1. Napier University Business School
The Changing Face of HR
Helen Francis
Napier University Business School

2. Tracing the concept of ‘thinking performer’ into practice
Our study (Helen Francis & Anne Keegan)
Approach (origins of TP), methods and aims
Context of study
Modelling of HR roles & emergence of business partnership
Our preliminary findings & implications for HR practice

3. Origins of ‘Thinking Performer’
Originates from discussion about the need for a central vision (of an effective practitioner) underpinning CIPD standards.
Two images emerged: ‘reflective practitioner’ and ‘strategic activist’: Emerged from concerns about low level of reflection, and overly operational focus
Someone who ‘makes the move’ to becoming a business partner and (…) ‘is an HR professional who applies a critically thoughtful approach to their own job so as to make a contribution to organisational survival, profitability and to meeting its vision and strategic goals’.
(CIPD Standards, 2002)

4. Tracing the ‘Thinking Performer’ into Practice
PDS Course Tutors
CIPD
Membership/Ed
Examiners; PKI
KIP Workshops
Members of Upgrading panel
Collaborative Inquiry
Individual Practitioners
Student members
Student Members

5. In-depth interviews Questionnaire Simple format
Checking familiarity with terms thinking performer and business partner: where first heard, sources
99 Filled in at upgrading clinics/KIP event
In-depth interviews
10 Members of CIPD Membership and Development Committee/PKI Team
2 PDS Examiners
7 PDS Course Leaders
54 HR Practitioners
(Inclusive 11 Student Practitioners working towards graduate membership of CIPD)
1 Regional Secretary of GMB Trade Union
3 Members National Upgrading Panel
Total 77
Visualisations of the
thinking performer
150+ Students in Workshops/3 Centres
40+ Practitioners and Academics at a local CIPD KIP Event

6. Changing Context of HR HR Professionals increasingly expected to
Justify HR activities : costs/added value
Play a more ‘strategic’ role and work closely with line managers
Increasing amplification of ‘strategic view’ evident in evolution of HRM models conceptualising HR roles (Tyson and Fell 1996, Tyson 1995, Storey, 1992)
Concept of Business Partnering (& focus on multiple roles) now becoming influential (Ulrich, 1997, 2005)

7. Modelling of HRM (Ulrich 1997)
Change agent
Strategic Partner
Admin Expert
Employee Champion
Framing of HR practice as business partnership depicted as four roles. These are treated as mutually reinforcing rather than as a potential source of role conflict (Caldwell, 2003).

8. Our Findings Various Meanings attached to the thinking performer
Current vocabularies framing HR
practice
Impact of strategic/business framing

9. Various meanings attached to the thinking performer
Business-driven juggler
Strong business focus underpinning visualisations
Images connected to strategic concerns at ‘top table’
Multi-tasking of mostly business focused issues
Clear image of the reflective practitioner also evident
Few practitioners are familiar with the term TP, but it has some intuitive appeal
TP concept not a strong feature of how people talk about their work
Question of balance ?

10. Administrative Expert
Concept of ‘business partnership’ dominates talk of HR practice (emerged unprompted at interview)
Strategic Partner
Change Agent
Administrative Expert
Employee
Champion
Describe themselves as strategic partners, or moving in this direction
Employee champion role regarded as ‘belonging to the line’
Tensions framed as business tensions
CIPD HR Survey: Strategic partner role has most influence; ‘Few seniors see themselves primarily as employee champions and ‘fewer still would wish to do so. ‘Partly because language sounds unfamiliar’?

11. Some practitioner views (1)
‘The emphasis is definitely on being a
strategic partner. Change agent as well,
Depending on what you are doing at the
time, some background admin
knowledge, and virtually zero on the
Employee champion role’
‘Employees have a ‘career manager’ (line
manager) who is the person responsible
for their care and welfare. That’s not an
HR job’ (Business Partner)

12. Some practitioner views(2)
(…) it’s a strange word but I don’t think there’s anybody got permission to be an employee champion in our, in our sort of set up really.
(…) the unions see it as their role for the employees to come to them to tell them about their problems and it’s only when they can’t resolve that locally with the supervisor that it will get escalated into, into the function if you like. (Business Partner)

13. Talk of profound structural changes (current or planned)
Focus on business partnering,
supported by flatter structure
Business Partners
Business partners working with the senior team; strong business focus
HR ‘centres of excellence’: small teams of HR experts with specialist knowledge
Shared service centres supported by e-enabled HR & call-center technology
Transactional work devolved to line managers ; reductions in no. of HR staff
Centres of excellence
Shared Services Centre
See also Reddington and Withers (2005)

14. Amplification of business partnering: Potentially negative consequences
Estrangement of HR from employees
as HR staff move into service centres or become a ‘disconnected band of business partners’
HR advisors increasingly have no face to face contact & limited telephone contact with employees as HR work is devolved to the line
We lost that human contact: we were at the end of a telephone. We weren't allowed to go out and see people any more or to give advice to people face to face… (HR Advisor)
When I was working in HR, very often employees would phone me and I’d have to say sorry but my role here is to advise management, I can’t get involved between you and your manager (Senior Consultant)

15. Disenchanted practitioners & truncated careers ?
Lack of career opportunities in employee-facing roles
Two-tier system between business partners and those at the lower end of HR
We are losing what HR’s about. I want to be an employee champion working directly with people and I can't. I can see that avenue being closed off fairly soon, and it makes me uncertain about whether or not I want to stay in HR (HR Advisor)

16. Loss of confidence and trust in HR function to advocate employee needs?
If business partnering becomes too much driven by team leaders and line managers, and the only place that you can contact HR is to actually go through a PC, or ‘phone a call centre, then employees will question whether their employer really cares about them and are serious about the maxim that they are the company’s most valued assets.
It seems to me that the role of employee champion will become the sole preserve of the trade union (GMB Regional Secretary)

17. Problems in devolving HR to the line ?
Competing priorities – ‘ very performance focussed’. HR not incorporated into performance appraisal.
Selection, training, and capability issues
(..) sometimes you wonder have they been selected because they did well in sales?
(…) I don’t think that a one-day training course is going to make a manager into an HR manager.

18. Imbalance between roles
‘This represents the thinking performer and it is a balancing act between the needs of the business and the people in the business. The balls are the competencies.’

19. Reclaiming space for talking about employee well-being?
The world of HR has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. The department of the past would deal mostly with employee welfare, dishing out ‘tea and sympathy’ as required, but these days HR has raised its status to board level (Developing a career in HR)
Standards framing the development of thinking performers
Organisation: 712
Employee : 222
Employee Support: 1
Management Support: 3
Performance: 305
Well-being: 5
Stress: 8
Justice: 4
Welfare: 3
Change: 183
Conflict: 25
Strike: 2
Job Satisfaction: 0

20. Can the concept of thinking performer …….
…help HR practitioners reclaim a space for the employee champion, thereby redressing the imbalance?
…reinvigorate critically reflective HR practice?