How HR can position itself as a leader in the context of wider business transformation, and become a driving force for strategic organisational change.

HR as a supporting function

For too long, HR has been viewed by the c-suite as being a predominantly transactional, admin-based function within organisations. But, times have changed, as has the HR function, along with the capabilities they house.

When businesses decide to embark on a change programme, the biggest impact is usually on the people within the business. While the CHRO might have a seat at the table, in years gone by the HR function has been viewed as the ‘facilitator’ for taking an organisation from A to B; reactive in nature to operational changes, ensuring compliance with people matters.

Fast-forward 20+ years, from when David Ulrich introduced the woking world to the ‘business partner’ model, HR departments all over have evolved into strategic hubs.

Shifting From ‘Facilitator’ to ‘Strategic Driver’

Over time, HR has had to evolve and build capability, and funcationality, to support more complex and broader business initiatives. But, how do HR go from being supportive in nature, to leading the charge on organisational change? There are a few areas that companies should look to build additional capability:

• Cross-functional collaboration: HR’s most important relationship should be with Finance. People are oftent the biggest cost, and Finance control those costs. Between HR and Finance, an organisation will have visibility of all people related costs, by BU, locations, cost-centres etc., as well as measurement and monitoring of overall productivity levels.
• Analytics: Developing a suite of real-time people analytics is crucial in putting HR on the front foot. Being able to review the workforce and identify trends, produce gap analysis, attrition and more, specifically to business areas, puts HR firmly in control and being in the know ahead of anyone else.
• Strategic Workforce Management & Planning: Metrics and dashboards are all well and good, but what use are they if not providing insights and without being actionable? Aligning the workforce to organisational strategy is paramount to success. Leaders should be reviewing the workforce landscape at all times, in dynamic fashion, advising and recommending solutions for optimisation and improvements at every opportunity.

To summarise – building relationships, analytical capability, and implementing a strategic workforce management approach are just a few steps that HR leaders and teams can take in taking their function from being the supporting function, to being the leader of organisational change.