The Strategic role & Functional Value Proposition of HR

It was great to see many of you in person at our CHRO Board meeting in Scottsdale, AZ.  And, for those who were able to join us virtually, we hope you were able to take away good value as well.

For your reference and to share with your teams, below is a summary of what was discussed and what is next.  

• We spent the morning with Professor John Boudreau and Pete Ramstad who shared their thoughts and work on “The strategic role and functional value proposition of HR”.  This resulted in a very lively discussion with our Board members, which is captured in the link above.  John and Pete have graciously shared the entire slide deck from their presentation and simply ask that you keep this deck confidential.
• We began the afternoon with a review of the i4cp People-Profit Chain™ model, and the five domains of high performance (Market, Strategy, Culture, Leadership, Talent), with Kevin Martin.  We then focused on the “Culture” domain, with Kevin Oakes offering his insights and perspective from his book “Culture Renovation”.  Many members of this Board (as well as CHROs in general) are being asked to provide greater insights and data related to culture health, progress in DE&I, the firm’s reputation as an employer (i.e., employer brand), and overall readiness of the workforce, among other human capital areas. The importance of these will continue to grow as firms emphasize and attempt to advance on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts.
• We finalized the day with small-group breakouts and reports-back on the lessons learned from the day. A few topics stood out:  
  1. How best to get to the point of fully participating in the strategic business planning process.  Specifically, there was a request to outline a sequence of steps that would lead to competency in strategic planning.
  2. Practical examples of alternative HR organization structures and operating models, including any new HR roles on the horizon.
  3. What does ESG really mean for organizations and for HR, and how best to advance on the S&G elements?
  4. Developing predictive analytics and leader mindset/capability needed to shape the future of the organization and avoid potential pitfalls.

We will follow-up on these questions in a future session.

Up next: Our virtual CHRO board meeting via Zoom scheduled for May 12^th at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET.

Attached are notes highlighting the key themes from the in-person board meeting.