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Aligning HR to Business Strategy Part 1 of 3
5 December 2011:
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Aligning Leadership and Talent Development to the Business Strategy
Too often, HR is brought in after the fact to execute on business strategy decisions taken by the executive board. Yet as Paul Swinscoe, Director, Sales and Marketing EMEA, for Raytheon Professional Services pointed out, “HR needs to understand the strategy in order to identify and provide the leadership skills that will be needed to execute it. Also, pointed out by Swinscoe, “Companies spend more per employee on leadership and training than on any other staff-related programmes so the better HR understands the business strategy, the higher the return we can deliver on that spend.”
Ideally, HR should have a seat on the executive board, although this was the case at less than 50% of the companies represented at the event. One participant pointed out that whilst it is important to have a board member with designated HR responsibility, it is equally important that the board as a whole feels accountability for people issues. “In our annual review of our 5-year business plan, the board discusses the top five business issues and also the top five people-related issues. Responsibility for resolving the issues is then appropriated where it makes sense – sometimes in the line of business, sometimes within HR. Discussing the business and people issues together leads to better, faster outcomes. For example, when it came to a discussion of moving from high- to lower-cost countries, we were able to factor in the HR issues directly into the decision, rather than after-the-fact. You need both perspectives – HR into the business, and then business into HR. ” making sure that the whole business relationship works, and encapsulates a lot of the best practice that people have talked about at this event.”
Ensuring the Success of Change Management Initiatives
- HR should lobby, where necessary, for representation on the executive board. Where this is not possible, HR can push for inclusion in strategy planning discussions.
- CEO sponsorship of HR-led change management initiatives is vital for the success of these programmes. However, both HR and the CEO must work to get buy-in at the executive board and senior management level otherwise the initiative may collapse if the CEO moves on.
- Dissentors should be weeded out early on. Managers who are not on board with a change management initiative often have a substantial, negative, influence on outcomes.
About Eric Sorin
Eric Sorin is the Global Head of the HR Centre of Expertise for NSN and holds a master degree in Human Resources from the Sorbonne university in Paris. He started his career with Thomson Consumer Electronics where he faced the sensitive task of closing industrial sites and organizing the redeployment of hundreds of redundant employees (mostly blue collars). This first and “tough” experience shaped some of his core beliefs as a HR professional.
He then joined Hewlett Packard in 1988 where he held a number of roles for the PC and Network businesses (recruitment, HR development, HR manager, and C&B). He relocated to the UK in 1999 and was soon appointed as Director of Compensation for the EMEA region where he drove the integration of compensation programs following the acquisition of Compaq.
After 15 years spent at HP, Eric joined Nokia in 2004 as Global Head of Compensation. He transitioned to the newly formed Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture in 2007 as Global Head of C&B in charge of aligning related programs and policies for 60,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Since 2009, Eric is the Global Head of the HR Centre of Expertise for NSN where he leads a team of 75 HR experts distributed in 25 countries, responsible for developing and deploying the HR corporate initiatives in the areas of talent, leadership and organization development in addition to compensation & benefits.
About Raytheon Professional Services
Today, more than ever, your organisation’s success is measured by the performance of your people. In a challenging economy, outsourcing training to Raytheon Professional Services can significantly lower costs while extending the skills and knowledge of your people across the enterprise.
RPS is a leader in global learning solutions and training outsourcing. We are among the top five outsourced training providers in the Black Book HRO: Training & Learning Services.
How do we help businesses like yours meet their critical objectives? We design, implement and manage training solutions that align performance among employees, customers and partners, enabling companies to meet their business goals. Then we apply the best commercial solutions, processes, tools and experts to make our programs available anytime, anywhere.
With more than 900 professionals, RPS helps leading companies rethink the way they deliver training across their enterprise, in more than 99 countries and 28 languages. For more information, visit our website www.rps.com
About CorporateLeaders
CorporateLeaders is an exclusive independent network that inspires business and leadership by providing a trusted forum for executives to network, exchange ideas, share lessons learned and drive business forward in an ever changing environment.
We focus on providing exclusive membership services, intimate and content rich networking events, research, thought leadership and advice on business transformation with the executive needs and experiences at its core. For more information, visit our website: www.corporate-leaders.com
