Review Learning and Build into on Going HR Capability Development

We have already noted how one of our case study organisations has engaged in HR capability development over some years now and has used the experience of each wave to focus development on new requirements that will help the organisation achieve its strategic goals.

Review can take a number of forms and the following have been beneficial:

• Review after each learning intervention — although this is essentially 'in the moment feedback' it allows you to change design to make the learning experience more appropriate to participants.
• More formal review after a phase of development activity — conducting a short review to identify how participants have used the new knowledge in their work and to gather more considered reflections on the learning experience.
• Use of the capability framework to assess shift in capability — typically as part of a more formal development discussion.
• Customer survey — to assess how colleagues in the organisation have experienced HR and whether they are working with HR professionals in different ways.

We believe that irrespective of how you articulate and build HR capability, the most important thing is that developing HR professionals is not ignored or cut short. HR professionals need to know what is expected of them in their transformed roles and they need to be given support to acquire and apply new capabilities.

Invest in HR Capability Development | Excellent Business Partnering

Without investment in ongoing capability development many HR professionals will be left knowing what they need to do differently but without the knowledge and skills to contribute differently.

Where possible, we strongly recommend that HR professionals achieve professional qualifications and accreditation through their relevant professional institute or governing body. This is important in building the credibility of HR, in ensuring professional standards and in developing a community of influential HR professionals. However, the acquisition of a formal professional qualification does not always address sufficiently the full range of capabilities that HR professionals need to acquire to operate as effectivebusiness partners.

A pre requisite must be to include a cost line for capability development in any business case for HR transformation or in the HR budget. There will be a one-off investment needed (particularly in the new capability areas). There will also be an on-going need to invest — to keep stretching people and to bring new joiners up to speed.

So, what are the approaches to capability development? In addition to the 'on-the-job' forms for development there are five main strands to consider:

1. Mandatory workshops
2. Optional workshops
3. Action learning groups
4. Coaching
5. Mentoring
6. Self-managed learning/on-the-job development

We have used combinations of each where we have supported capability development. Below we set out things to consider in broad terms for each strand followed by three case studies showing how organisations have blended these strands.

Mandatory Workshops

Typically workshops are offered to address the three new capability areas — although one of the case study organisations also made organisational design mandatory. These workshops are intended not just to deliver knowledge and skills, but also to deliver three additional benefits to HR:

• Create a common language
• Deliver a consistent approach and tool kit
• Create a network and community amongst HR professionals

In this way, even if some HR professionals have already acquired the requisite capabilities, there are benefits in their participating in mandatory workshops so that the additional benefits set out above are realised across the HR professional community. Additionally, more experienced members of the HR team should be encouraged to share their knowledge and experience.

Optional Workshops

Here, the workshops described above (or slight variations of these) are offered to HR professionals but are not mandatory. In addition, optional workshops have also been offered in areas such as 'Becoming a trusted advisor', 'Influencing skills', 'Facilitation skills' and 'Managing Conflict'.

The main advantage in this approach is that those HR professionals considered to be competent in a capability area need not repeat the training. The benefits of this approach are:

• Training is focused on identified need.
• Overall development costs are reduced (or spent on areas of identified need).
• Individuals considered competent in a particular capability area are motivated to address development gaps rather than attend workshops where they consider themselves skilled.

Action Learning Groups

Action learning groups typically comprise around 6-8 members, supported by an external facilitator, with the aim over time for the group to become self-managing. The approach is based on the group working on real business issues. Learning is achieved at two levels — applying the knowledge and experience of the group to the issue under discussion. Reflecting on the way the group works together as a learning experience in its own right.

This approach to HR capability development is used in two main ways:

1. Each participant brings his or her own 'live' issue or project to address with the group.
2. The group works on a 'live' business issue together over a period of meetings.

The first of these approaches places the onus on the individual to identify an issue and bring it to the group. In our experience, this approach has not always been successful with the main challenges being that people do not prepare sufficiently and they are not skilled in framing a problem or issue in a way the group can engage with quickly. However, where this approach has succeeded it has enabled participants to apply knowledge in the new capability areas very quickly and there is early pay back to the organisation on the investment made in development.

The second approach is more thematic. Some of the learning groups we have supported have tackled more strategic themes, examples being how to increase levels of engagement; the employee of the future; increasing line manager capability in people skills. With this approach, the learning groups decide how to approach the task and, with the support of the facilitator, take 'time outs' to reflect on how the group is working and to think about how to use tools and techniques related to the new capability areas. This approach builds deep bonds between group members and by the end of the process, groups are also self-managing.

In our experience this is a powerful way of learning as it not only engages theory and practice, but also gives organisations an immediate return on their investment. We anticipate that this approach to learning will gain ground in coming years linked also with virtual learning environments.

Coaching

Coaching has its place in the development repertoire and, in our work with organisations, has been used in two ways:

1. In its more conventional sense of an external coach working on a number of coaching objectives with an individual. Typically, this approach has been used with more senior members of the HR leadership team.
2. As part of the action learning group process — where individual coaching sessions are held between learning group meetings with two objectives: First, to help the individual reflect on the experience of the learning group and their contribution. Second, to address individual development goals that are inappropriate to be tackled at a learning group meeting.

This latter approach has been particularly powerful and has enabled individuals to accelerate the application of new capabilities.

Mentoring

Mentoring has been used in two different ways:

• Linking HR professionals with other HR professionals. For example, people who are at 'Mastery' in a given capability area with those who are developing that capability;
• Linking HR professionals with colleagues outside of HR primarily to build their knowledge of the business and to improve the way they influence the organisation.

Where possible, HR mentoring should be integrated into any organisational approach to mentoring.

Self-Managed Learning/On-the-Job Development

Individuals clearly need to take ownership for their development too. Most self-managed learning can be linked to general resources available to the wider management population — whether e-learning resources from business schools, library resources or links to external Web sites such as the CIPD.

On-the-job development can include work shadowing, work placements, project roles, temporary assignments, meeting/workshop facilitation, project team leadership.

In terms of HR partner capability, there is also a challenge to HR professionals to read more broadly — including publications like Financial Times, McKinsey Quarterly, HarvardBusiness Review, Sloan Management Review and The Economist. Each of these brings interesting insights from the world of Consultancy and Academia which HR professionals should be using with internal clients to change the conversations they hold and bring fresh thinking to the table.

In the following we set out three examples of how different organisations have tackled capability development.

---

Case Study — AXA UK

AXA has combined mandatory workshops, optional workshops and self-managed learning.

Mandatory workshops include (but are not limited to) consulting skills and organisational design. These were chosen because organisational design was considered to be a significant gap across the HR community and a strategic skill set. Consulting skills were also a significant gap and there was a strong need to build a common approach in the way HR professionals engaged with business colleagues.

A suite of optional workshops is available to HR professionals to sup-plement the mandatory workshops and to address areas such as project management.

E-learning and other learning resources are available through the organisation's Intranet to address specific individual development needs.

Development plans are agreed and monitored as part of the performance review process.

---

---

Case Study — National Grid

National Grid has engaged in HR capability development over some years now and has completed a number of 'waves' of development. Development has focused mainly on mandatory workshops, action learning groups, coaching and mentoring.

The first wave was to put all HR professionals (irrespective of organisational level) through mandatory workshops in the areas of strategy and change management, client relationship management and project management.

The second wave established action learning groups supported by coaching of learning group participants. These learning groups were thematic and coaching reinforced the learning group experience and addressed individual development needs that were inappropriate to address in a learning group context.

A third wave of development is in progress — partly to bring new joiners up to speed on new capabilities and partly to build HR capability in internally developed change management methodology.

As capability development covered all HR professionals, including the HR leadership team, it proved to be very effective:

• HR leaders were able to contribute their experience to more junior members of the team.
• A common language and tool kit were developed which could be reinforced through the line management structure.

---

---

Case Study — Global Telecoms Business

This organisation decided to roll out mandatory workshops for the bulk of the HR professional community and run learning groups supported by coaching for the HR leadership group.

The mandatory workshops in all three new capability areas (strategy & change management, consulting skills and project management) were extremely successful and went a long way to creating a common language and toolkit. Although the HR leadership team thought they already had the capability covered by mandatory workshops, this was not the case.

In this instance the approach taken to learning groups was for each person to bring along his or her own 'live' issue. We experienced two problems — first, people did not prepare adequately for the learning group, and second, they did not have the requisite knowledge in the new capability areas and more time was spent in covering ground addressed in workshops than on the 'live' issues.

The main learning here was that adopting a dual approach for the HR leadership team/the rest of HR was ineffective as the HR leadership did not have the foundation tools and techniques they thought they had which meant they played 'catch up' and were unable to provide the coaching and support to team members that would have been beneficial.

Whilst aspects of this capability development approach were successful, the dual approach adopted falls into the 'How not to' category and we do not recommend it.

Establish a Capability Baseline | Excellent Business Partnering

Establishing performance expectations through a capability framework or equivalent will enable you to baseline current capability. This capability assessment can be integrated with the performance review process or stand alone as a developmental discussion. What your capability framework will enable you to do is allow line and HR to self assess against the performance levels and to discuss this assessment with their line managers.

National Grid has adopted a similar approach to baseline capability for line managers, shared services and HR Partners (generalist and specialist). This approach is set out in the following case study.

---

Case Study — National Grid

The example below is taken from the line manager self-assessment for Manage ER and Cases:

Element	Not applicable at this stage	Significant development need	Development need	Adequate	A clear strength
Able to access, interpret and act upon policies and processes that relate to a Case
Effectively manage short- and longterm sickness absence
Conduct the dismissal process

Elements were categorised: essential for all managers, event driven (just in time development) and not essential for all managers.

For shared services and HR Partners a similar self-assessment, followed by manager review process, was adopted.

---

AXA has adopted a different approach to baseline capability and this is reflected in the following case study.

---

Case Study — AXA UK

Development options are listed for each of the four performance levels to enable HR professionals to create their development plan. Quite a few of these options are mandatory. This approach is based on a view that most HR professionals do not have the required new capabilities. Base lining is therefore about ensuring people have met mandatory skills acquisition at their level and that HR develops and uses a common language and toolkit.

An example capability development sheet for business partners and senior business partners is as follows:

Capabilities
Demonstrates the impact of HR interventions on thebusiness KPIs and the strategic plan Challenges the status quo Leads specific aspects of organisational change, e.g., organisational design elements Contributes to the development of business HR strategy Translates HR interventions into business benefits Designs and/or supports initiatives and programmes Coaches middle-senior line managers Manages key HR projects Demonstrates a broad understanding of the external influences that impact the business

---

Development needs
	Awareness and application of OD best practice Commercial and businessawareness Consulting skills Influencing skills Project management skills Change management skills Coaching skills

Development activity
		Organisation design skills Organisation design skills Influencing skills Facilitation skills Advanced presentation skills—winning hearts and minds Project management Change management Improving performance through coaching

Define Performance Expectations | Excellent Business Partnering

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

---

Case Study — National Grid

As part of implementing a shared services model, National Grid has set out in detail the expectations of managers in delivering their people management responsibilities. These expectations are set out under four headings:

1. Manage ER and Cases
2. Manage Rewards and Benefits
3. Manage Resourcing (recruitment, leavers and contracts of employment)
4. Manage Learning and Development (training, development and talent)

A number of capabilities are then identified under each of these four headings. Some capabilities are common to all areas, for example, ability to access, interpret and act upon policies and processes that relate to that area; understanding of relevant employment legislation for that area. Other capabilities are specific to each area. Some examples for the area of Manage ER and Cases are:

• Compose appropriate correspondence associated with the different stages of a case.
• Effectively manage short-and long-term absence.
• Administer a formal verbal and written warning.
• Conduct a dismissal process.

The National Grid approach emphasises to managers that if they feel out of their depth or if they are dealing with a dismissal or appeal they should phone HR for assistance and advice.

Across all capability areas, some capabilities are essential for all managers and some are not. For example, conducting an appeal is not considered essential for all managers.

---

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.

---

Case Study — National Grid

In implementing its shared services centre, National Grid developed a capability framework which differentiated between 'What we do' and 'How we do it'.

• What We Do capabilities focused on: Process, Information, Quality.
• How We Do It capabilities focused on: Client Relationships, Working Together, Communication and Project Management.

Each of these seven capabilities had a number of capability areas. So, Process, for example, had three capability areas:

1. manages workflows effectively,
2. builds expertise in policies,
3. delivers HR processes.

Four performance levels were then aligned to each of these capability areas. So, for 'Delivers HR Processes', Level 1 performance requirement was 'can follow defined processes' whereas Level 4 performance requirement was 'creates processes and matches them with customers'.

---

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:

1. 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.
2. Consulting Skills — the ability to work with clients through a consulting process so that the outcomes are owned by the client. Influencing, credibility, conflict resolution, facilitation, coaching are all characteristics of effective consulting.
3. 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.
4. 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.

 
Figure 1: AXA HR career paths.

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.