HR Transformation

Redefining HR Workshop

HR transformation comes in many shapes and sizes. It can range from a complete overhaul of people, processes, and systems to a targeted optimization of a particular practice.

If you work in HR and people operations - you’re a change agent. Very few organizations are static. If the events of the past several years are any indication, our work will be in a constant state of change.

This chapter in the book includes several case studies and examples of HR Transformation. In this course, I’ve bolstered the case studies with tips from seasoned chief people officers and leaders sharing their hard-earned wisdom on leading change.

The exercise below supports team discussions on auditing, assessing, and prioritizing HR transformation work.

Good luck!

HR Transformation Exercise

We rarely get “whiteboard exercises” in HR. Most of our evolution is incremental. Iterative. How much of what we do today is driven by what we did last year? Five years ago? Ten?

Below is a very basic exercise you can do in a day to host your own whiteboard exercise. It’s basic by design as I wanted this to be accessible to even those deeply rooted in legacy practices and approaches. Here’s how it works

1. Review your HR/people practices and processes. If you were to create them from scratch today, what would you build in the same way and what would you build differently?

Note: Be sure that you’re reviewing these through the lens of where your business is today AND your strategic plans for the next two years. If your business is pivoting, build for the pivot.

2. Divide a whiteboard in half and split your processes into keep (maintaining existing processes that work for you) and change (processes that you’d design differently if you built them today).

3. Order the change items by impact (i.e. one would be the highest impact on the business if you re-engineered it). Then order the change items by level of effort needed to re-engineer the process (i.e. one would be the most difficult/expensive/time-consuming change to make).

4. Based on your team’s bandwidth and resources, use the intersection of these two numbers to plan and prioritize your transformation work.

It can feel overwhelming if your change list is long. That’s normal. Don't panic. Considering prioritizing by quarter so you have the focus to execute on what matters most.

Leadership Insights

Insights and advice from guests of the Redefining HR podcast

(note: guests are not affiliated with this course.)

AJ Thomas - x the moonshot factory, Chaos Pilot

Lisa Chang - The Coca-Cola Company, SVP & Global CPO

Mala Singh - Electronic Arts, Chief People Officer

Resources & Downloads

Curated external tools, resources, and downloads to support your work.

A curated collection of articles, reports, templates, toolkits, and downloadable resources to further your capabilities

(Editorial note: these links were curated for the original course published in May 2021 they do not include recent resources. The Amplify Academy Learning Lab is updated each month so you can find current resources there)

21 HR Jobs of the Future (Harvard Business Review)

9 Future of Work Trends Post-Covid (Gartner)

Compensation, Part I: Approaching Pay (a bit) like Pricing (Jess Hayes)

5 Challenges Facing CHROs at Misdsize Companies Today (HBR)

Building trust through equitable structures (Julie Rogers)

Career Framework Inspiration (progression.fyi)

7 Ways HR will look different in 2021 (Fast Company)

Opening Up About Comp Isn’t Easy — Here’s How to Get More Transparent (First Round Review)

Otis Compensation (open-source framework of job level/comp/tracks)

Career Growth Frameworks in Software Engineering: A Review (Better Programming)

A New Approach to Designing Work (MIT Sloan)

Will HR transformation be the thread that ties value to experiences? (EY)