Research Briefs – February 2013

In This Issue

1. Linking HR Strategy with Business Strategy: Optimizing the Impact of HR Practices on Business Results
2. The Forgotten Risk: Dealing with Project Manager Departures
3. Looking to the Future: What Will Make HR Successful?

Linking HR Strategy with Business Strategy: Optimizing the Impact of HR Practices on Business Results
Paul Juniper and Jim Harrison

We have moved into an era where traditional support services – HR, Finance, IT, Administration, Legal etc. – are under increasing daily pressure to produce a more direct impact on business results. The business rationale for this pressure is easy to understand. Organizations – both public and private – are being pushed by customers, boards of directors, analysts, and investors to do more with the resources they have or – in many cases – do more with less. Deliver more services. Deliver them faster and with more value in more locations. Customize the experience. Gather, analyze and integrate data in a multitude of ways to enhance controls and cross-selling. Provide 24/7 access. Allow flexible work hours. Provide life-long learning and work-life balance. Move everything online – and make it accessible everywhere, with full privacy and security.

You get the picture. And we well imagine that if you are reading this article you are – in many ways – living that picture. To be taken seriously as HR professionals, we need to be relevant to our audience.

To be relevant to the organizational leaders and C-Suite executives we serve, we need to understand and adopt the goals and objectives of the organization and make them our goals and objectives. To do this requires that we directly link our HR strategies to the strategies – and ultimately the success – of the business we are serving.

A strategy is an articulated plan that enables an organization to make optimum use of its people, resources and investments in order to achieve its goals and objectives. In this article we offer a small taste of what it means for HR practitioners to connect their HR strategies to those of the business leaders they serve. These ideas, mindsets, and skills are explored and expanded upon in a hands-on, interactive programed offered by Queen's IRC called Linking HR Strategy with Business Strategy.

>> Download Article

The Forgotten Risk: Dealing with Project Manager Departures
Kathy Cowan Sahadath

What do you do when the project manager of your major strategic project departs, unexpectedly? While there is a great deal of project management literature to provide guidance on a number of questions, there appears to be very little advice on how to deal with this situation. Given the nature of organizations today, and the level of change evident in all organizations, one would expect that this is a relatively frequent occurrence and a potentially damaging risk for projects. Yet it seems to be a risk that is not addressed often enough.

Despite the growing amount of literature and advice on the subjects of change management, project management, and leadership, there is very little linkage between the affects that a change in leadership may have on destabilizing the organization/project. Recognizing increases in organizational change initiatives and rapid turnover of senior staff in business, the purpose of this review is to examine organizational change, project management, and leadership literatures to specifically look at the impact an unexpected change in leadership would have on a project.

>> Download Article

Looking to the Future: What Will Make HR Successful?
Françoise Morissette

In a recent article, Simon Parkin, founder of The Talent Company, a full-service HR consulting firm, identified three major challenges facing today's HR professionals in a very to-the-point article:

• Leadership Effectiveness
• Talent Acquisition and Management
• HR Capability and Capacity

I fully agree with Simon's assessment: these are, indeed, the top challenges HR professionals must tackle to enable their organizations to compete and thrive in today's environment. Not surprisingly, all three point to talent. I firmly believe the capacity to develop talent in a systematic manner will be the differentiating factor between success and failure: it is the new frontier. Let's explore all three.

>> Download Article