported by Swift Services. The most important part of the analysis involves a facilitated session/s involving senior management and the individuals who responded. The facilitator through a systematic scenario help all to draw the real facts of the results and clearly identify the gaps between the “Actual” and “Ideal” situation for each of the six dimensions. By the end of the session, the whole team identifies the priority dimension/s that critically impacts the performance of the organization; they also work out a detailed Action Plan that will help reduce the gap/s.
OC by all mean cannot be done except if senior management are committed and are in full support for the results, the team who responded and mostly to the action plan created. Swift Services consultants will not proceed unless they are fully comfortable that such commitment exists.
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HR Revolution Middle East: From your point of view when an HR department decides to deal with an external consultancy firm, how can this impact the overall experience of the department as well as that of the organization?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: The angle I am looking at here is that the firm has decided to outsource a segment of the HR function, not just for a certain short-term task or to conduct a study, etc. This decision, of course, can have a very positive side economically and in enhancing the efficiency of HR through only focusing on the core side of their business i.e. having valuable time to think more strategically on other elements of how to support the overall business. The individuals who were involved in the outsourcing decision, for sure have gained substantial experience going through the process prior the decision as well as in monitoring the consultant and ensuring that s/he are meeting expectations. However, on the other side, when a segment/s of the function disappears through outsourcing, you lose internal experience to be gained and the buildup of the long-term bench-strength for HR. This is because you may be losing the diversity of HR experience within the department.
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HR Revolution Middle East: Why do you think some HR professionals when leading their departments in certain organizations, refrain from dealing with external consultants? What fears might they have from this approach and could this have a positive or negative effect on the Organization overall experience?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: This is quite a natural feeling of security, especially during economic crises as companies may be going through downsizing or other activates; these individuals also may fear that the consultants may replace them.
However, to decide either to bring or not to bring a consultant has to come based on a very thorough thinking process and for absolutely valid reasons with the consensus of all people who should be part of it, including HR. When HR is not involved in decisions like this, for sure they would be suffering skepticism and doubts and for sure will push back against consultants.
In my view, the HR leader should not be drowned in the day-to-day routine, s/he should be always involved with senior management and demonstrate their full capabilities as their partners/advisors based on full alignment with full clear cut objectives; so, when a decision like this is processed they become partners of it not implementing it; even if this will lead to bringing eternal consultants.
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HR Revolution Middle East: What piece of advice would you give to HR professionals when choosing an external consultancy firm to deal with? What points they have to consider before selection?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: The most important question to be answered is “Why We Need To Bring A Consultant?” If there is no answer do not bring one.
My assumption is that thorough analysis was made to evaluate should the organization bring-in a consultant; and there has been a number of valid indicators that led to the decision. These indicators are defined as the Key Performance Indicators “KPIs”. HR should go first in analyzing/assessing these KPIs and have them as their check-list that will dominate their process of identifying/selecting the consultant and evaluating the success of the mission.
I will not tackle the procurement/references and past history checking process normally done when selecting a consultant, my strongest recommendation, is that you should conduct an in-depth interview with the consultants to assess their experience and capabilities, through conducting “A Behavior Event Interviewing – BEI Process”: and the KIPs are like the competencies you are detecting when interviewing a candidate. BEI will help you validate all the information obtained from the consultant. Fair hearing for all the pool of consultants to be allowed before you short-list.
Another important element, is that when the final contract is drawn, specific KPIs has be listed and agreed upon i.e. how success looks like, with detailed time-table; check-points to signal progress towards goals to be able to step-in if needed; clear cuts for “who-will-do-what & when” has to be clearly defined; what are the resources i.e. facilities/information provided by the organization is needed and when. Obviously, financial elements and various payments along the way has to be made against the achievement of these KPIs.
Once again, the most important angle in this whole exercise is how the organization represented by its HR will partner with the consultant. Partnership in terms of genuinely working together and supporting one another; of course not doing the job for the consultant but to be aligned together.
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HR Revolution Middle East: Throughout your experience Mr. Sherif, how was it common to find that the processes & procedures of an organization were a main reason to hinder her success & fulfillment? What points shall organizations consider when designing their internal processes in order to encourage achievement & what success stories have you witnessed in this regards?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: In my view, process and procedures (P&P) are roadmaps to achieve business results; in a way they shape the culture of the organization; they are also a framework as to how things link together in the organization i.e. what to do in a certain situation and how to do it; they should contribute to speaking one common language. They should be there for the sustainability and continuity of the business; people move and leave, and they are there.
However, I said earlier P&P can be a tremendous be a major element in supporting/hindering the climate of the organization; that is why they need to be instantly reviewed to ensure alignment with existing business drivers.
I have realized through many instances that P&P were not the problem at all as claimed during an assessment. The real problem was the people interpreting P&P; especially among the old-timers, who normally tend to let P&P act as the buffer for their decisions particularly when nobody is challenging them.
To avoid this, pertinent individuals in the organization should conduct full alignment session to explain P&P in details and mostly periodic reviews to be done to ensure validity.
It is quite common that the big gap or grey area comes in the P&P related to HR; the promotion/reward process etc. Here absolute transparency is required in explaining them. If necessary, conduct training programs to ensure proper implementation.
I was involved with one organization identified quite a number of unnecessary P&Ps that did not only slowed down the business but also was about to destroy the team spirit due to lack of trust a result of P&P misinterpretation, so people had to put everything in writing to protect themselves. One of the solutions implemented was to stop inter-office communication completely except when absolutely needed a new concept was derived “go directly to your colleague, speak to him/her and solve issues together”. Of course all the P&P were reviewed and only the must-have was left. The business results started to improve tremendously.
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HR Revolution Middle East: One of the services I see SWIFT provides is the set-up of strategic Mission, Vision, and value statement; how often do you meet business leaders & HR professionals who have a real conception for the interrelated relationship between the business vision & mission statements and their role in realizing tangible achievement?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: Nowadays not that much as the assumption most of the companies by now have their own. That was something coming a trend, years ago particularly when it was a must-have item for quality endeavors i.e. ISO, etc.
It is a facilitated sequential process that guides the business owners to identify what is the vision, mission and values (VMV) of the organization; as well as to design together the process of how to communicate that through the organization.
VMV is the organization, the language spoken… VMV defines where the organization is going and how it will achieve its results. VMV tell the world what is the organization.
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HR Revolution Middle East: Finally what valuable piece of advice would you give to HR professionals, newly assigned as regional managers and have to deal with and care for people from different nationalities? How can they achieve this role efficiently, since you have already been in this challenge before for a long time with different Companies & in different regions?
Sherif El-Ebrashy: This is quite a holistic approach i.e. you need understand the culture and laws of the host country (home office of the company) as well as the countries involved by-heart. Not only as numbers or words but mostly as people, their history, traditions/culture education system etc. This is from a generic side, to be more specific, you need to fully understand the business your company is doing in your region: what are the current/future business drivers, who are the business partners and how influential they are on your company. These are just few issues HR has to know because they can impact your regional people strategies/decisions.
The most serious aspect of your role is your partnership not only with your local HR contacts but also with local management in these countries. They have to understand your role is to fully support them make better business decisions through your professional competencies. Your local HR colleagues are your strategic partners; do not underestimate them, you need them not matter how you feel about it; capitalize on their experience and competencies.