A different slant Strategic HR
Centres are therefore being
reborn as communities and
these already feature in
recommended HR models from
both Deloitte and EY (although
these are still based largely on the
three-legged stool).
Communities help gather
people with common interests in
less formal ways than centres,
harnessing people’s intrinsic
motivation. They should include
important strategic areas such as
organisation design, organisation
development, diversity and
inclusion, engagement, people
analytics and HR technology.
They may also be smaller than the
centres they replace. For example,
there could be a community
focusing on employee benefits
rather than the broader category
of reward. Communities may also
extend across broader areas,
meeting a growing need to deal
with key business topics such
as productivity, innovation
and customer centricity.
(Sparrow, 2014).
Communities can also act as
‘homes’ for project staff when
they are not active on projects,
The HR network model
People doing work, intrinsic motivation
People
coaches HR
People strategy
Infrastructure
Community
managers
communities
leadership
team
Org
authority HR
HR
platform
Platform
management
Network
brokers
HR
networks
HR projects coaches
Project
managers
Team
Work done by people, extrinsic motivation
Communities
Internal
orientation
Business
strategy
Functions
just pulling on staff from
functional centres or the other
legs of the HR model. Examples
of HR organisations using this
approach include BBVA (2018)
and Vistaprint (Denning, 2018).
HR communities
of expertise
HR still needs specialist expertise.
But with the rise of gig working
much of this can be brought in
when necessary rather than being
Other HR roles and responsibilities
Potential HR role
(and linked
group type)
Networks
External
orientation
Projects
owned by HR. In addition, there is
often no need for either these
varied contributors or the
remaining smaller group of
permanent specialists to be pulled
together into centres.
Responsibilities Rationale
Team coaches
(project teams)
Ensuring that team members work together effectively
Team coaches will usually work across a number of
projects and may be linked to a particular community
Both business and HR projects will often require team
coaches as well as project managers (or agile coaches
as well as Scrum masters, etc.)
People
coaches
(communities)
Looking after people’s longer-term development and
career needs (like a mentor partner in a professional
services firm)
Line management is disappearing in many peoplecentric
organisations
Sometimes this is being replaced by self-management,
and sometimes with the line role being split between
project managers and people coaches
Community
managers
(communities)
Leading or enabling communities
Community managers (really facilitators) may be
specialist relationship-builders
Community management is in many ways the new HR.
Whereas traditional HR has been about individual
employees, new HR needs to be about both individuals
and groups, and particularly the way that people fulfil
their potential through communities
Network
brokers
(networks)
Providing support in connecting people appropriately
across the organisational networks
Brokers may be specialist networkers, perhaps working
in a part-time capacity (spending the rest of their time
doing something else)
There will be a need to link all of the organisation’s
teams and communities, developing organisational
connections and networks in the way that HR currently
focuses on developing employees
HR may also add overall oversight of communities and networks to its existing focus on the people working across the organisation
hrmagazine.co.uk November 2019 HR 39
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