HR leaders crucial to organisational transformation

New research considers the role of HR leaders in driving business transformation

HR leaders are the crucial drivers of transformation in UK businesses through their roles of promoting devolved decision making, employee engagement and collaboration, finds new research from Ipsos LEAD and Cirrus.

The report, entitled ‘Leadership Connections: HR’s role in business transformation’ surveyed over 30 senior HR professionals to gauge their views on the challenges facing their profession. Responding to insights from Ipsos’s Representative Employee Data (RED) and Captains of Industry (COI) research, a key finding of the new report is that HR leaders must be responsible for bridging the gap between leadership and employees, in order to create a shared sense of direction, values and collaboration across organisations.

Figures have shown that while half of CEOs expect their industries to be substantially or unrecognisably changed by digital, as of late 2016 10% of employees claim to have seen no significant change in their organisations at all (RED). This presents a significant difference between what we are being told by senior leadership and what employees believe to be the case.

Businesses across the UK are facing pressure to adapt to changing customer demands, operate more efficiently in complex marketplaces, and respond to economic and political upheaval such as Brexit. Despite this, while almost 70% of employees understand the need for change, and six out of ten support it, only half think such innovation is well managed.

This is a huge challenge – and opportunity – for HR leaders in terms of bringing employees on board with change. The majority of HR leaders profiled in the new report stressed the importance of ensuring a shared sense of direction, shared values and collaboration across an organisation – “people would rather work for a cause than a company,” says Sean Mills, executive director of Ipsos LEAD and co-author of the report. “This is an area where senior HR leaders can collaborate with other senior colleagues to create a deeper ability to change at the enterprise level.”

Enabling devolved decision-making is also a key priority, breaking away from the traditional command and control structure and instead equipping employees with the skills to use their own initiative.

Commenting on the findings, Cirrus CEO Dr. Simon Hayward, said:

“When addressing many of the issues highlighted in this report, such as increasing agility and collaboration, HR leaders can help organisations to adopt a more ‘connected’ approach to leadership. This marks a pronounced shift from the old style of hierarchical command-and-control to a new way of leading through influence and encouraging collaboration, based on a shared sense of purpose and direction. This helps to build more agile and adaptable organisations, capable of successful transformation. Many transformation initiatives are still focused on process and systems than on actually empowering employees and engaging them with change. By devolving decision-making and empowering front-line employees, HR leaders can increase customer-centricity and competitiveness, and drive performance.”

This is the third annual Leadership Connections research report in a series which has previously explored how HR leaders can connect with the C-suite, contribute to strategy and develop agility and innovation.

Keep up to date with the latest Twitter views on this research using the hashtag #LeadershipConnections.

View the current and previous Leadership Connections research reports:

• Leadership Connections 2017: HR’s role in business transformation
• Leadership Connections 2016: HR and the C-suite driving innovation
• Leadership Connections 2015: How HR deals with C-suite leaders

Supporting quotes from our research participants

Mike Barry, Director of Sustainable Business (Plan A) at Marks & Spencer:

“Businesses now have to be nimble to stay relevant, to keep ahead of the crashing waves of disruption. You’re in the middle of the current supercycle while you’re preparing for the next one. That’s exhilarating or exhausting, depending on which way you look at it. And at the very heart of it is the ability to lead.”

Jacqueline Moyse, Head of Organisational Development at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group:

“When it comes to genuine transformation, you've got to go back to the drawing board and the essence of what you stand for. You need to revisit what’s at the core of the organisation – reviewing, and where necessary rewriting - your mission, your vision, your guiding principles. That gives you a strong basis to start the communication process and engage the colleagues with your future direction and priorities."

Catriona Hughes, People Business Partner at Three:

“When you put cross-functional teams together with a very defined purpose and goal, they can work really effectively together.”

Naleen Gururani, Global HR Director at Lebara:

“HR should be able to impact and influence decisions at the table and link them to business goals. That business goal alignment is the key thing that senior board leaders want from their HR counterparts.”

Jamie Davies, HR Business Partner at Thomson Reuters:

“Within HR we’re actually on a transformation journey ourselves. We’re changing the HR business partner role to make it much more strategic, more influential and to really demonstrate the value we deliver. Business leaders are starting to understand the impact that we can have.”

Research methodology

Cirrus and Ipsos LEAD hosted a round table discussion with a focus group of HR leaders, and subsequently interviewed more than 30 senior HR professionals over a one-month period to gather their views on some of the challenges facing the profession. Participants came from a wide range of industries including banking and finance, consumer goods, charities, government, hospitality, retail, and telecoms. We also assessed the perception of some of the issues raised from the employees point of view using data from Ipsos’s Representative Employee Data (RED), a database that contains statistically representative responses to over 200 questions on the employee experience garnered from over 65,000 employees in 36 countries across the world including the UK.

About Cirrus and Ipsos LEAD

Cirrus and Ipsos LEAD work in partnership with major organisations to help achieve ambitious transformation goals. Ipsos LEAD provides leadership research and insight to help organisations understand the priorities for development and action. Cirrus provides leadership assessment, development and engagement to help deliver those priorities effectively. Together, Ipsos LEAD and Cirrus can then evaluate and track organisational change.