Continuing our series looking at the eight behaviours demonstrating HR’s ability to deliver leading practice, as described in the CIPD’s HR profession map, we now turn to the behaviour described as “driven to deliver”.

The map describes driven to deliver as taking a consistent and strong bias to action, taking accountability for the delivery of results both personally or as part of a team. It also describes individuals exhibiting the driven to deliver behaviour set as actively planning, prioritising and monitoring performance and holding others accountable for delivery. The emphasis is therefore on taking action as a team and ensuring that action is constantly reviewed to ensure positive impact .

If we were using the Belbin team roles this behaviour would perhaps be described as the “completer finisher” or the “implementer”; the person who wants to see ideas translated into action and outcomes. The recent HR Outlook survey, published in September 2010, focused on the eight behaviours of the map and 46 per cent of our respondents reported that driven to deliver was a behaviour that was actively being encouraged.

Clearly, this focus on delivery and accountability is a key issue for HR and there are many instances emerging from our Shaping the Future work on proactive HR interventions which are delivering results. This report will be published in January and contains case study information from six leading organisations. It highlights a number of instances of HR taking the initiative whether it be in designing an innovative management development programme, redesigning business processing or improving systems for knowledge sharing which have had positive outcomes for sustainable performance. A consistent theme throughout all these initiatives is HR taking the lead based on real insight and information that demonstrates the need to take action, and then taking responsibility – and credit – for the outcomes.

The professional map described driven to deliver at the senior end of HR as the ability to create and drive delivery of an HR strategy which supports the achievement of the organisation’s goals. This is underpinned by much of our work on human capital, which argues that HR has to be central to business strategy, feeding in the relevant information on HR to inform and help shape that strategy.

What this does not mean is that HR should slavishly seek to serve business goals at all costs. The Next Generation HR report points out the folly of HR functions which simply support organisations to achieve their short term business objectives. “Where was HR?” was a familiar cry from commentators when unsupportable business models and reward systems crashed to the ground. As the Next Generation work goes on to demonstrate, HR needs to be at the very forefront of future-proofing organisations by building healthy cultures that are also agile and flexible enough to cope with change. HR also needs to play an active role in the strategic planning process, constantly feeding in information and reviewing outcomes in the light of experience. Only then can they begin to build a living strategy that can respond quickly to a range of economic and environmental scenarios and take advantage of the opportunities they will present.

“Driven to deliver” HR professionals must also not be afraid to challenge business objectives as well as being willing to refocus and reprioritise in light of changing business needs. One way they are able to do this is by arming themselves with good quality information on both the value and contribution of people and using this to support and inform their actions. They must be confident that as well as having the ability to deliver they know what they need to deliver to drive business success.