There is ongoing debate about what value Human Resources (HR) can and does contribute to business strategy and transformational change, and why HR practitioners appear to fall short in delivering on expectations in this area.
Having led people-related strategy and transformational change for many years, both from within and from outside of HR functions, I think there are five key areas in which HR can make a significant difference to the delivery of effective strategy and change. To be effective however HR needs to be involved and influential from the very beginning of the strategy and change process.
What value can HR add?
Here are my 5 key areas where HR can make a difference to support effective strategy development, implementation, transformational change, and performance improvement in organisations.
1. Combine evidence-based research with practical experience and humanise the approach to strategy and change
Research in psychology, sociology, management and human resources highlights the complexity of the dynamics affecting human behaviour, people and culture and what this means for leadership and organisational effectiveness.
It is also an area where the latest fads can be more attractive than evidence-based research. Those who need formulas, predictability and black and white solutions are likely to be sadly disappointed or, worse still, become seduced by one of the latest fashionable ideas. Those fads that fit people into a mechanistic or quasi-financial model of “human capital” are particularly attractive to many people.
However we can get far better results if we humanise change and accept the wonderful complexity of people and performance in organisations rather than mistakenly believe we can put people into linear processes and get the best results. Because strategy often involves an over-reliance on rationality and figures, it can easily fail to tap into the underutilised potential of people at all levels in organisations to deliver exponentially better results when they have the opportunity to contribute and make a difference.
2. Take an enterprise-wide view of the people and culture dynamics and opportunities
Human Resources has access to an across-organisation view and data on people and culture issues. When this is combined with the best of global research and experience, human resources is in a position to provide insight into opportunities and roadblocks to support more effective business strategy and change.
The proliferation of standardised formulaic “workforce plans” (the people component of the business plan), the incidence of HR not having a seat at the top table or on boards, and the pressure on HR to turn the people dimension of organisational performance into a version of finance – “human capital” - suggests all is not well however.
HR is often only involved for operational support during implementation and ends up dealing with problems that could have been avoided if people and culture had been designed into the approach from the start.
3. Engage and influence people so change and innovation works
Conversations, stories, breaking down silos and connecting people are critical elements in engaging people and supporting innovation and change. Expertise to help leaders in these areas falls somewhere between human resources, change management, and communications in organisations and is critical to effective strategy and transformation.
In major transformations this responsibility often gets outsourced to change managers, and away from HR and people leaders, allowing both areas to abrogate their responsibility as leaders of people-related change.
For strategy and change to be effective, there is a need for leaders to deal with the reality that people are emotional and social beings. Human beings use stories to make sense of the world, they develop powerful human networks of influence that circumvent organisational structures, and they have a sense of fair process that is very important in getting their buy in to change. Such factors should be built into any change process from the start and HR should be helping with this.
4. Align the internal and external customer experience
Are people who are employees somehow different to people who are customers? With so much focus now on the customers’ experience, there seems to be little connection made between the customer experience of service and the employees’ experience of internal service and culture. Human beings have a fantastically honed “bullshit” detector. If the way they are treated in their jobs from internal service providers like HR, IT, Finance and their managers gives them the message that people don’t count, why would they believe that another category of people (customers) do count?
Leveraging returns from the alignment of the internal employee experience of service delivery with the targeted external customer experience is a significant areas of opportunity that is still largely untapped.
5. HR as a role model in shaping culture and service delivery
HR is a key internal service provider in may areas that create an impression for staff about what is important and valued about people in the organisation. As such HR is a role model in shaping the internal culture and the experience of what good service looks and feels like. This ranges from the experience of HR processes such as the recruitment and selection process through to more complex experiences such as how people are valued and engaged in major organisational change that affects their jobs and their lives.
HR helps to shape the culture and the employment experience and needs to consider whether its own processes and service delivery reinforce the business strategy and the espoused customer service culture and experience.
These five areas are complex and there are no magic bullet solutions for success. But if HR has no seat at the strategy and transformation table from the start and has no opportunity to explore, learn and contribute to what works and what doesn’t, we can expect little improvement in the statistics of an 80% failure rate in the delivery of strategy and transformational change.
So how is your organisation faring?
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Mentor | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan provides consultancy advice, mentoring, program leadership and interim executive support to leaders and organisations where there is a need to challenge the status quo, engage people, shift culture and lift performance.
Having led people-related strategy and transformational change for many years, both from within and from outside of HR functions, I think there are five key areas in which HR can make a significant difference to the delivery of effective strategy and change. To be effective however HR needs to be involved and influential from the very beginning of the strategy and change process.
What value can HR add?
Here are my 5 key areas where HR can make a difference to support effective strategy development, implementation, transformational change, and performance improvement in organisations.
1. Combine evidence-based research with practical experience and humanise the approach to strategy and change
Research in psychology, sociology, management and human resources highlights the complexity of the dynamics affecting human behaviour, people and culture and what this means for leadership and organisational effectiveness.
It is also an area where the latest fads can be more attractive than evidence-based research. Those who need formulas, predictability and black and white solutions are likely to be sadly disappointed or, worse still, become seduced by one of the latest fashionable ideas. Those fads that fit people into a mechanistic or quasi-financial model of “human capital” are particularly attractive to many people.
However we can get far better results if we humanise change and accept the wonderful complexity of people and performance in organisations rather than mistakenly believe we can put people into linear processes and get the best results. Because strategy often involves an over-reliance on rationality and figures, it can easily fail to tap into the underutilised potential of people at all levels in organisations to deliver exponentially better results when they have the opportunity to contribute and make a difference.
2. Take an enterprise-wide view of the people and culture dynamics and opportunities
Human Resources has access to an across-organisation view and data on people and culture issues. When this is combined with the best of global research and experience, human resources is in a position to provide insight into opportunities and roadblocks to support more effective business strategy and change.
The proliferation of standardised formulaic “workforce plans” (the people component of the business plan), the incidence of HR not having a seat at the top table or on boards, and the pressure on HR to turn the people dimension of organisational performance into a version of finance – “human capital” - suggests all is not well however.
HR is often only involved for operational support during implementation and ends up dealing with problems that could have been avoided if people and culture had been designed into the approach from the start.
3. Engage and influence people so change and innovation works
Conversations, stories, breaking down silos and connecting people are critical elements in engaging people and supporting innovation and change. Expertise to help leaders in these areas falls somewhere between human resources, change management, and communications in organisations and is critical to effective strategy and transformation.
In major transformations this responsibility often gets outsourced to change managers, and away from HR and people leaders, allowing both areas to abrogate their responsibility as leaders of people-related change.
For strategy and change to be effective, there is a need for leaders to deal with the reality that people are emotional and social beings. Human beings use stories to make sense of the world, they develop powerful human networks of influence that circumvent organisational structures, and they have a sense of fair process that is very important in getting their buy in to change. Such factors should be built into any change process from the start and HR should be helping with this.
4. Align the internal and external customer experience
Are people who are employees somehow different to people who are customers? With so much focus now on the customers’ experience, there seems to be little connection made between the customer experience of service and the employees’ experience of internal service and culture. Human beings have a fantastically honed “bullshit” detector. If the way they are treated in their jobs from internal service providers like HR, IT, Finance and their managers gives them the message that people don’t count, why would they believe that another category of people (customers) do count?
Leveraging returns from the alignment of the internal employee experience of service delivery with the targeted external customer experience is a significant areas of opportunity that is still largely untapped.
5. HR as a role model in shaping culture and service delivery
HR is a key internal service provider in may areas that create an impression for staff about what is important and valued about people in the organisation. As such HR is a role model in shaping the internal culture and the experience of what good service looks and feels like. This ranges from the experience of HR processes such as the recruitment and selection process through to more complex experiences such as how people are valued and engaged in major organisational change that affects their jobs and their lives.
HR helps to shape the culture and the employment experience and needs to consider whether its own processes and service delivery reinforce the business strategy and the espoused customer service culture and experience.
These five areas are complex and there are no magic bullet solutions for success. But if HR has no seat at the strategy and transformation table from the start and has no opportunity to explore, learn and contribute to what works and what doesn’t, we can expect little improvement in the statistics of an 80% failure rate in the delivery of strategy and transformational change.
So how is your organisation faring?
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Mentor | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan provides consultancy advice, mentoring, program leadership and interim executive support to leaders and organisations where there is a need to challenge the status quo, engage people, shift culture and lift performance.