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HDA OVERVIEW
HDA Case Studies

 

Assessment for HR Business Partnership Transformation

For International NGO

 

Background

This well established and funded NGO, based in Switzerland commissioned HDA via our strategic partner, Pilat, to manage an HR transformation assessment project, following its decision to restructure its HR function, and to require the team to re-apply for over 20 new roles following a comprehensive and highly transparent assessment process.

It was evident that HR had not previously been seen as a strategic function. There was a sense of dis-empowerment within the team, with strategic decisions being made outside of HR. A limited sense of a true partnership was evident between HR and the business, and certainly not at a senior level. 

The HR team’s role was anecdotally described as making interventions 'only when there are problems'. They seemed to have to walk on eggshells in order not to upset employees and spend an inordinate amount of time explaining and interpreting procedures. This resulted in an overly complex and less innovative way of working within HR.

Line managers had not been taking responsibility for people, and HR had consequently been required to ‘handhold’. However it was identified that HR had limited skills to change this, so they tended to rely on a rule-bound process to dictate the outcome and then police it - ie. not true HR Business Partnership.

The client wished to strengthen its strategic HR services through developing a new organisational structure for the HR Unit, developing HR competencies and defining new job roles for the restructured HR function.

 

Objectives

HDA was commissioned with conducting an independent assessment of:

• A comparison between the existing and new HR roles
• The fit of current staff to the job roles in the new functional structure
• Establishing skills gaps and development needs at an individual and also group level

 

Key Activities undertaken by HDA

HDA conducted stakeholder interviews with senior stakeholders to ensure an in depth understanding of the current and future HR transformational needs of the organisation; particularly to understand the skill set required from the high potential group and ‘what good looks like’.

The Assessment

HDA designed a range of assessment centre materials to elicit the demonstration of required HR competencies which acknowledged the new HR Competency Framework. The exercises included:

• a competency based interview (CBI)
• a presentation
• a role play
• 2 written exercises.
• assessment for verbal reasoning skills using English, using the Watson Glaser test.

The assessment was carried out against the 3 different levels of the competency framework (the HR Core Competencies, the HR Technical Competencies and the HR Managerial Competencies), and with respect to 24 different HR roles over a period of 3 days, using 4 trained and experienced assessors and one professional role player.

Measuring likely Success

The three levels of competencies were assessed for all the roles applied for as based on the role profile and level (1, 2 or 3) according to grade.

The competencies were scored according to the following criteria:

• 5 - Exceeded - Fully meets all indicators. 
• 4 - Strength - Meets most indicators, with minor exceptions.
• 3 - Competent/Good Early Performance - Meets around half the indicators/some minordevelopment required. 
• 2 - Needs Development – Covers one or two points well, but misses many others or deals with them superficially..
• 1 - Offers No or Limited Evidence - Proposals not thought through or suggestions may make matters worse eg. negative evidence.

 

The content of the final report was based on the participants’ scores and themes contained in the Role Matching Report and also the assessors’ subjective experience of the client as compared to other organisations.

HDA made recommendations to the client for next stage actions, based on largely objective measures generated by the comprehensive assessment process detailed above.

Outcomes

Attitude to the assessment

The participants were professional and all keen for the HR department to do the right thing and ‘raise its reputation’ , and in that respect they welcomed the assessment process. The observers remarked that the participants all seemed to be handling the stress of the situation remarkably well. They were relatively upbeat with a feeling of ‘camaraderie’. Most had obviously prepared well and took the assessment event seriously. They tried hard and the scores reflect this. There was however a sense of ‘fear of failure’ to putting themself forward for roles in higher grades when they wanted a secure job.

 

Level of competence

The most consistent comment from the assessors was that many of the participants were very capable and often over-qualified or over-experienced for the roles they are in and are capable of doing more.  They were  not utilised to full capability partly due to role rigidity.  Some wondered if they were making best use of their talent.

 

Post Assessment decisions

The client went on to make a series of re-hiring and developmental decisions, and HDA looks forward to maintaining a close relationship with the client.

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