In-Company Workshops for HR Leaders

	Taking your HR Role to the Next Level		HR Internal Consulting
	HR Business School		HR Capabilities Assessment

Are you enabling your HR leaders to increase their business impact?

• Applying a business point of view in identifying and addressing people-related issues?
• Fulfilling their "business partner" roles as client relationship managers, specialists, and internal consultants?
• Aligning human resource practices with changing business priorities?
• Effectively working with managers to implement effective change?

Your human resource organization has been making progress in:

• Redefining, reorganizing the human resource function
• Shifting services to external vendors (outsourcing) and internal shared services
• Adopting and applying information technology/systems
• Building functional excellence to address emerging challenges (e.g., recruiting and retention)

Now the challenge is to leverage the impact of these changes through your own roles as human resource leaders -- client relationship managers, internal HR consultants, and business partners

• Redefining relationships with managers and employees (clarifying expectations of your role and the overall HR community)
• Applying effective internal consulting techniques (asking the right questions, data gathering and analysis, problem solving, implementing change)
• Building the business case for change (understanding business forces and strategies, defining critical people-related issues, and building management commitment to action)
• Managing time and priorities (Getting more done with limited time and resources, setting priorities, managing expectations and measures, leveraging technology and others in the HR community, adopting a new approach to the work in your role)

Building more effective consulting into HR roles – asking the right questions and influencing business performance:

Introduction

• What is effective consulting?
• Most difficult consulting challenges
• Building consulting into HR roles and relationships

Identifying Consulting Opportunities

• Building the business case
• Defining issues/opportunities

Applying the Consulting Process

• Agreeing on the issues and the project
• Data gathering and analysis
• Developing conclusions and a course of action
• Implementing change

Raising the Bar

• Professional challenges in consulting
• Developing consulting skills
• Measuring and evaluating consulting results

Through role-play exercises and cases we refresh participant skills in the key elements of effective consulting.

We have customized the workshop for several clients, incorporating company-specific cases and role-play exercises. During the past two years we have conducted more than twenty workshops for HR leaders in the U.S., London, Zurich, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

We have also adapted the workshop to focus on specific skills as a session in the annual HR Conference for companies.

This program develops HR leadership capabilities by looking at HR from a business point of view. The Human Resource Business School (HRBS) helps human resource professionals and managers strengthen their business perspective and leadership skills to become more effective partners with management in addressing the challenges of managing business change.

We have conducted the program publicly for ten years, including two years at the Aresty Institute of Executive Education, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. We have customized and conducted the program for United Technologies Corporation, Prudential Insurance, Arthur Andersen and other companies. We have also adapted the program as shorter workshops for UNUMProvident, Canon USA, Kaiser Permanente, PSEG, and other clients.

Past participants say the Human Resource Business School helped them to redefine their roles as leaders of business change. The program equipped them to:

• Analyze and interpret competitive, environmental and organizational changes influencing business strategies—and opportunities to gain competitive advantage through people.

• Apply a business point of view in defining human resource issues and developing human resource strategies

• Understand the critical elements of managing change effectively, and the capabilities required to accelerate change while achieving lasting results

• Understand the evolving roles of human resource staff in achieving business change -- implementing business and human resource strategies.

• Define personal or team action plans for redefining roles and refocusing performance and development priorities

• Follow up on their implementation by maintaining contacts with HRBS participants.

Case studies of company strategic and people-related issues:

• Analyzing leading company cases and your own company’s strategies and people-related issues

• Interpreting forces changing the competitive landscape

• Actually formulating and implementing business and people-related strategies

Increasing business impact through HR leadership:

• Clarifying HR roles and relationships

• Shaping expectations of managers and employees

• Utilizing business-focused measures

• Leveraging the HR community

• Developing needed capabilities

HRBS was designed to meet a very specific need of human resource managers and professionals -- to prepare for the challenges of aligning human resource management practices with the changing demands of the business. Unlike other programs for HR leaders, the program engages participants in actual business analysis and strategy formulation and then helps them develop a business approach for defining and addressing people-related business issues.

HRBS is an action learning program, providing an integrated experience, not merely a series of presenters. The program leaders participate in the full program, facilitating the learning process. The highly participative experience emphasizes exchange of experiences and viewpoints among participants representing different companies and backgrounds in the context of individual study, team case analysis, team projects, presentations, and overall group discussion. Original materials are developed for HRBS based on current business cases and materials customized for the company.

The program guides participants from objective business analysis to personal behavior change — from awareness and knowledge building to personal development and action planning. Past participants say that HRBS achieves more in less time than longer residential programs they have attended.

HRBS is most useful to individuals who are in roles or moving into roles involving achievement of business change and the implementation of strategies at corporate and business unit levels – including HR managers or directors, HR internal consultants, project leaders, or functional experts and service leaders.

HR Capabilities Assessment (1/2 – 1 day)

This workshop focuses on the HR Leadership Capabilities framework developed and validated by The Walker Group over the past decade. Developed in collaboration with Otis Elevator Company and other companies, the framework defines the capabilities required to perform expected leadership roles: shaping strategy, defining HR strategy, leading change, aligning HR processes, and achieving results.

Participants are given background reading in advance of the workshop. Additionally, they also complete a self-assessment and solicit multi-rater feedback from six client managers or peers).

We begin with a presentation and discussion of Changing HR Leadership Roles and Capabilities. Time allowing, we use several exercises to stimulate and guide discussion of expectations in the participant’s organizations.

Next we present and discuss the overall results of the multi-rater feedback for the participant group. We profile the results of the group relative to the results gathered in our reference data base from other companies. We identify the capabilities rated high and low, both by the participants and by their raters. We also contrast the highs and lows relative to those in other companies.

We give each individual a personalized report of their results and assist in the identification of strengths and development needs.

Finally, we address effective ways to develop capabilities, including personal development planning that includes a variety of relevant development actions. We show participants how to use the Development Action Guide on this web site.