Making the CEO’s Business the HR Business
Jacky Wearn, a speaker at the marcus evans HR&Talent Summit 2010 on aligning business strategy with HR strategy.
Human Resource (HR) directors should be genuinely connected to the business agenda and making the CEO’s business their business, advises Jacky Wearn, Global Head of Organisational Effectiveness at British American Tobacco. Aligning HR with the business needs to ensure that time, energy and effort spent, deliver value to the organisation. A keynote speaker at the marcus evans HR&Talent Summit 2010 taking place in Switzerland, 14 – 16 June 2010, Wearn discusses long-term strategies for HR directors and the criticality of HR engagement with senior management.
What should be on HR directors’ agendas today?
Jacky Wearn: Europe is still at various stages of the recession with
some of its economies still struggling, which has consequently filtered
through to the HR functions within businesses. This translates to
various issues for HR directors to deal with – ensuring that the
business retains top talent, keeping the business lean and agile, not
only surviving the economic conditions but also thriving.
It is important that HR executives stay engaged and very connected with
the business leaders throughout this process. There is a tendency for
HR people to retreat to their offices in such times, but it is exactly
the time when they should be more engaged with the business.
If HR directors are genuinely connected to where the business leaders
are at, in terms of their thoughts, concerns around the business and
their people agenda, it will be easier for them to influence the
corporate strategies and drive the appropriate talent processes forward
in what is a pretty tough economic time. HR directors should continue
to make the CEO’s business their own business. It would be interesting
to know how much time they are spending with senior business partners
and the level of dialogue that is taking place on the talent management
agenda. We pay a lot of lip service to it, but certainly in our
organisation, our top HR team does not believe that it is spending as
much time with top directors discussing business challenges and the
talent agenda of the company as it would like.
Which HR programmes have proved successful at British American Tobacco?
Jacky Wearn: We are embarking on a transformation of our HR function
and pretty much an organisational transformation. We recognise that we
are in a position of competitive strength, but there is absolutely no
room for complacency. We have developed a pilot programme around
engagement and consulting skills, to ensure what is needed to deliver
projects on time and on budget, influence clients and really drive the
change agenda of the business. The feedback we have so far is that
these are exactly the sort of skills needed in order to be strong
business partners at this time.
We are trying to be much more efficient and effective in the way that
we deliver our HR agenda to the business; we are reviewing the
processes we need to deliver HR in line with BAT’s business strategy.
What capabilities do we need to deliver those processes? Which skills
and competencies? It is a process-led piece of work, showing once again
that the starting point is understanding what the business drivers are
and aligning the HR strategy to the business strategy. Thus, what we
spend time, energy and effort on delivering, is what the business
actually needs.
What long-term strategies would you recommend to HR directors in Europe?
Jacky Wearn: The smart organisations, irrespective of the market
positions of the last 18 months to two years, continued to proactively
attract top talent into their organisations. The organisations that
have continued to make bets into those areas, even though they have not
always had the future profit stream to be able to justify that
investment, will be the winners as we emerge from this economic period.
HR directors should continue to be courageous with talent acquisition,
and not settle with non-fitting, low- or mid-range talent just because
they lack the courage or because it is difficult to release some people
and hire new people into the organisation.
In this increasingly networked world, it is very important for HR directors to spend time with peers and colleagues from other environments – sharing best practices, understanding what works well and what does not, and appreciating other companies’ cultures and coming back and seeding in some of those new ideas into their own organisation, in order to keep that external perspective. I consider that very important.
Contact: Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: + 357 22 849 313
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com
About the HR&Talent Summit 2010
This unique forum will take place at the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, Montreux, Switzerland, 14 – 16 June 2010. Offering much more than any conference, seminar or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on attaining ultimate employee performance, talent scouting and organisational transformation.
For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website at http://www.hrtalentsummit.com/JackyWearnInterview
Please note that the summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-to-one business meetings. For more information, please visit http://www.marcusevans.com
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