IN today’s era of unprecedented change, business leaders, starting with CEOs and board members, can play important roles as informed and decisive change agents on the road to transformation, particularly in light of the survey’s findings that lack of available funding is the top-cited challenge (47 percent) to implementing new and innovative technologies, such as process and cognitive automation into the human-resources (HR) function.
Taking on the role of change agent will mean differentiating between how leaders have reacted historically versus how they should respond in today’s dramatically different world—while understanding the very real risk of inertia amid their uncertainty. Organizations on the path to transformation are demonstrating strong, proactive, and informed leadership. They define themselves as among the movers rather than the followers, harnessing “the winds of change” to pursue initiatives that are uncomfortable but inevitable for future success.
Beyond leadership, many organizations are coming up short on change management. While a quarter of businesses told us that they view HR as a key business asset that can add strategic value, the biggest challenges cited in delivering strategic value include inadequate change-management capabilities (36 percent) and shortcomings in supporting new HR technologies (43 percent).
Strategic change management has been instrumental to the success of transformation initiatives that are well underway at UK-based AXA, according to Julie Scott, AXA’s Group HR COO, particularly in managing dramatic organizational changes that are not always warmly received by employees. “There’s always going to be a degree of resistance, a fear of the unknown, when asking people to learn new skills and change their roles. That’s where change management comes in— it’s not a surprise to us, it’s just the biggest battle.”
The transformation journey became far more complex than imagined this year for PotashCorp as it took on the unique challenge of transforming its HR function while merging the 5,000-employee organization with Agrium to create a $36-billion business of 20,000 employees working in 18 countries.
“This is the rocket ship we strap ourselves to now in order to integrate companies, cultures and systems and assure future success,” says Lee Knafelc, senior vice president, Human Resources and Administration, PotashCorp. “Proactive leadership, strategic change management and consistent communication simply must be there. Be decisive, act boldly and communicate, communicate, communicate.”
Organizations like PotashCorp and AXA are wisely focused on “the big picture” for successful transformation, taking a holistic, strategic view that articulates a comprehensive financial analysis, key organizational expectations, anticipated ROI, immediate and longer-term priorities and more. Unfortunately, the findings show many companies are going forward on transformation initiatives without first creating a business case to precisely define what change and success will actually look like.
Swiss Re Management Ltd. views transformation as a long-term initiative requiring exceptional focus and strategy to position the organization for future success. Improvements to date include new levels of cost efficiency and streamlined processes provided by intuitive new systems easily accessible for managers and employees.
The article “A call to action on the need for HR transformation — be a disruptor” by Mark Spears and Robert Bolton, KPMG in the UK, and Mike DiClaudio, KPMG in the US, was taken from KPMG’s publication entitled “HR Transformation: Which lens are you using?”
© 2017 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member-firm of the KPMG network of independent member-firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (KPMG International), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
For more information on KPMG in the Philippines, you may visit www.kpmg.com.ph.