The growing influence & impact of HR

At the 2019 CIPD Annual Conference, former group HR director of the BBC, Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth, said that HR’s opportunity to influence the boardroom has never been so great. In an age where business leaders face increased scrutiny, from the gender pay gap to corporate culture and employee wellbeing, the role of HR is expanding beyond its traditional compliance function.

Next year marks JourneyHR’s ten-year anniversary and during that time we have seen demands from clients change tenfold. While compliance is still an essential part of what we do, HR has evolved from the shackles of a purely process-driven support system to emerge as a more strategic partner, key to business growth.

Our influence is no longer limited to just the employee journey; the changing landscape means we work with business leaders to identify areas of improvement, find solutions and help shape and drive the culture and direction of the business in line with its long-term goals.

Know your client

The first skill HR consultancies (or HR practitioners in house) should have to demonstrate their strategic ability is deep knowledge of the clients they work with.

It’s not enough to just know the numbers; we need to understand our clients and their marketplace inside out. What do they do? What are the commercials of the business? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Who are their competitors and how does the external market impact decisions and strategy?

Having this business acumen will enable HR to deliver meaningful solutions that offer the greatest impact and value.

Empowering business leaders

Simply put, good leaders make good businesses. But for managers to be truly effective, they need to have the right skills, emotional intelligence and confidence to get the most out of their teams.

Many leaders can find themselves trying to strike a balance between implementing the business strategy and inspiring and motivating their workforce and it can be easy to fall short.

HR has a key role to play in overcoming this challenge by identifying skills gaps and coming up with the right initiatives to help leaders and managers develop. This might range from formal training and workshops to implementing a company-wide coaching programme that nurtures employee growth at all levels and encourages a more engaged and collaborative workforce.

But, while expert guidance and advice has become a valuable tool for business leaders, we need to be careful not to blur the lines between HR and becoming a people manager to people they do not manage. We are not there to act as as people managers; our role is to equip business leaders with the right tools, knowledge and understanding they need to ensure they can do a brilliant job by themselves.

Building employee engagement

As the saying goes, people are the lifeblood of a business and research has shown that the ability to attract and retain talent is one of the greatest concerns facing today’s CEO. But, despite this, engagement levels are critically low, with just 8% of British employees engaged at work.

Employees want to feel they are part of a positive workplace, with strong, supportive managers, frequent recognition and opportunities for development. As such, HR has taken on a more holistic view to hiring, looking beyond the initial onboarding process to continually make sure that employees have the right skills, working environment and career path to flourish.

Employee engagement surveys are a fantastic way of helping businesses understand what they should be doing to encourage staff to perform better, feel motivated and grow professionally. But it’s vital not just to look at the metrics around employee engagement and attrition – we need to understand the “why” behind the data.

“Employee experience journey mapping” has become something of a buzzword for HR of late, but its premise is an important one. By placing ourselves in employees’ shoes, HR will be able to better identify areas that can be improved upon both in the company culture and personal experience, helping to drive meaningful change right across the business.

Vision and values

Last but not least, we often hear businesses talk about their vision and values but for many, a lack of communication means employees fail to understand the relevance and importance of these. A study by Rungway found that more than half (52%) of employees can’t recite their organisation’s vision and nearly the same amount (49%) are unsure of their organisation’s values.

Values have the power to shape a company’s decisions, culture and behaviours, and HR is being asked not only to help define them, but bring those to life. Encouraging teams to employ the company values in their everyday work will make sure they become an intrinsic part of the business, giving employees a greater sense of purpose and alignment to the business. When people feel connected to each other and the work they’re doing, they will be more motivated to succeed.

Upskilling HR professionals

Of course, as the pace of change picks up, so too do the skills needed by those working in the industry to ensure they continue to deliver the greatest value.

We need to be open and flexible, willing to learn and try new things. Ask clients what is working, what isn’t working, what change they may like to see. Make time to learn about changes in the industry and attend networking events to share ideas and best practice.

For those in the very early stages of their HR career, navigating the volume of change can be a minefield. For that reason, we have created a workshop for those working in small to medium sized creative businesses who want to learn about HR practices in an informal and fun environment.