Innovation and creativity ‘not natural HR competencies’
HR needs to rebrand itself as a commercially aware, innovative function, according to a panel of employment experts at the CIPD’s annual conference.
Tony Cook, HR director for adidas in the UK and northern Europe, told delegates: “Innovation and creativity are not natural HR competencies. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We become compartmentalised as a back office function. It is not good enough to be good at training and development, for instance. You need to understand how the business works.”
Dean Shoesmith, executive head of HR at Merton and Sutton councils, added that the profession had been trained to “process think”. “There is an educational challenge for HR to think in business terms,” he said. “We are stuck in processing/policing mode still. It is about understanding the business.”
One of the hallmarks of public sector services is risk adversity, particularly in light of high profile cases such as Baby Peter, said Shoesmith. But he added that the financial challenges facing local authorities, which on average need to reduce spending by 28 per cent, meant that new, more innovative approaches were needed.
Procurement across organisational boundaries has been one of the keys to making savings for Sutton and Merton councils, he said. For instance, 28 councils are part of the London Boroughs Recruitment Partnership and Sutton and Merton councils have joined forces with Kingston council to introduce a new HR and payroll platform for all three boroughs.
“Public sector services are a very challenging environment to get people to think differently,” he said. “We are not used to a commercial approach. We have looked year on year to build quality of service but we can’t continue in the same way.”
Cook added that adidas faced a similarly tough financial situation with JJB, which accounted for around a quarter of its turnover, having gone into administration. “We have a massive job on our hands with the loss of JJB,” he said, adding that the company was focusing on two new areas, own-retailing and e-commerce.
Graham Abbey, director of executive development at Bath University, agreed that the current financial situation was one of the imperatives for organisations doing things differently.
“You can’t just slim down activity. You have to do things radically differently,” he said. “HR has not got a reputation as being the most innovative of functions. Maybe we get to wear a different hat now.”