Designing an HR Service
As the economy picks up, more and more frequently, clients are asking us to help them to develop an HR Team and service that can support business change to a high performance culture and growth. They talk about wanting a new Target Operating Model (TOM) for the HR Team. ‘What’s that then?’, I hear you say!
In a Nutshell
It’s simply designing an HR service that will support your growth plans. It is your organisation’s unique way of managing HR and it involves people, policies, processes, technology, customers (in HR that’s your employees), geography and it is designed to help the business to achieve its goals or growth through people. There is no prescribed way of designing a TOM and each business will be a different kettle of fish.
However, here at The Change Directors, we have learned a lot of lessons from our many years of working as HR Directors and I will share a couple of tips with you. Not all of them, you can hire me for that. Here goes…
Getting Started
First off, to design a TOM you don’t need some run of the mill consultants. What you need are independent thinkers, experts in the field of Organisational Development and Change Management who can roll their sleeves up and work with your team to deliver a TOM which will deliver world class HR now and in the future. Look for a partner who can offer expert advice from the lessons they have learned and, most importantly, give you some practical hands on support. Take the opportunity to deliver a world class HR Team that is fit for the future and can support business change.
Workshop for the Key Players
Before embarking on a series of TOM Design Workshops with key players, I would suggest you begin by designing and rolling out a learning programme for your HR team which builds their resistance levels, gives them a thorough understanding of how change management works as well as the risks and the opportunities they will face. They are going to need that.
During the process of managing change, your team will have to gain credibility quickly, master communication and be exquisitely organised. They must be ready to tweak the plan too – there is never a change plan that doesn’t require some sort of modification. It’s really important to make sure they are well equipped in the art of change management before you kick off the programme.
In our experience, Business Change requires a “Brave HR Team” who can deliver the new Target Operating Model and a world class HR Service that achieves your growth plans.
Managing complex change requires a Brave HR Team. As Drucker once said, “whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
What Does Brave HR look like?
You require a brave and adaptable HR team who will support all of the business changes you are facing. Your plans to grow the business will be a critical project and we are fully aware of the impact that the change will have on customers, employees and shareholders.
Brave HR professionals know the business. Not just things like the numbers, finance, how to read a company balance sheet and so on, but what unique features, skills and knowledge count towards business success. A sort of business DNA! HR obviously needs to understand HR practices thoroughly, but Brave HR knows how to improve on and transform those practices.
Brave HR have the ability to manage change. They understand how to drive revenues and growth through people. Brave HR see a way of building great talent pipelines and how best to tap into the skills of employees. They build reward systems that drive productivity and are courageous enough to change terms and conditions, policy and processes when necessary. They know how to inspire and motivate and have the savvy to build performance management systems that actually work.
I don’t always hold with everything Dave Ulrich preaches about HR, but I agree with him when he says,
“The competencies that served HR well in the past will not be enough to propel it into the future.”
Ruth Gawthorpe is the owner of The Change Directors and an expert in Organisational Development and Change Management. She can help you to make vast improvements to your HR service and develop a Brave HR Team who will support your business to gain a high performance culture and Growth. 07976 509 551.
