Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

HR strategyOpinion

Making a difference must relate to business needs

by Personnel Today 15 May 2007
by Personnel Today 15 May 2007

We all know the feeling: you’ve been happily following a course of action for some time, and everyone seems pleased with the way the project is unfolding. Then suddenly – ‘oh s***!’ – something happens that provides a completely different perspective and, with a sinking feeling in your stomach, you realise that you couldn’t have been more wrong.

My personal ‘oh s***!’ moment occurred in 1993 at a European Foundation for Management Development conference in Copenhagen. At the time I was head of organisational development at a recently privatised utility. I’d read Prahalad and Hamel’s book about the core competence of the organisation, and had been so taken by the idea that I had introduced a programme to identify and exploit the company’s core competencies.

I had support within the business and I had become a leading light in the European Industrial Research Management Association, a European-wide body, where the programme was seen as best practice.

If I had external recognition, then surely I must be doing a good job and adding value?

As I listened to Paul Evans from the international business school INSEAD giving the closing speech, it began to dawn on me that I wasn’t adding any value at all. He talked about his depression over the previous two days after listening to company after company talking about what they were doing, most of which seemed to be disconnected from their business.

Everyone seemed to be going on about their latest management development programmes, but no-one seemed to be speaking about the challenges their businesses were facing, and how they were helping to address them. The ‘oh s***!’ moment came when he talked about “the world being full of solutions looking for problems”. That was exactly what I’d been doing.

I’d read a really interesting book and then thought about how I could implement it in the business. Of course, I’d constructed a business case, as good organisational development people do but if I’m honest, it was post-event rationalisation. What I hadn’t done was really understand, at a deep level, what challenges were facing the business, and what organisational development and HR needed to do to tackle them. You can’t sell electricity on the basis of anything but price, so the basic challenge was to make the business I was in the lowest cost producer – and the core competency networks that we had created contributed nothing to that.

This is the biggest challenge for HR, because we tend to get seduced by the latest management fad, the latest idea from a business guru (I once heard a guru say that the name ‘guru’ had stuck because journalists couldn’t spell charlatan), the latest product from a consultancy, or the latest idea picked up from some conference.

I remember speaking at one such conference a year ago at Henley, and it was intriguing how almost all the attendees were using 360-degree feedback, but few could articulate how it contributed to improving the performance of their businesses. Most were doing it because a consultant had sold it to them, or a company they respected was doing it, even though it was in a different business and facing different issues.

The challenge for HR is two-fold. How do we ensure that what we are doing is driven by the needs of the business, and how do we ensure we are always challenging our thinking?

We need to be looking for the ‘oh s***!’ moment that forces us to question not only whether we’re doing it right, but – more importantly – whether we are even doing the right things.

As long as HR measures its worth in terms of what it’s doing – as opposed to the difference it’s making to the business – it will never be a true business partner.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By Nick Holley, director, Henley Management College HR Centre of Excellence

Have you had an ‘oh s***!’ moment? Tell us about it. E-mail [email protected]

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
OH nurses should hand over tasks to OH technicians so they can focus on a co-ordinating role
next post
Breaking down barriers: a road test of Ceroc dancing for teambuilding

You may also like

Workplace disputes: ‘Most employment tribunals could be avoided’

12 Jun 2025

CIPD Festival of Work: ‘Wellbeing is not an...

11 Jun 2025

‘Task masking’ is about poor management, not rebellion

2 Jun 2025

Culture, ‘micro-incivilities’ and invisible talent

14 May 2025

University of Salford launches Better Working Lives cluster

14 May 2025

Why HR burnout is a strategic issue

12 May 2025

Rethinking talent: Who was never considered in the...

7 May 2025

Eight ways to best support grieving employees

6 May 2025

Leading with honest feedback: A responsibility in recruitment

24 Apr 2025

Succession planning now ‘more of a priority than...

24 Apr 2025

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+