NEXT GENERATION HR - CIPD

NEXT GENE
The dilemma
The paradox here is that a number of our interviewees described how many Asian leaders
(perhaps due to the education system’s heavy and highly competitive focus on academic
subjects and passing examinations) are not naturally strong at true insights thinking:
‘Culturally it is a tell culture…people are used to being told what to do and doing it and not
necessarily challenging.’ (Asia-Pacific HR director on insights thinking in the region)
This presents a dilemma. If so many Asian leaders are not natural insights thinkers, how
come we are finding examples of great practice? Is this thinking the preserve of a few
exceptional leaders, or is it something that HR can develop as a core competence more
broadly?
Insights thinking – the core capability for growth
And if HR can codify what these leaders do, and teach the essence of insights thinking so
that it does not rest with a few individuals but runs through HR, it will be developing a
critical competence that is of value to the whole organisation.
HR in Asia does seem to be at an inflection point. On the one hand, there is a clear drive
to build the profession. Naturally, this will focus on building business partners, centres of
excellence and the like. And with this thinking will come many of the issues that are familiar
to global HR functions, such as how to develop ‘business partners’, avoid fragmentation and
so on.
However, given the importance of business insight to fast-growing economies and the
need to develop ‘insights thinking’ more broadly in the region, there does seem to be an
opportunity for HR. By explicitly focusing on this capability, it could add a different dimension
to its professional practice and, in doing so, leapfrog much contemporary practice.
And of course, insights thinking can be applied to classic HR challenges. In the following
pages we explore how insights-led HR functions have been thinking about problems of
community, purpose and performance against the backdrop of rapid growth.
Growth-based HR – leveraging insights thinking
• HR offers insight on the business as a whole. HR leaders are valued for their challenge
and thinking about business issues well outside of the HR area.
• HR leverages its traditional ‘people expertise’ (for example, culture, capability, and so
on) to open up new market and growth opportunities.
• HR managers talk about insight and growth.
• There is no need to talk about the HR strategy supporting the business strategy. They
are one and the same thing.
• HR can leverage its own strengths to promote and build insights capability and
thinking in the broader organisation.
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NEXT GENERATION HR