Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HR Consulting
HR Consulting
HR Consulting
NASA HR University
January 16,2008
Stephanie Spence Diamond
Human Capital Strategist
NASA Headquarters
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Human Resources Management Division
Objectives
Identify the key skills needed for effective HR
consulting
Explore the 5 phases of the consulting process
Elements of a successful entry meeting
Effective requests and responses
How to say No when you must
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What is a Consultant?
Client: What time is it?
Consultant: What time do you want it to
be?
What is a Consultant?
Client: What time is it?
Consultant: Give me your watch and I
will tell you.
Interventions
The goal or end product of any consulting activity
Two types of interventions
Technical Skills:
Interpersonal Skills:
Consulting Skills
When things go astray, its often because the initial contracting stage
was faulty.
Core transaction of any consulting contract is the transfer of expertise
from the consultant to the client.
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Phase Three:
Feedback and Decision to
Act/Planning
The HR Consultant must be able to reduce a large amount of
data to a manageable number of issues.
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Phase Five:
Evaluation, Extension, Termination
Evaluate the main event/implementation.
Hold a lessons learned meeting with the client.
Determine if there will be an extension of the project/process to a
larger segment of the organization.
Sometimes it is not until after some implementation occurs that a clear
picture of the real problem emerges.
Process recycles and a new contract needs to be discussed.
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Results Sought
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Clarification Questions
Effective Requests
Have you ever felt that you asked for something and ended up
feeling let down because the person you made the request of
doesnt deliver? We may hold another responsible for following
through on something they dont believe they have agreed to do.
Or others can think that of us.
The reason is frequently that we havent been clear about the 3
major elements of requests:
Name exactly what you action you want.
Specify whom you want it from.
State the conditions of satisfaction
Standards of completeness;
Cost;
Number of people involved;
Timeframe;
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Accept
Decline
Counter offer
Commit to reply later
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Know what you can and cant do. Get clear with yourself whether you need
to say yes or no.
Be gracious. Do what you can to cushion the blow.
Take your time. Saying no usually takes longer than saying yes. Do not be
abrupt. Do not hurry.
Dont say No via e-mail. People need a more personal contact when receiving
a no.
Explain why you must say no. A no is not a no without justification or
explanation.
Make the customer feel you are on the same side. Talk in terms of we
rather than you or me.
Say no to everyone the same way. With total honesty and total kindness.
Be persistent with your no. Dont be intimidated.
Yet be open to new facts, logic, and reasoning. Yield only to objective criteria,
not the will of the client.
Hold to the issue. Do not make up excuses or let the customer change the
issue.
Offer real alternatives. Dont leave the disappointed client hanging with a
simple no. I wish I could do that for you, but unfortunately I cant. Here are
some things, though, that I can do
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Case Study
The Technical Division wants to
reactivate/enhance its intern program,
particularly in the science/engineering areas.
The head of the organization has recently joined
NASA from another federal agency which had a
very active outreach and recruitment program.
How would you consult with this organization to
develop and implement a recruitment approach
and strategy?
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In Summary
HR Professionals function as process consultants every
day
You have learned some tips about being effective
collaborative consultants
We can also apply these tips in our daily interactions
with each within HRMD as clients to each other
Primary resource: Flawless Consulting A Guide To
Getting Your Expertise Used by Peter Block
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