Management & Leadership
HR, seize the subject of transformation!
Arnaud Gangloff, President & Patrick Longuechaud, Senior Advisor
Profound changes are disrupting companies: disruptive business models, globalization, new forms of contracting, the rise of the network economy and utility value, new technologies, etc.
All these changes have a direct impact on the social fabric of companies, generating questions, inertia, even anxiety: what about my status, my job, my network of belonging, my autonomy? Under these conditions, how can teams be involved in a process of transformation that is potentially anxiety-provoking?
... BUT WHERE ARE THE HR MANAGERS?
It is unfortunate to note that the primary responsibility of the Human Resources Department is to manage the social consequences of the changes decided upon beforehand. This often means implementing the restructuring plan with the social partners, as quickly as possible and without social conflict! However, as we know, the lasting success of the transformation depends on the ability to involve the social body from day one... and who else but the human resources department has the legitimacy to do so?
The fact that it is no longer a stakeholder in the transformation is linked to its institutional role: the function is caught in the tension between the essential priorities of the institution (focus on financial issues) and the expectations of a multiple, even contradictory, social body: trade unions and administrators, employees and managers, vertical chains of command and cross-functional functions, subsidiaries and headquarters, Generation Z and seniors, etc. How can the function overcome these contradictions?
How can the function then overcome these contradictions that embolize it and contribute to the success of the company's transformation? ? This is the critical challenge to be faced, the Gordian knot to be cut.
DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES: BE A STRATEGIC GENERALIST, THIS IS WHAT YOUR STAKEHOLDERS TELL US
They see transformation as their company's No.1 business challenge and expect HR leaders to play a key role in this process, particularly through their ability to engage society in change.
Even if the HR director is not yet perceived by his stakeholders as a full business partner of the company, the expectations in this respect are very high:
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Certainly, the roles related to talents and social relations are always in 1st or 2nd place, whether in terms of perception, expectations or priorities;
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But the expectations of the stakeholders on the management of the transformation by the function gains more importance - from the 6th rank (perceptions) to the 2nd (priorities) - and is found at the same level as the social relations and the issues related to the commitment of the employees.
IN ORDER TO BECOME THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE TRANSFORMATION OF HIS COMPANY, THE HR MANAGER MUST ASSUME FOUR MAJOR ROLES.
Operational Pilot
This is the area of execution of strategies, tactics and operational and transactional activities:
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Social relations in the same sense, of course, but also in the sense of interaction and communication systems that will irrigate the whole social body (social networks, managerial communication systems, engagement survey, etc.);
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HR processes and systems and their digital and big data facilitators, pushed to their maximum potential to ensure cross-functionality and management;
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Daily management of the dynamics of the HR/employee/manager triangle to ensure the conditions for social body engagement through a successful employee experience.
Governance Advisor
In this capacity, he acts in the circles of company managers and governance bodies:
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Stepping out of his role as a spokesman to become an HR expert within his company;
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Assuming the position of "employee champion" when needed to their comex peers;
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Advising the CEO, his or her peers, and the N-1 of his or her peers on their management and governance issues.
Capacity & Change Strategist
In this role, he defines the height of the step to be taken and traces the path of transformation:
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How well the company performs in three areas: culture, organization and human capital;
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Translates the vision and strategy into the capabilities required in these three areas to make them a competitive advantage;
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Analyzes the gap with the required capabilities in relation to the vision and strategy;
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Architect the path of transformation.
HR strategy expert
It focuses on the development of skills and the materialization of expected behaviors in relation to the strategy and vision, within a systemic approach:
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activates different HR levers and ensures their consistency (for example, the development of cooperative behavior can be ensured both by training and by incentive systems focused on team goals);
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Develops the characteristics of a learning organization within the company;
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Integrates the expectations of a wider range of stakeholders than just shareholders and their financial challenges (for example, by making use of engagement surveys, the profile analysis of which makes it possible to identify the expectations of the company's various constituencies).
IN CONCLUSION
If we agree that transformation is the ability of a company to constantly improve its competitive position in an increasingly complex and uncertain world, it is impossible to design a process that would deal separately or consecutively with the strategic dimension (structure, process, economic model…) and the human and cultural dimension (behaviors, values, social relations, leadership…).
The transformation of the company is therefore inseparable from the role of the HRD, its ability to create the conditions conducive to this transformation (preparing the ground) and to ensure its sustainability by involving the teams in a co-construction process that does not consider the employees as the object of the transformation, but makes them actors, even architects.
To do this, the HR manager must adopt a dual attitude: "get on the balcony and get on the dance floor"[2], i.e. act on the organization as a whole in the role of systemic architect, but also be in touch and in real and authentic proximity with people and teams.
This is how HRDs, as value creators and guardians, will contribute to the sustainability and success of their organization's transformation in a VUCA world - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. By becoming both strategists and operational pilots, generalists and experts, HRDs will move away from a role of pure execution, limited to dealing with the consequences of change, to position themselves as key players capable of engaging the social body on the path of processing.
Source: DRH, the shock of ruptures .
