Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Why C-level HR must drive organization

I was yesterday at the HR Congress in Paris, giving a speech and assisting to other events. As usual, new ideas where all around (social networks in particular).

But what really struck me was the number of questions people would ask speakers about "how can we do that in my particular type of organization ?" (regarding talent management processes, social networks, new generation recruitment, ...).

And I was also struck by the answers given, that often hung around how "change management initiative" would achieve the miracle.

To my mind, the short answer is different. There is such a thing as a well-designed and an ill-designed organization. And HR processes cannot be expected to be successful within ill-designed organizations. Yes, a talent review is difficult in a silo-based organization in which there is no internal mobility; yes, social networks cannot be easily implemented in an organization where self-expression is restricted.

And yet, more and more, we know that successful talent management is the basis for corporate success.

As I said, in this post title : C-level HR must now win the battle for corporate organization leadership. And make sure that the organization is designed to allow for talent management.