The Relationship between Research and Practice - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Relationship between Research and Practice

– A Practitioner

‘s Perspective

Aidan Lawrence

UFHRD Conference

June 5

th

2015

Introduction

Explore the need for HR strategies to be informed by latest Research

Share the insights on the Investment focus for HR and L&D Strategies Examine need for improved and faster learning cycles Research – Practice – Impact

Suggest Researcher/Practitioner collaboration opportunities

Constant drive to improve organizational competitiveness. Innovating new customer products and solutions,

Aligning operating costs,

Engaging employees,

Delivering shareholder value

Implement transformation strategies - fast and successfully

Continually improving the performance of the organizationMaking talent and organization capability a strategic differentiator

Organizational and Strategic Imperatives

Drive Positive Organizational Change!

Leading and driving key organizational competitive strategies

Ensuring HR programs, policies and practices deliver business strategy.

Learn faster and innovate new practices.

Accelerate decision making

New IT tools and data analytics

HR,

The

Strategic

EnablerThe strategic importance of HR

Strategy formulation and implementation:

Employee engagement and best management practice

Workforce planning, location strategies, labour pyramids

Competitive talent: acquisition, development, retention and succession

Transformation strategies to drive renewal and growth

Performance and learning culture

Advanced reward and recognition systems and practices

Strategic capability development to enable current and future strategyDiversity and inclusion, ethics and global citizenship

Charter: “Drive positive organizational change”

Strategies, Choice-points and

Trade-offs

The challenges facing HR Leaders What strategies should we implement? How can we find the time to discover and internalize

How can we ensure strategic plans and investments are grounded in the best thinking? How can we articulate to senior stakeholders, and build their understanding and sponsorship

How do we align leadership teams, develop and engage in implementation plans? How do we implement quicker? And create for the best chance of success? How can we predict the impact and outcome for the business, and deliver maximum ROI?

How can we report success and key learnings to drive insight?

Has my HR team got the capabilities required?

The rapid rate of change and the need for higher ROI is presenting a huge opportunity

Academic research can directly inform strategic intervention selection, accelerate implementation, create faster learning cycles, and reduce failure rates.

Proof points from research used for predictive business impact modeling to engage senior stakeholder investment and commitment. Increase the value and relevance of future research for both academia and HRD practitioners. We really need strategic program partners to guide and bring:The best thinking and examples of implementation

Fail quicker learning insight Learning for the organization based on the learning cycles of others

Practitioner Research

Collaboration

The

Strategic Future of L&D

Charter: Strategic capabilities required to drive growth. “Global” investment has to be centrally managed, and is one of HR strategic contributions to business.

Total Investment has CEO focus and input into strategy (ASTD 2012 -$1200 per FTE): Choice points and trade-offs

Investment in strategic capabilities Critical few No longer “lots of stuff” – focus on moving the “right needle”

The strategic L&D Plan is investment driven, and leaders require high confidence of ROI

L&D investment is a business lever and can be moved to other competitive investment strategies

Evaluation

is a challenge for most organizations. Research is the predictive ROI.

Research enables modelling of strategies, and can indicate the likely environmental and learner factors needed to accelerate application of learning. Deepen Practitioner insight, and predict future challenges Provide language and models to enable stakeholders internalize the key issues and articulate the critical organizational development needs and strategies

Develop new ways of assessing, benchmarking and improving performance

The Research / Practitioner

Opportunity

Researcher and Practitioner Engagement

ideas

Governance

Practice/Research Circles

Expand the relationship Definition: The

Structures

,

Systems

,

Practices, and Processes that are put in place to ensure the overall Strategy, effectiveness and accountability of the TL&OD function. Organizational and Strategic Imperatives

2.

Practice/Research Circles

Researcher facilitates Practitioners organize Learning Circles

New insights and understanding about strategy selection and intervention design

Create strategies for organizational/environmental inhibitors impacting applicationIncrease success rate for application and focus on business impact Development of both the academic and practitioner

Develop senior stakeholder ROI tools to “strategically” assess value of L&D investments

Develop and implement simplified practitioner tools to

improve the organizations capability:

to develop “predicative ROI” models and frameworks

to assess performance improvement, to identify the factors limiting success, and strategies to remove/reduce Embrace New style of IT - Tools, Systems and Applications Big Data and Data Analytics- develop capability for HR

Benchmarking – insight driven application and impact 2. Practice/Research Circles

3. Expand the

Relationship

Become valued strategic partners Understand competitive challenges and strategies - partner to bring forward “independent” suggestions and investment proposals

Internships for Researchers and Academics

Prepare graduates for the working environment, more input into academic research topics Develop practitioner development programs in key strategic areas Speed of change challenging the relevance of current thinking and practice

Shared goals to accelerate learning and knowledge creation

Build deeper engagement opportunities between Researchers and Practitioners

Conclusion