Thought leadership event: Leading HR - what makes a difference?, London, UK, 13 March 2008

Citation

Hills, J. (2008), "Thought leadership event: Leading HR - what makes a difference?, London, UK, 13 March 2008", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 7 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2008.37207eac.002

Thought leadership event: Leading HR - what makes a difference?, London, UK, 13 March 2008

Article Type: Resources From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 7, Issue 5

Event review

In March, HR with Guts and Orion Partners hosted a thought leadership event in, London to discuss the topic of Leading HR – what makes a difference? Nineteen senior HR people from organizations as diverse as Unilever and DHL attended. The event focused on Leading HR and in particular on the ability of HR business partners (HRBPs) to have an opinion, stand up for that opinion and get others to follow it. Working through a menu of topics, Jan Hills from HR with Guts and Simon Constance from Orion Partners led a discussion on how the attendees saw leadership in HR.

The need for HR to challenge the business

The discussion began with a focus on the style and type of leadership that can make a real difference. From the offset it was generally agreed that this often depended on HR’s perceived context within the company and the strategic challenges the company faced. However, it was noted that the ability and knowledge to challenge the top client team, not only on people issues but also on more general business issues, was absolutely vital. The majority of attendeews felt this was a key area that HR should improve on, and that those teams that challenged their clients in this way tended to gain respect and increase the credibility of HR across the whole business.

Raj Ray, head of diversity and inclusion at Lehman Brothers in London, comments: “When I took up my role, I knew I would only succeed if I approached the role as a business person would and if I was willing to push forward and take risks to achieve the ambitious goals of the firm.”

The nature of leadership in HR

Discussing the nature of leadership in HR, the attendees noted there was often little difference between demands on leaders in business generally and those placed on HR leaders. All business leaders (including HR) should act and think both strategically and operationally and know when to take risks. Dusty Amroliwala from the Home office says: “In most cases, the quality of HR leadership could be measured by the degree of proactive verses reactive initiatives created by the HR function.”

The debate wrapped up by focusing on how quality of leadership in HR drives results. Most guests agreed that better quality leadership would see HR being held accountable for business results in the same way as the rest of the company. Attendees also felt that HR did not apply good practice to itself and could better use the processes it uses with the business with its own people. Drawing on practices that work in other areas can only be a good thing as HR continues its quest to become ever more strategic.

Ongoing research

Orion Partners and HR with Guts will be continuing to research this topic and will be conducting in-depth interviews with HR leaders over the next few months. If you are interested in taking part, or would like to nominate someone, please contact Jan Hills at jan@hrwithguts.com for more information about the criteria for nominations.

Jan HillsBased at HR with Guts.