Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/94708
Thought Leader Early Adapter By Ethan Kline "The acid test for HR is to convince the operations and business people that you can be commercial," he says. "Many people think they are operating as a strategic partner, but I ask them to look at their calendar. Your calendar tells you, and everyone else, what is important to you. Is your calendar aligned with what is important to your boss and to the company?" Most of the businesses that Niall has worked for or with have been successful but have slipped into decline. The main commonality that he has identified in these situations is that the management team is in denial about the true state of the business. Most often, the team believes that the current situation is an anomaly and that customers and revenue will return. What is too difficult to see, he says, is that the management team needs to dismantle what it has built. And very few people can or want to take apart what they have created. In these circumstances, HR can play a central role in driving the turnaround and change necessary to repair the business. Saul sees three levels on the value chain for an HR function. At the lowest level, HR is a support function providing payroll, monthly accounts, and control and administrative processes. The next step up the value chain is to be a value-added partner providing problem solving, analysis, support to other functions, prioritisation of areas for improvement in cost, margin, and profit, as well as service as a go-to adviser. The top of the chain is HR as strategic business partner providing services such as financial engineering, risk management, valuations for merger, acquisitions, or joint ventures, reward and incentive systems, and thought leadership on culture and people strategy. For the past 30 years, Niall Saul has been driving successful organisational development, restructuring, and change management programmes from within the HR department. Today, he is the executive chairman of Symbio HR Solutions, an Irish organisation offering HR consulting, recruitment, selection, and succession planning services. Before joining Symbio, Saul spent three years as the group HR director for the McNamara Construction Group, and before that he was group head of HR and organisation development with Irish Life and Permanent. Saul believes that HR has a critical role to play within every organisation, and he has created a practise and adapted commonly available tools to help HR functions act as strategic business partners. To drive change, the HR function must be operating near the top of the value chain. Saul's first exercise is to get HR into the heart of strategic planning for the business. He does this by getting the HR function to "stand in the future." Looking three years ahead, he asks them to describe the shape of the business and then determine the skills, capabilities, and technology that the business will require to be successful. Identification System To identify the change necessary to reach the future state, Saul introduces McKinsey's 7S (seven-step) framework. The framework identifies interdependent factors which are categorised as either Symbio's Niall Saul has the experience—and the toolkit—to help HR programmes fix themselves. [36] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | FALL 2012