How organisational transformation can be driven effectively by human resources
The human resources (HR) department plays a pivotal role by intervening effectively to ensure a smooth transformation
A key element of an organisation’s effort to stay ahead of the curve is its willingness to transform. With ever-evolving external ecosystem, organisations need to propel productivity and maintain its economics of scope and scale. As with any transformation, the time-period during which changes are implemented is the most turbulent. The human resources (HR) department plays a pivotal role by intervening effectively to ensure a smooth transformation.
To ensure that common roadblocks that stand in the way of organisational change management are overcome, the HR leaders are positioned ideally. To ensure the smooth passage for the process of change, organisations must engage the workforce as an active participant. While 90 percent organizations are at some stage of transformation at any given time, only 30 percent of the initiatives succeed. Therefore, the stakes are very high and HR leaders need to proactively devise strategies to ensure that employees are complying with various aspects of transformation of the company.
HR plays a central role in coordinating employees’ change-related workloads so they do not become overwhelmed. This necessitates the complete understanding of the process of transformation by the HR along with delineating checkpoints for change. Also, by emphasising on milestones and success stories, momentum can be created for change.
Transformation exercises may require moving people quickly into new roles, often with rapid shifts in career paths, training requirements, and compensation. The system of HR has to be highly agile with respect to capturing the changes and giving employees they need to evolve themselves with the business.
The unwritten rule for how people are treated and how things get done in an organisation is ‘culture’. HR leaders can tap into the cultural strong points to assimilate the transformation outcomes with it. This will help the incoming changes within the organisation become a part of the culture and hence create greater acceptance for such a change.
To make any transformation process successful, there is a need to bring influencers within the company onboard. Highly influential people are often at the heart of the change process, regardless of their official positions. Such informal leaders can be identified by the HR and can work with them as cultural change agents to ensure support for change or transformation.
The HR can tie the entire organisation together during a period of transformation by engaging in consistent communication through multiple channels and with stakeholders at every level, to ensure a cohesive workplace. Everyone from entry-level employees to the middle management to the C-suite needs to be engaged, knowing what to do to make the change initiative a success. They also need to understand that HR is there to support them as they undergo the transformation.
Managing the complexity of transformation in an organisation with diversified business lines across countries can be a big barrier for senior leadership. Since we are naturally averse to change, the organisation faces a lot of hardship to adapt to changing external conditions. But with the appropriate intervention of the HR, the organisation can be brought together to enable a transformation process that is driven by productivity.