As market conditions continue to shift, companies are clamoring for effective solutions that allow them to do more with less. It’s not just the highly astute that begin doing more with less by eliminating roles that do not generate a return on investment. It is, however the highly astute that weigh the pros and cons of such actions and put contingency plans in place to counter any reduction of force or elimination of process or systems.
Our business at Keen has morphed dramatically from our initiating purpose. We thought we were in the business of helping companies hire right, it turns out that we are in the business of partnering with companies to generate a higher level of return on any of their people investments. In the past year we have embarked on major HR transformation projects that shift the way companies operate around their talent. At first blush, one might think that we are in the ‘fluff’ business; our customers tell us it is anythi
ng but that.
One of our biggest accomplishments this year was a result of facilitating a 2-Day
HR Strategy session; during that session the business leaders of the company clearly defined the departments future as Talent Centric, Strategic Business partners. Inside of that commitment it became apparent that there were several tasks and roles that were no longer necessary to do inside the organization. The result was the firm choosing to take all administrative HR functions and outsource them. Their savings was $7,500,000 over 4 years. Now that is real money.
Another large accomplishment for Keen was installing an Emerging Leader program inside a company with no retention programming, no succession planning, no next level leadership development. In actuality, when this company reviewed their most recent risk assessment results their number one issue was that they have no one in line or on the bench take over for the 5 Sr. VPs when and if they leave the organization. Within 12 months we rolled out a leadership development program that focuses on leadership competency development, core leadership values and effective management skills necessary to carry forth the vision, mission, profitability and customer retention goals of the company.
Yesterday, I received a call from a publicly traded company. They have 150 on site employees and 6 HR staff. For multiple reasons they need to operate more fiscally prudent and more people strategic. They are embarking on a complete transformation of who HR is and what they provide; as that happens at more and more companies those of us providing outside HR & Talent Solutions, Consulting and Recruitment need to up the ante on what we offer and how we deliver. Those of us working internally in HR or Talent Management must increase the level of strategic impact we make on the organization in order to remain an active player in the company.
The time for change in who we are being and what we contribute is now.
Comments