Today’s corporate buzzword is transformation. Increasingly, executives are focusing conversations around transformation, and for good reason. With significant shifts in technology, values and processes, it has become crucial to success that companies are able to evolve with changing business landscapes.

In order for organizations to realize the efficiencies, innovation, and agility required to succeed, they must turn their focus to organizational transformation. Transformation may sound impressive – or overwhelming. With no single definition that applies to organizational transformation, it can be summarized as the term used to align corporate culture, structure, and talent with business strategy.

HR Trends Impacting Organizational Transformation

It is commonly said that change is the one true constant in business. In this day and age, there a few common HR trends that are impacting the need to change business strategies and as a result, implement organizational transformation:

1. Organization of the Future

Agility plays a central role in the organization of the future, as companies replace vertical hierarchies with simpler, more horizontal organizational structures. Operating with an agile model requires a whole different mindset to develop a strategy that facilitates trust building and communication between departments.

2. Workplace Culture

Companies are looking at employee journeys and studying the needs of their workforce to determine flexible work options, such as remote working, that meet the needs of their employees. Workplace redesign, well-being, and work productivity are becoming part of the mandate for HR.

3. Diversity and Inclusion

Today’s employees want to feel that they work in an inclusive and diverse workplace; this has become as important as employee pay or benefits. In order for HR professionals to deliver on this request, they must first uncover the true homogeneity in their organization using accurate data.

For more on HR Trends read "2017 Deloitte Global Human Trends".

HR’s Role in Organizational Transformation

At the end of the day, organizational transformation is all about people and therefore directly impacts HR teams. While the strategy supporting many large-scale transformation programmes are determined by c-level executives, it is HR’s responsibility to ensures that this is communicated to the rest of the organization. Transformation does not work without the engagement of those employed by the organization.

At a transactional level, HR’s technical input into the organizational design and identification of talent for any proposed transformation goes without saying. One of the key areas that HR plays a crucial role in is demonstrating clear leadership and direction, regardless of if they are leading the project or not. HR can represent the cultures and values of an organization, which can be easily overlooked by the executive team. Moreover, it is common for employees to resist change, so convincing employees that the current state is actually worse than the unknown can be challenging, but it is imperative.

Managing Organizational Transformation as an HR Professional

For HR professionals, managing organizational transformation is more difficult than ever before. With higher competition, faster-paced business environments and limited knowledge about effective transformation strategies, HR professionals are finding it challenging to support their organizations through change.  Regardless, the HR department plays a crucial role in organizational transformation and they must work closely with c-level executives to ensure successful and sustainable outcomes.  

Becoming a strategic partner to the executive team is a new role for HR, which may require new skills and capabilities. HR professionals can use data and in-depth analysis to provide value to the executive team with confidence. HR analytics tools enable HR leaders to perform organizational modeling, view talent analytics, and create different scenarios, to significantly accelerate the transformation process.  HR departments can use comprehensive and real-time data to empower c-level executives with the information that they need to make informed decisions. 

As c-level executives learn to recognize the economic value and benefit provided by HR departments throughout the organizational transformation process, more will be expected from them, so HR professionals must be ready. It’s time for HR teams to step up and take on their roles as crucial players in organizational transformation.