Philippa Lamb suggests that you take a step back to consider how you can deliver sustainable performance today and ensure its delivery in the future; think about the role of HR in adding value to the business in the next decade, what more it will need to do and how it could develop.
Philippa discusses these issues and more with Stephanie Bird CIPD's Director of Capability, Sue Swanborough, from General Mills, a global food manufacturer; Jeremy Swain, CEO of Thames Reach, a homeless charity and Julia Clapham from BT
First Stephanie explains how she sees the profession changing and what professionals should be considering. She says that the Profession Map has been created to help members use a step-by-step approach to building not only their own careers, but also the profession. Taking the Map together with our Next Generation HR project, it should be possible to see how the future might look and to plot a path to having a vital role in it.
BT decided three years ago that HR needed to take a hard look at their role in the business. Julie Clapham explains how they set about changing to get closer to ebsuring business success rather than being mainly transactional. Listen to Julie explain how this all works without losing sight of the 'people issues'. She also thinks she will need to review the Dave Ulrich model.
At General Mills, with a global workforce 30,000, things are rather different. Listen to Sue Swanborough explain how she translates the business strategy in to what must be done by HR to align itself with the business goals without compromising the day-to-day transactional function.
Jeremy Swain has seen his organisation, Thames Reach, a housing charity, grow from seven, when he started to 430 now. His HR function covers all the traditional work. He is in agreement with Stephanie that the role is more important than the job title and a place on the board. Hear why both Jeremy and Stephanie think the 'place on the board' debate is sterile and how this concurs with the Next Generation HR research.
Julie and her team act as provocateurs to think about change. She explains what this means and the new skills that are needed. Who is she bringing in to help and how is she shaking things up?
Hear the advice our speakers have on furthering HR careers and learning new skills, not only for themselves in their careers, but also re-vitalising HR.
Useful links and further information
If you would like to have a go at using the HR Map and finding what your level currently is and perhaps going on to see what you could do to get yourself to the next level, have a look at the HR Map, mentioned in the podcast. You can do the assessment when it suits you, confidentially and at different times, using it as a progessive tool to measure your development.
The Next Generation HR project was also mentioned in the podcast. The link below will take you to the research page and just one more click takes you to the Next Gen project.
If you think a short course on managing change might be useful, we have one called Managing change for L&D professionals.