Editorial
If your role resides outside of a P&L corporate function, you know the importance of demonstrating the value of your work. Every budget dollar is 100% expense to the business, which means that when investment prioritization happens, your business case for learning initiatives needs to be strong and aligned to business priorities, or funding will not happen.
Investment planning is both logical and political. From a purely financial perspective, your CFO will have limited interest in human capital best practices, aspirational talent objectives or almost anything labeled “employee experience.” Their role is to make sure the financials are structured for success and that the underlying assumptions are sound. The CFO’s dominant role is to keep the CEO on the good side of the Board of Directors, regulators, investors and industry analysts.
As for the politics, think Game of Thrones. Multiple kingdoms coexist inside the bigger organization, each with their own priorities, decision making rights and drivers to succeed. Those business leaders wield way more influence with the CEO and CFO than you ever will, so tailor your work to enable the success of those leaders — the key word being “enable.” Your role does not exist for your success, it exists for theirs. As I’ve told my teams for years, follow the money trail. If you don’t know who can say “yes” and who can say “no” to your investment requests, you are flying blind.
4 Strategies to Align Learning Efforts With Business Objectives
Here are a few strategies I’ve successfully used to promote greater alignment:
Establish a dedicated person to support the unique learning needs for each major area of the business. This individual owns the relationship with the business unit leader as well as the HR Business Partner who supports that executive. That means being part of their strategic planning processes and aligning learning solutions directly to the business outcomes they are pursuing.
Determine role clarity between corporate and the business units. Suppliers wisely pursue business leaders to avoid being constrained by HR, however, part of your role is to prevent uninformed buyers from buying goods and services that they know little about. Foster relationships with your procurement and finance teams who can generate processes that funnel funding approvals to the appropriate people. They can become your best friends, and the executives you support will appreciate your oversight…most of the time. Corporate L&D should manage supplier relationships, technology platforms and broad content that transcends any individual business unit. This helps with operational scale, simplicity, and consistency of overall employee experience. All investment decisions made at the business unit level should be linked to their unique priorities and committed outcomes.
Restrict your corporate budget to fixed costs that serve the enterprise. The core elements of your budget should apply broadly across the organization. This includes categories such as technology platforms, preferred supplier relationships, enterprise level content such as leadership development or compliance programs, as well as the staff that is considered core to the function.
Use zero-based budgeting annually for variable costs. As a result of the annual strategic planning process, determine with your business unit leaders the top investment priorities for the upcoming year. Those funds should be requested by the business and tied to their strategic initiatives. L&D’s role is to scope, price, manage any suppliers and deliver on commitments. This prevents the business units from expecting escalating productivity from program budgets that are fixed (or decreased) year over year in centralized funding models.
Additional Perspective
Kimberly Currier is Global Vice President of Talent Development at AECOM, with more than 21 years’ experience in creating strategic development solutions for people, teams and organizations.
Too often HR organizations operate in a silo, and as a result, complain that they don’t have a seat at the table. In my experience, the way to overcome these challenges is to align HR strategy with the annual business strategies, which then allows HR to prioritize and optimize HR investments. I understand the investment in HCM practices encourage good cultures and happy people. But with so many competing priorities for investment, it is not enough in today’s business environment. If your HR organization is not completely aligned with and driving business strategy, you will forever be without a seat at the table.
In my experience there a few steps to align HR with the business, and the first two are the most difficult to reconcile.
1. Have a vision
It’s essential to have a point of view about where HR is heading, even if it is a multi-year journey.
2. Meet the business where it is
While you’ve been hired for your knowledge and experience, the company’s maturity may not match your skills. When a company is at an early level of maturity, it will be difficult to run HR like a mature function. That would be like trying to teach a toddler organic chemistry. Build a vision and a supporting multi-year plan, but then adapt and align to the business each year.
3. Understand the business
Start with HR leaders and cascade the priorities through the HR organization. Everyone must understand the connection between business strategy and people strategy.
4. Focus on how
The how is in the people. Start deliberately and be clear about the basics. Choose a few priorities, ones you know will make a lasting impact and mature the company. Focus on incremental gains, as it will earn HR that seat at the table along with sponsorship. When they start quoting your strategy back to you, you’ll know you’re on track.
To some this may feel reactionary, but alignment works best when you lead with patience, persistence and courage. I strongly believe the more HR leaders can link the people strategy with the company strategy, the more successful we’ll all be.
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