Alignment with Corporate Goals

"The holy grail is: 'how can you achieve a people strategy without commitment from the top? How do you integrate it into the business?' The solution is to develop the strategy together and make sure [the board] talk about the people stuff… Too often HR is invited to the table as a guest or comes in at the end and is told: 'Now, fit your bit into this'."

Karen Moir
Director of Organizational Development
Britannia Building Society

Executive Summary

1.   This briefing examines the options for companies that set out to align HR with corporate goals.

2.   The weaknesses of subjective techniques such as scenario planning on the one hand and over-analytical planning on the other, have led companies back to methods that rely on an iterative process of planning, review and adjustment.

3.   A case study of BT shows how the company developed an integrated approach to HR based on four elements: business drivers, the BT corporate strategy, cost factors including the relationship with key business partner Accenture, and the BT HR strategy.

4.   When it comes to the effectiveness of HR in winning the confidence and support of the business, Business Intelligence's research reveals that only a third of respondents believe that their contribution is seen as 'extremely relevant'.

5.   The findings show that those HR directors whose contribution is seen as 'extremely relevant' can demonstrate their achievement in terms of the achievement of corporate goals. Perhaps most significantly, this group is consulted at an early stage in the strategy-planning process. This last factor turns out to be far more important in accounting for line management confidence than having a seat on the board. A fifth of those who enjoyed a high level of confidence were not on the board.

6.   The majority of confident HR directors, while not on the board, are executive managers who share in the important decisions and have extensive cross-functional contact with other parts of the organization.

7.   A case study of the Allied Irish Bank shows how the HR function was reorganized and aligned with business strategy.

Case studies: British Telecom, Allied Irish Bank

If you are a subscriber, click here to read the full briefing.

Click here to find out how to subscribe.