Welcome to the Irish Universities
HR Seminar Series 2012
Challenging times for HEHR’s strategic contribution
Linda Holbeche PhD
The Higher Education reforms
• Ireland – the Croke Park Agreement:
• “...both its cost and the number of people working in
the Public Service can fall significantly, while
continuing to meet the need for services and improve
the experience of service users”
• UK- HE White Paper – ‘radical reform’ to put
higher education on a ‘sustainable footing’
• Tuition fees – institutions must deliver a ‘better
student experience’ – measurable outcomes e.g.
employability
• Institutions must increase social mobility
• Increased competition
• Efficiency and value for money
• Leadership, management and governance
©Linda Holbeche
Institutional responses
• Distinctive missions, new markets
• Internationalisation
• Driving through efficiency savings – new structures, ways
of working
• Managing culture change: aiming for agility
• Embracing the ‘student experience’ agenda
• Looking to make the most of knowledge and innovation
• Managing risk/reputation
• Sourcing key talent
• Amalgamating services
• Traded services
• Working in partnership
©Linda Holbeche
Shifting the performance curve to maximise
human value
Number of
employees
Unacceptable
Acceptable
Superior
HR?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
© Linda Holbeche 2012
8
9
10
Performance and
individual value
‘People’ and ‘organisational’ issues
• The student experience agenda
• Student expectations – from selectors to recruiters
• How widely is need for change recognised?
• Balancing priorities – research and teaching
• How to raise standards?
• How to attract and retain the ‘right’ workforce?
• Challenges in attracting, retaining and engaging the ‘right’ workforce
• The ageing workforce
• How to respond to younger staff’s expectations of rapid career growth?
• Sourcing new talent
• The changing academic career and psychological contract
• How to enable academics to maintain a research-intensive career in
the current context?
• How to ‘re-engage’ employees?
• Developing institutional agility
• How well equipped are leaders and managers to manage change?
• How to mobilise people for change?
©Linda Holbeche
A distinctive contribution from HR?
“For HR people in HE, this is a challenging and
exciting time. HR issues have institutional visibility.
HR practitioners have to be Jacks-of-All-Trades,
able to go from strategic to operational issues in
the same breath.”
(Mike Moore, HR Director, University of East London).
© Linda Holbeche 2012
The Value Triangle
Created
Value
Added Value
Value for Money
What is the best human system to deliver what is required now and in the future?
What are the improvement points that will drive value?
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Synthesis of roles for HR
Human
Capital
Developer
Employee
Advocate
HR Leader
Strategic
Partner
Functional
Expert
Ulrich & Brockbank,
2005
HR leadership
More than ever organisations need HR leaders with the
vision and the deep capability to build organisational
cultures and business leadership which are fit for both
the present and future.
HR leadership is about proactively identifying and
building the people and organisational
capabilities required for sustainable success.
(Holbeche, 2009)
By:
• Moving from reacting to proacting
• Creating a people and organisational
mission for the business, not an HR
agenda
• Ensuring the organisation has the right
talent in the right place at the right time
• Transforming the institution to ensure it
meets its full potential
© Linda Holbeche 2012
A fresh mindset – challenging orthodoxy
Words do things
‘human capital’
‘human stock’
More dynamic
and ‘real’
Language and
Action
Authenticity and
mutuality
New OE
Mindset
Paradox and
Ambiguity
Tensions individual/
collegiate/
corporate motives?
©Francis, Holbeche and Reddington, 2012
Leadership and
management
More dispersed,
valuing different
sources of evidence
The
agenda
• Aligning HR efforts with institutional vision and mission
–
–
–
–
–
Leading the strategic and operational agenda
Leading the talent agenda
Enhancing the student experience
Supporting the academic agenda
Building relevant future capabilities
• Helping institutions become more agile
– Building leadership capability
– Leading change and culture change
• Building resilient employee relations
– (Re-)engaging employees
– Developing a new employment relationship
• Building healthy, effective and ethical organisations
© Linda Holbeche 2012
1. Aligning HR efforts with vision
• Align with vision - devising the People Strategy
collaboratively with key stakeholders as part of the business
strategy e.g.
• Supporting the student experience agenda
• Supporting the internationalisation agenda
• Supporting the academic agenda etc.
• Work out the implications for structures, roles, managerial
capacity, leadership behaviour, resourcing, information
needs, systems etc
• Restructure for strategic impact
– Get the basics right
– Continually improve
– Make the big moves
• Key metrics
© Linda Holbeche 2012
2. Helping institutions become more agile by:
• Acting as change agent, working closely with change
leaders, looking back and ahead, identifying learning, risks
and potential opportunities
• Acting as trusted friend to be relied upon, helping
managers handle the behavioural elements of change
• Understanding ‘levers’ for change – which to pull, where,
when and how
• Partnering on organisation redesign - shaping thinking
about realigning organisations to become more agile,
customer-intensive, engaging etc.
• Cutting out layers and managing integrations (mergers and
acquisitions)
• Improving staff communications
• Developing constructive employee relations
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Critical people risk factors of change
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What are you asking people to do differently?
Who will be most affected and how?
How will their part of the organisation change?
What reactions can you expect?
Who is most at risk?
What can you learn from past experiences?
Do staff have the right skills for the change? If not, do
they have access to learning to develop those skills?
• What practical and other support will they need to
make the changes required of them?
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Stimulating culture change
•
•
•
•
Requires top level commitment and visibility
Shared values as the basis of change
Sense of coherence – clarity about goals and roles
Widen the circle of involvement:
– Connect people to each other
– Create communities for action
– Promote fairness
• Bring consistency and strengthen what works –
while everything around that can change
• Act as role model of the organisational values and
new practices
© Linda Holbeche 2012
3. Enhancing the student experience by:
• Supporting student employability
• Designing the people strategy and HR activity around
what impacts on the quality of student experience at the
front-line
• Helping raise performance standards
• Attracting and retaining the ‘right’ staff
• Developing and delivering employer brand and equitable
‘employee value propositions’
• Making it easier for people to do difficult jobs
• Advancing the equality and diversity agenda
• Supporting staff at ‘the front line’
• Re-engaging employees
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Elements of engagement
Social
Intellectual
VOICE
Emotional
EQUITY
© Linda Holbeche 2011
Employee
Engagement
Model
CONNECTION
Sense of identification
Pride in the organization
Common purpose
Shared values
Being Involved
Being heard
Being informed
VOICE
SCOPE
Autonomy & mutual trust
Growth & accomplishment
Engagement
Meaning & purpose
Intellectual
Treated as an individual
Feeling valued
Fair deal
Enabled to do the job
Well-being
SUPPORT
©Holbeche and Matthews, 2012
Re-engaging employees
• Enhancing staff well-being
• Ensuring that ‘front-line’ (academic and services)
staff have the relevant professional and skills
development
• Providing career opportunities
• Advancing the equality and diversity agenda
• Developing high engagement cultures
• Developing engaging leaders and managers
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Balance people and costs
• Keep focus on talent management
• Improve skills and competencies people really
need; especially for people in new roles
• Maintain support for high performers
• Use non-financial benefits – recognition etc –
that matter most to people
• Innovative approaches to learning
© Linda Holbeche 2012
A different deal at work
Old
New
4. Supporting the academic agenda
• Helping academic, research and professional staff
develop their core professional skills
• Supporting the innovation agenda
• Enabling cross-institutional learning
• Researcher careers
© Linda Holbeche 2012
5. Building relevant future capabilities
•
•
•
•
Strategic workforce planning
Succession planning and talent management
Developing coherent career progression
Developing ‘change-able’ leadership and
management
• Developing ‘change-able’, innovative cultures
© Linda Holbeche 2012
HR continuum: strategic influence
High
Low
Irrelevant
Work -Undermined
HR works hard
but not smart
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Admin centred
Seen as lacking
expertise
Lacks credibility
No involvement with
the business
Clerical function
•
Technically competent
At beck and call of clients
Fire-fighting
Blockages in work flow
occur
Hard workers: lacks
influence
Short-term
intervention but lacks
long-term impact
•
•
•
•
•
•
Laurence Handy / Ashridge
Pass-through
contribution
Fails to change the
internal workings of the
organisation
“Politician” role: says
the right things
Avoids details and
keeps things at a broad
level
Tool-kit approach
Lacking in expertise
High impact
Long-term influence
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strategic/diagnostic role
Enabling role
Acts as coach to the rest of
the organisation
Devises processes to meet
business needs
Problem solver
Perceived as experts
Negotiates with the
business
Board HR Director
Evaluates own performance
Leadership qualities/role
models
Role model good practice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Credibility
Cohesive team
Prepare for change
Focused delivery
Actively share and develop learning
Identify own values and ways of working
Look and work beyond current boundaries
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Building
strategic
capability
Building healthy, agile
cultures
Aligning with institutional vision
Core people processes fit for purpose,
compliance, risk management
A value-creating proposition !
www.uhr.ac.uk/Publications.aspx
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Linda Holbeche
linda.holbeche@talk21.com
0780 1543235
29
• What are the biggest challenges /risk issues to
delivering excellence you’re aware of?
• What are the implications for leadership
(organisational, functional, team – at all levels)?
• (Re-)engaging employees – the key issues and groups
at risk.
• And what do you think are possible solutions to any of
the above?
• What is HR’s part in delivering these solutions?
© Linda Holbeche 2012
• What challenges does this create for you
personally?
• How do you feel about this?
• What are the barriers to you doing this work?
• What can help you to do this work?
© Linda Holbeche 2012
On reflection
• 1 point to take away (that you found particularly
interesting or thought-provoking)
• Points you would like to consider applying in your
organisation or role
• 1 point you bring – e.g. good practice - learning
point or hint/tip to contribute from your
organisation that others can follow up with you on.
© Linda Holbeche 2012
Thank you to our sponsors