Transforming HR, Second Edition: Creating value through people (The HR Series) PDF
Preview Transforming HR, Second Edition: Creating value through people (The HR Series)
Transforming HR Second Edition HR Series preface The HR Series is edited by Julie Beardwell, Associate Dean, Leeds Business School, and Linda Holbeche, Director of Research and Policy at CIPD, and is designed to plug the gap between theory and implementation. The books draw on real-life examples of strategic HR in practice and offer practical insights into how HR can add value to the business through transforming individual and functional delivery. Intended for serious HR professionals who aspire to make a real difference within their organisation, The HR Series provides resources to inform, empower and inspire the HR leaders of the future. Also available in The HR Series Change, Conflict and Community: Challenging Thought and Action Kenton and Penn ISBN: 9780750681940 HR - The Business Partner: Shaping a New Direction Kenton & Yarnall ISBN: 9780750664547 The Changing World of the Trainer: Emerging Good Practice Sloman ISBN: 9780750680530 Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach Stanford ISBN: 9780750663670 Strategic Career Management: Developing Your Talent Yarnall ISBN: 9780750683692 Transforming HR Creating Value through People Second Edition Mark Withers, Mark Williamson and Martin Reddington AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803 First Edition 2005 Second Edition 2010 Copyright © 2010 Mark Withers, Mark Williamson and Martin Reddington Published by Elsevier Ltd. The right of Mark Withers, Mark Williamson and Martin Reddington to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the copyright, Designs and Parents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or s toring in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accor- dance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1T 4LP. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) (0)1865 843830, fax: (+44) (0)1865 853333, e-mail: Attributions To Anna, Mireille and Amelia To Cathy, Tom and Emma To Colin, James and Edward Contents Foreword ix Preface xi The Authors xiii Introduction 1 Part 1 Context 7 1 A Transformational Mindset 9 2 HR Transformation – How Are We Doing? 27 3 What Is HR’s Value Proposition? 45 Part 2 The Case for Change 65 4 People and Technology 67 5 Envisioning the New World of HR 93 6 The Business Rationale 113 7 Stakeholder Engagement and Communication 141 Part 3 Planning and Implementation 171 8 Service Delivery Approaches 173 9 Programme Management 205 10 Implementation: Capability and Culture 233 11 Implementation: Process and Technology 267 12 Benefits Realisation 283 Part 4 Realising the Promise of HR Transformation 295 13 The Business of HR 297 Summary of Key Points and Actions 315 Contents Appendix 1: Organisational Levers Output 321 Appendix 2: Illustrative Survey Statements 331 Appendix 3: Scope of HR 333 Appendix 4: Extract from an Accountabilities Workshop 335 Appendix 5: Return on Investment and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 343 References 345 Contributing Senior Practitioners 349 Index 351 viii Foreword It is hard to imagine a more important time for the HR function to be able to make a strategic contribution to business. Today’s volatile competitive context is driv- ing the need for organisational change and innovation. Underlying shifts towards more knowledge and service-intensive economies place people centre stage as the principal source of competitive advantage and wealth creation. Yet people are no passive source of economic activity. The ‘right’ people can be in short supply, they require the ‘right’ kinds of management and leadership and the right kinds of HRM practice if they are to perform at their best and to ‘engage’ with the organisation. If not, they go elsewhere. And if HR’s primary responsibil- ity is to devise and implement strategies to secure for organisations the talent they need to succeed, HR teams are likely to find that recruiting, motivating and retain- ing the right people are likely to be ongoing challenges in the years ahead. But just having the ‘right people on the bus’ as Jim Collins would say, is of little use unless those people are able and willing to effectively deploy their talents in the interests of the organisation, even as their organisations change. Because even if today’s challenging context makes transparent the need for organisational agil- ity, many organisations have cultures which are not conducive to change or high performance. Building corporate agility and its underlying cultural capabilities makes special demands of both HR and line managers, and requires HR practi- tioners to develop new skills even as they deliver an organisational transformation agenda. So, HR transformation is far from being an end in itself: it is a means to the end of competitive success and organisational effectiveness. In the first edition of this book, authors Martin Reddington, Mark Williamson and Mark Withers explored and illustrated the process of HR process transforma- tion. They argued that by improving the way operational and transactional HR was delivered, HR professionals could free themselves up to make a more strategic contribution. And while the authors focused on the ‘how’ of HR transformation, they also raised the question of what a transformed HR service could deliver. This new edition takes the logic of HR transformation to the next level. The authors focus not only on the ‘how’ but also on the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of HR transformation. The authors show us what a strategic contribution by HR can look Foreword like. Success is about ‘creating organisations that compete effectively in their cho- sen markets, delivering value to customers, superior performance and opportunity to employees’. But to be able to deliver that agenda, HR needs to develop its own delivery model and capabilities. The authors argue against a ‘one size fits all’ formula for HR delivery and instead provide helpful step-by-step approaches to guide the reader through the choices facing HR practitioners who want to trans- form their functions to produce higher value contributions. The authors’ combined expertise in HR transformation, based on their back- grounds in HR, research, management and consultancy, provides a powerful plat- form for their thinking and recommendations. And as the authors point out, unless HR can transform itself to the next level, the function’s value becomes question- able. At this point of inflexion for the HR function I commend the authors for this helpful, inspirational and strategic yet practical book. Any HR practitioners aim- ing to move their function up the value chain will benefit from the wisdom, insight and sensible recommendations it contains. Linda Holbeche Director of Research and Policy Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development May 2009 x
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