Having clarified the contribution expected from line managers, shared services and HR professionals, the next step is to turn this into a set of performance expectations. We have chosen to use the term 'capability framework' to describe this set of performance expectations.
Our experience in developing HR capability frameworks with a wide range of organisations highlights two general points:
- All of the capability frameworks we have been involved in developing have over 80% common elements. In this sense, we can claim to have identified a set of capabilities that these organisations believe to be core to the role of business partner and specialist.
- Each organisation needs to articulate its capability framework in its own way and in language relevant to that organisation. In this sense, there is no one-size-fits-all as each organisation will emphasise different contributions required from HR to deliver its strategic agenda.
Although these statements may appear to be contradictory they are not. What it means is that whilst we have found broad agreement on the capabilities that need to be developed, each organisation will want to express these in a way that is relevant to its circumstances.
Line Manager Capabilities
Many line manager capabilities will remain those expected of people managers. So, being able to select the right people, set goals, motivate the team, give feedback, deal with under-performance, etc. will remain core to the line manager role. What you will need to work out is where you draw the boundary between the line manager role in people management and HR's. This will include being clear about the extent to which managers must use self-service for reporting, policy and process information; take full or partial responsibility for people processes such as talent acquisition, employee relations and case management, reward and benefits, etc.
Here we give an example of how National Grid has approached this task.
Shared Services Capabilities
Similarly, it is important to define the capabilities required of those people working in shared service centres, if you have these. These also need to reflect the model adopted by your organisation. So, for some HR shared service centres a 'shallow' model applies where capabilities focus mainly on administration, policy advice and help desk. Other organisations may have a 'deep' model which may also include end-to-end processes including policy development. In this instance your capability requirements are going to overlap with those in specialist roles/ centres of expertise.
We again use an example from National Grid to illustrate the types of capabilities that apply in a 'deep' shared services model.
HR Partner Capabilities
To initiate discussion on HR Partner (generalist and specialist) capabilities, our starting point is typically a 'strawman' capability framework containing the following elements:
- Strategy and Change Management — the ability to both shape and execute the organisation's strategic agenda. Explicit in this capability area is knowledge of the 'business' and of change management tools and techniques that will enable your organisation to deliver its strategic agenda.
- Project Management — to use the principles of project management (it is not about becoming an expert on Prince 2 or similar Programme Management methodologies) to shape work so that the value proposition is transparent to clients. In this way, work should have clear terms of reference, deliverables, timescales, resource estimates, etc.
- Core HR Skills — we still need to bring our traditional core HR skills (in Talent Acquisition, Employee Engagement, Learning and Development, Recognition and Reward, HR Information) to the table, but our focus needs to be more on their strategic contribution rather than process excellence.
We have found high levels of buy-in to the three new capability areas of strategy and change management, consulting skills and project management. In defining performance criteria, the following considerations are important:
- the number of performance levels you need to put in place to reflect the breadth of capability in your HR team;
- the level of detail you want to go into to describe performance levels;
- how an HR capability framework integrates with other leadership frameworks you may have;
- how the capability framework dovetails with HR career paths.
Organisations we have worked with have tackled these considerations in different ways. Here we present three examples of how largely common content has been developed in different ways.
Example 1: Discovery communications
Discovery Communications have articulated HR capabilities under seven areas:
- Commercial
- Operational
- HR Expert
- Culture and Change Champion
- Organisation Development and Talent
- Credible Activist
- Creative and Innovative
Capability requirements are set out under each of these areas. So, for example,
- Commercial includes: knows how the business makes money; understands costs versus value.
- Culture and Change Champion includes: effectively manages change programmes; helps leaders share the company's culture and contributes to a positive climate.
- Operational includes: helps internal customers navigate through HR processes; customises solutions to achieve the right business results.
- HR Expert includes the development of expertise in the areas of ER, L&D, Recruitment, C&B and Project Management.
- Credible Activist includes: able to use knowledge and turn it into action; applies a consulting approach to the HR role.
- Organisational Development and Talent includes: actively works with the business to design and develop the organisation; supports internal and external talent pipeline growth.
- Creative and Innovative includes: customises solutions to achieve the right business results; initiates change and takes proactive suggestions to the leaders.
As Discovery Communications is a leader in creative media it was thought important that HR also mirrored this broader business capability of creativity and innovation. HR needs to be working in that space too!
When Nicky Riding took up the role of HR Director EMEA it was the first time Discovery had an integrated HR function to support its EMEA business. It was also clear that an enthusiastic and able HR team needed to be focused on those capabilities that would help the business perform. A relatively flat structure exists and therefore the approach taken is straightforward with a common list of requirements set out under each heading.
Example 2: AXA UK
AXA uses the visual below to articulate HR capability areas.
For each of the capability areas there are four levels of capability: Entry Level, Foundation Level, Building and Expert.
Performance criteria are set out for each level and capability area. Examples (not an exhaustive list) of those performance criteria used at Foundation Level are:
- understands and interprets business strategy,
- understands the KPIs within the business,
- delivers key aspects of organisational change,
- coaches front line supervisors,
- is commercially aware,
- influences, communicates and consults with senior managers, builds relationships with the business.
This approach does not set out the subsets for each capability area but does define performance criteria at levels between Foundation (Entry Point) and Expert (Mastery). In addition, AXA have also defined capabilities in some detail for the new capability areas of organisational design, project management, consulting skills and change management.
AXA have also set out a high-level career path, showing that as people progress hierarchically, their core HR knowledge and expertise become less important and the 'new' capability areas become more important. A visual used by this organisation is given in Figure 1.
Our third example is again National Grid. In the first edition of this book we presented the National Grid HR capability framework in some detail. This framework has been in place since 2001 and has been updated recently. The initial framework and the outcome of a recent review are shown in Example 3:
Example 3: National grid
HR capabilities were defined around the following framework:
This framework therefore incorporated five core HR capabilities (shown in the pentagon) and three new capability areas:
- Strategy and Change Management,
- Client Relationship Management,
- Project Management.
For each of these eight capability areas a set of capabilities were defined along with relevant performance levels, against which HR professionals could self assess.
This framework was reviewed in 2008. Most of the framework reviewed remained unchanged. The main changes made were to place a stronger emphasis on the following:
- designing and implementing appropriate organisational structures,
- quantifying the value of HR services delivered,
- ensuring projects reflect task (what) and process (how),
- developing resourcing strategies and plans,
- putting in place strategies and plans to build organisational capability.
National Grid is a good example of an organisation that has developed and worked with a framework over time and, through applying the 80/20 rule, has made adjustments to the framework to reflect changing business priorities without losing the robustness of the initial content.
These are not the only ways to express HR Partner capabilities. Other organisations we have worked with have adopted a lighter touch and others have gone into greater detail. What is important is that the capability framework makes sense to your organisation and to your HR professionals and enables you to identify capability gaps and development needs.
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