Delegates told governments alone cannot deal with the size of the world’s problems
Doing good and spreading prosperity shouldn’t be about corporate social responsibility; it should be part of the business model, delegates at the CIPD’s annual conference in Manchester heard.
Tim Munden, vice-president, human resources, for the UK and Ireland at Unilever, described how his organisation aimed to double the size of the business, while at the same time reducing its environmental impact.
“Environmentally and socially we need to find different ways of doing business,” he said. “The size of the world’s problems is such that governments cannot or will not deal with it.”
Munden outlined four factors that he believes are driving change in the workplace and that HR needs to understand and take a lead on: CSR is strategy; people power; the fact that we live in a divided world (for example, the north/south divide in the UK); and, “watch out! Here comes the future”.
These, in turn, have an impact on the HR function in terms of capabilities, focus and role. There are still “some vestiges left of HR apologising for itself” and HR professionals need to think of themselves as “I am leader; I work in HR”, said Munden. Additional capabilities, such as “execution capability” (the capability to deliver projects) are also needed and we need to get better at articulating organisational values.
“We need engagement even more in hard times. People’s power to hold back discretionary effort becomes higher unless they have a compelling reason not to,” he said. “The only way through the next few years is to create meaning."
We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world where human needs are now the most pressing, concluded Munden.
“If we do not operate sustainably, human beings will continue to suffer,” he said. “We are called human resources for a reason. The world needs us to articulate what good looks like.”