A New Operating Model For HR Is Arriving Soon: Join Us

Over the last year we have been developing a new operating model for HR, and the research has been astounding. Nearly every company we interview agrees that the traditional “service-delivery” model is no longer enough, and that HR teams (and functions) need to be far more integrated, focused on design and product management, more agile, and far more consultative.

But how do you make this work at scale? Just yesterday I met with a set of senior HR leaders from financial institutions in the UK and one of them shared with me that they have almost 1200 people in the recruitment function and there are 400 different job titles in HR alone. Her team is redesigning the entire function and upgrading the recruiter role to that of a “talent advisor.”

Behind these kinds of changes there are dozens and dozens of operations things to consider. How will we deliver self-service? How will we organize business partners into both “strategic” and “tactical” advisors? Who will manage the skills technology, when it is being used by L&D, recruiting, employee experience, and compensation teams? And of course how will we leverage AI to provide even faster response, improved employee productivity, and even better data and people analytics?

This is not a problem of buying more technology. This is a problem of organization design, roles, and skills within the HR function. And today, unlike any time I’ve been an analyst, the role of HR is more important, more strategic, and more complex than ever.

We are far along in this research, and we plan to introduce the initial findings of the work in the Fall of this year. But in the meantime, we’re developing a detailed maturity model and comprehensive set of diagnostics. And in order to make sure this research is global and complete, we would like your help.

If you are an HR leader or HR professional, we welcome you to take the following survey. As a participant in this research, you will then be invited to all our initial launch findings later this year, and we will also invite you to join us for interview and in-depth discussions.

It’s time to refresh, redesign, and modernize our critically important HR organizations. Join us as we navigate this new world together!

Redesigning HR: An Operating System, Not An Operating Model.