The HR Mix: The 4 Ps to Grow HR’s Strategic Impact
“How do we demonstrate the value of HR to our organization, and step up its role as a strategic business leader?” We hear this question from clients in all industries, in all company sizes and at all levels—from the CEO/CHRO to the HR business partners and their internal clients. When HR plays a critical role during organizational change and transformation, companies see more powerful and immediate results.
In partnering with HR teams to grow their capabilities and influence, we’ve identified the four Ps of the strategic HR mix: Perspective, Pulse, People, and Partnership. These four Ps give HR the unique ability to be a powerful partner in an organization’s efforts to realize the ROI of change.
Bring a Holistic Perspective. HR has a comprehensive view of all of the organization’s functions, business units, and geographies. Through your day-to-day work, you see what’s working and what’s not, and identify interdependencies across the business. This visibility is critical during times of change, when everyone must pull together toward the same goals. HR professionals are well-positioned to break down silos, connect people to solve problems, facilitate communication across teams, and promote best practice sharing.
In one of our recent change management projects, we partnered with an organization undertaking a major reorganization with wide-reaching impacts on structure and roles, talent, technology, processes, and culture. Through the project, HR business partners realized that changes in one business unit would significantly impact another group that had not yet been considered; duplicate efforts were also underway in multiple groups. HR proactively identified the issue and facilitated a timely conversation to ensure the impacts were well-understood by both business unit leaders, and put plans in place to efficiently manage the changes going forward.
Take the Pulse. Through engagement, performance, and turnover data, HR has a good read on employees’ perceptions, feelings, concerns, hopes, and questions. HR team members often serve as a listening ear, and can seek feedback from employees in their daily conversations. Having a handle on what’s top of mind for leaders, managers, and individual contributors at all levels helps leadership address employee needs to keep people engaged and aligned with the organization’s goals.
We recently worked with an operational team that was downsizing and redefining roles. While the functional leader initially thought he was communicating clearly and regularly, the HR business partner was hearing otherwise; she illuminated that people needed more specific and frequent updates to stay focused and minimize distractions in the months leading up to the change. She then helped the leader build and execute a communication plan to address employees’ concerns. Ultimately, even though some people transitioned out of the organization as a result of the changes, employees gave very positive feedback about how thoughtfully and effectively the process was handled.
Be a People Expert. While HR professionals must certainly demonstrate strong business and financial acumen, we are THE people experts. HR’s professional disciplines and knowledge around talent strategy, development, and engagement enable HR to help leaders understand the talent required to deliver on the organization’s goals, and to ensure the right near- and long-term people strategies are in place. HR can leverage talent analytics to provide strategic insights on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and ensure these are addressed in the organization’s talent strategy.
When business strategy is changing or when an M&A or major transformation is underway, successful HR leaders speak up to ensure talent and culture are at the forefront of the discussion rather than an afterthought. We also see HR leaders taking an active role in strategic planning, to ensure people priorities are included. By getting business leaders involved in broad organizational talent strategy discussions, HR builds commitment and is better positioned to deliver on the business’ priorities.
Build Partnership. Partnership represents the strong, trusted relationship senior leaders increasingly seek from HR. Increasingly, we are seeing CEOs viewing their CHROs as their most important advisor and even as their Number Two. Stepping up as a strategic business leader means being a thought partner, advisor, coach, influencer—and at times a respectful challenger. HR professionals must model the partnerships they want to have with other business leaders if they aren’t currently in place.
Asking insightful questions about the business, helping clarify strategic goals, identifying risks and opportunities for the organization and people, and connecting the dots between strategy and talent needs are great ways to build trust and credibility with leaders. In this way, HR business partners can earn more than a seat at the table—they can truly be a respected and consistent voice, helping craft strategies and inform decisions.
By practicing these four Ps of Perspective, Pulse, People, and Partnership, you’ll demonstrate the unique strategic value HR brings to the organization.
Grow Your HR Team’s Strategic Impact.
If you’re working to grow your team’s strategic capabilities, join us for our upcoming HCI webcast, Increasing HR’s Impact in a Complex & Changing Environment on Thursday, September 15th, at 1pm ET. We’ll share case studies and best practices from HR leaders who’ve mobilized their functions to create change and drive organizational performance.