As market conditions continue to shift, companies are
clamoring for effective solutions that allow them to do more with less. It’s not just the highly astute that
begin doing more with less by eliminating roles that do not generate a return
on investment. It is, however the highly astute that weigh the pros and cons of
such actions and put contingency plans in place to counter any reduction of
force or elimination of process or systems.
Our business at Keen has morphed dramatically from our
initiating purpose. We thought we were in the business of helping companies
hire right, it turns out that we are in the business of partnering with
companies to generate a higher level of return on any of their people
investments. In the past year we
have embarked on major HR transformation projects that shift the way companies
operate around their talent. At
first blush, one might think that we are in the ‘fluff’ business; our customers
tell us it is anythi
ng but that.
One of our biggest accomplishments this year was a result of
facilitating a 2-Day
HR Strategy session; during that session the business
leaders of the company clearly defined the departments future as Talent
Centric, Strategic Business partners. Inside of that commitment it became
apparent that there were several tasks and roles that were no longer necessary
to do inside the organization. The result was the firm choosing to take all
administrative HR functions and outsource them. Their savings was $7,500,000
over 4 years. Now that is real money.
Another large accomplishment for Keen was installing an
Emerging Leader program inside a company with no retention programming, no
succession planning, no next level leadership development. In actuality, when
this company reviewed their most recent risk assessment results their number
one issue was that they have no one in line or on the bench take over for the 5
Sr. VPs when and if they leave the organization. Within 12 months we rolled out a leadership development
program that focuses on leadership competency development, core leadership
values and effective management skills necessary to carry forth the vision,
mission, profitability and customer retention goals of the company.
Yesterday, I received a call from a publicly traded company.
They have 150 on site employees and 6 HR staff. For multiple reasons they need
to operate more fiscally prudent and more people strategic. They are embarking on a complete
transformation of who HR is and what they provide; as that happens at more and
more companies those of us providing outside HR & Talent Solutions, Consulting and Recruitment need to up
the ante on what we offer and how we deliver. Those of us working internally in
HR or Talent Management must increase the level of strategic impact we make on
the organization in order to remain an active player in the company.
The time for change in who we are being and what we
contribute is now.
