Impact were proud to sponsor a table at this year’s Executive Grapevine conference ‘HR can Change the World’. The event focussed on how strategic and operational change impacts the future of workforce planning and cultural and organisational change.
With key speakers including Valerie Huges D’aeth – HR Director at the BBC, Emer Timmons, President, BT Global UK, Lesley Baxter, HR Director at Warner Brothers and Richard Watson, Futurologist (to name a few!) it was a fantastic line up….
In today’s market, winning a competitive advantage is increasingly driven by change – whether the focus is organisational culture and values, optimising performance, technology or using data metrics to stay ahead. The economic landscape moves at an increasingly faster pace and organisations are faced with the prospect of competing in a world where change is the only thing that is certain. So how do you create a dynamic, forward thinking culture that is fit for purpose and what impact will this have on the HR Function?
We were inspired by Emer Timmons, who discussed how ‘positive disruption’ enabled them to achieve transformation at BT and how they increased employee engagement through professional communities – creating a broader sense of belonging, and focusing on the importance of each and every person contribution to achieve the mission of the organisation.
Organisations are being challenged to reinvent the way they operate and HR has a responsibility to partner leadership through many of these changes … from structural changes, to finding the right people and developing, rewarding and engaging them, people are essential to businesses and for most organisations, they are their biggest investment! Organisations that survive will need their people to help them to achieve strategic goals and remain agile and resilient to change. Strategy doesn’t just happen; it needs to be lived and acted on by employees. This is what strategic workforce planning is all about – the ability to define track and measure your investment in people and good HR will play a pivotal part in shaping this.
Rob Jones (Head of Organisation Effectiveness, Cross Rail) was incredibly engaging whilst talking us through their journey of ‘Moving London Forward’ and the importance of plumbing culture into everything and ensuring success is based on and rewarded by delivering against company values. It was reinforced how our Leaders are magnates for talent acquisition.
So in addition to strategic workforce planning and utilising analytics to assess and reinforce culture, HR need to embrace the changing nature of the workplace to create a competitive edge. With individuals working longer and organisations made up of people with increasingly different life experiences and work expectations, striking a cultural balance that embraces diversity will also be high on the agenda for 2015 and 2016!
