The Strategic Roles of HR and PMO During a Transformation
My whole career was spent in organizations going through major and constant changes. I truly believe that 2 functions are especially important for the success of the evolution/transformation: HR and PMO. If those 2 functions are not the first ones to help prepare and lead the transformation, organizations struggle, employees are overwhelmed, management committees are paralyzed and slow optimization versus innovation is usually the outcome.
In order to put the right foundation in place to succeed in the future transformation and leverage this opportunity to learn and grow as an organization, here are some recommendations:
Strategic overview and decision-making facilitators:
1) Ensure you have a strong transformation office/PMO that oversees ALL change initiatives. This function needs to keep the inventory of future and current changes. Not just strategic or for the transformation but also operational changes and projects that require capacity. They should also:
o Have an appreciation for the capacity (with the help of HR)
o Help the organization prioritize projects and changes and optimize deployment schedule
o Integrate most changes under the umbrella of the strategic plan
o Embed best practices in terms of project management. PM should follow the same methodology to gain speed and help report at the strategic level. If you don’t have enough resources internally, few external resources should be identified.
Mindsets and behaviours/culture enablers:
2) Build a strategic HR function at the forefront. HR needs to quickly grasp what the transformation will mean in terms of new behaviours, mindsets and skills. Even with the most complex technological transformation, human behaviours are the most important enabler (see HBR article on building AI powered organization). HR should help identify the right people to play a role in the transformation and coach the managers to lead their teams and inspire them despite the ambiguity transformation can bring. HR should have the following focus/skill sets:
o Change management and help project teams succeed
o Coaching of leaders and employees so they become more resilient
o Culture levers and how to speed up behaviour changes and shift mindsets
o Organizational design/“architect”: to adjust the structure if needs be
o Employee mobilization: measure and recommend strategy and mobilization plan to keep energy high and optimize feeling of proud, sense of purpose and accomplishment.
In order to play his role fully, the HR function needs to have reached a high degree of maturity, as it will be the first ones to understand the future vision of where the transformation will lead the organization and what it will require from managers and employees to reach the desired state. If the function is not ready to play this role, investment in training and external resources should quickly be considered.
Because of the high interdependencies between the processes and the human components, strong partnership and collaboration is required among HR and PMO functions. The 2 heads of each function should set up regular meetings to share findings, obstacles and help each other throughout the transformation as they are not just driving the way forward for the transformation but they are also enabling the organizational leadership to succeed in the future.
Some organizations, in order to help the collaboration and the integrated view prefer to set up a transformation office. There are definitely pros and cons that will be the object of another blog post…
Finally, extra care should be invested to support the employees of those 2 functions as they are usually double impacted. They need to first transform themselves into more strategic partners/coaches and while supporting their organization, leaders and employees throughout the ups and downs of the transformation. Providing them with additional resources and support is key as it will unlock and enable the rest!