In the modern world of acute competition, a typical paradox is that no two products in the market are exactly the same and yet they are all the same. There is simply no brand that one can think of, which proudly announces itself to be exactly the same as its competitor, brand X. Each brand professes itself to be better than the others in some way and tries to create a niche for itself – simply to make itself stand out and be differentiated. However, standing out from the crowd and creating a sustainable competitive advantage for an organization seems to be a long shot. Organizations today aim to create strategies that gives them an edge over its competitors in specific segments or categories, rather than generally.

While the task of formulating and forging the strategy is the clear mandate of the ‘business’ end of the organization, they realize that real competitive advantage is focused around capabilities. Hence, leaders of the ‘support’ groups are raising their voices in the din to be heard and striving to contribute to the strategic agenda. Thankfully, support group leaders like HR, Finance, IT etc. are now being looked at favorably as equal contributors to strategy when their portfolio of activities focus primarily on those that are ‘critical to enterprise’ or that add high value. They are, then, being certified for the coveted ‘seat on the table’.

In this cacophony, many HR leaders have progressed to announce their arrival. This is not just about getting the assured ‘seat’ for the individual HR leader, but clearly extends to getting the ‘insured’ seat for the HR team as a whole. HR now contributes significantly to the organizational strategy, by creating internal strategies that lend the organization that ‘edge’ which eventually leads to a long term competitive advantage for the organization. However, in today’s competitive environment, no structured framework seems to exist, which can be suitably utilized by HR Leadership to focus their portfolio of activities to achieve this strategic agenda.

Accordingly, Shared Services Forum has initiated a framework called 3 ‘I’ Framework. This framework has been designed to fill this void and provide the most desired agility and flexibility for the HR leaders to apply their expertise to create a symbiotic relationship with Business.

The 3 ‘I’ Framework is structured around 3 Major dimensions as ‘Levers’, namely, Integration, Innovation and Intelligent Automation – to enable the HR leaders to nurture and grow an everlasting bond with the business and the enterprise.

1. Integration refers to the ability of the HR Team to align and integrate the HR agenda to the strategic agenda.
2. Innovation requires the HR Team to think differently and bring innovative ideas to enable the strategic goals.
3. Intelligent Automation demands the HR team to create the right business case to bring in automation much beyond transactional activities within HR to the real decision support areas to provide agility and predictability.

Under each of the 3 ‘I’ Levers, there are essentially 8 distinct roles that HR needs to step up to become a strategic contributor. These have been referred to as the ‘drivers’ for creating the edge. The 3 ‘I’ Levers effectively channelize these ‘8 drivers’ into a focused framework to trigger the ‘24 enablers’ that collectively create the competitive edge called the 3 ‘I’framework.

The Drivers and our Ability to Influence them:

1. KNOWLEDGE – Along with the more well-known tangible assets, technology assets, trademarks/ copyrights, etc. there are process assets and knowledge assets which are as important to the organization. There are enough measures available to us to assess the strength and benefits of all the assets at our disposal, but not for the Process & Knowledge asset. There seems to be few, if any numerical metrics to track the benefits of our knowledge bank and our use of it.

   The asset is however, omnipresent – in our peoples’ minds, in unique methodologies, and in repositories. HR organization is charged as the custodian of this strategic asset – its use, dissemination, exchange, updation and growth. HR should and does create environments for keeping this asset relevant and put to use effectively at all times. Since HR’s role is in all aspects of knowledge management, its ‘orbit’ is absolute and complete.

   Knowledge Orbit role of HR can best be described as “Cross-organizational capture and use of explicit and tacit knowledge as a strategic asset to sustain effective performance of people. Structured knowledge system to enhance capability development including reskilling and leading edge knowledge exchange for organization learning to drive improved performance of business.”

2. CULTURE – It’s not very easy to assess the nature of the culture of an organization. Over a period of time culture just seeps in. “That’s how it has always been done over here” – a statement so often heard in the corridors. No one really knows how that got into the door.

   Or the culture of ownership, sharing, discipline, or for that matter sycophancy, gossip, micromanagement. All of these are good examples of culture that begin to prevail rapidly, spreading its tentacles swiftly. As expected negative culture patterns spread far too quickly as compared to the positive ones.

   HR again plays the part of the herald to this potential juggernaut. From issuing policies to rewarding performance to hire & retire, employees take their cue on how to do their jobs from HR. HR contributes by fostering a cultural depth that is equally rewarding to both the organization as well as its employees. The trick is in creating the winning environment where positive cultural attributes are followed and rewarded. The sense of ownership, freedom to experiment, and authority to take decisions creates a perfect condition for agility and innovation.

   The sense of ownership, freedom to experiment, and authority to take decisions creates a perfect condition for agility and innovation.
   

    

   Hence Culture Depth consists of identifiable differentiators for business, such as agility and innovation, aligned with personal values. Culture deepens to unleash tremendous energy towards a shared purpose and becomes the collective organizational capacity to create value, with appropriate assessment and measurement tools.

3. ORGANISATION STRUCTURE Most structures are pyramids, with usually a single CEO and multi-layered levels below. Even the so-called flat organizations are largely the same. While authority goes top-down, information goes bottoms-up. This structure has stood the test of time and has been proved very successful all along. In the times we live in today, these structures (or other similarly hierarchical ones) tend to be very rigid and slow. Modern thinkers are creating organizations where the structures are more ‘cellular’ or ‘rounded’ to be more agile. Authority and information flows all around rather than top-down. Such organizations perform more like living organisms rather than machines.

   Structures are most often defined by HR policies. The need to have rigid reporting lines has been an important organizational ingredient in most firms. HR is now in a position to influence and create the newer structural alignment that will meet the organization's need for speed and balance it with its need for stability.

   The new-age Structural Alignment of HR is its ability to connect the enterprise’s willingness, ability and readiness to create a multicellular organization that enable cross functional flexible resource architecture with capability to manage human and digital workforce to deliver winning performance.

4. BRAND This is true public outcome of all the outputs that the organization has created – both commercially and non-commercially. It is the extent of respect that the organization has been able to garner to-date. If the experiences of all who deal with the company – customers, suppliers, employees - are valued highly and sustained over a period of time, brand and reputation builds up automatically. Brand is essentially a representation of the conscience of the organization.

   Brand is equally important to the HR community. Not only is HR the conscience keeper of the company, but also all future employees will come from the same community that hosts its brand. A positive brand image brings a sense of pride in the company and at the same time it has potential employees vying for positions in it. Brand is clearly an important motivator that can influence both the consumers and producers of its products.

   An organization's Brand Conscience is then a set of strategic actions to create the right perceptions of the organizational ability to attract talent, to promote pride in the organization, and to protect from risks which could harm its image.

5. COST – Clearly this is one of the most significant contributors to corporate advantage. Companies with an ability to manage costs well can register better gains for its stakeholders – shareholders, customers, suppliers and employees. Benefits can be shared all around creating a positive image in the world. Customers get better deals, suppliers and employees receive timely and complete payments, and the shareholders bank better returns for their investments.

   The ability of the HR group to influence costs is usually not understood in its entirety.

   In its role of a performance booster, HR has the responsibility to allow leaders to focus solely on business performance.
   

   It has three levels of influencing abilities. At level one are costs which are directly under HR control, such as the HR budget. Preaching begins at home! At level two are costs that are partially controlled by HR. These are the C&B costs of the firm. A well thought out and executed C&B strategy can tremendously help the firm get its grip on costs. This is especially true in service industries where a significant element of total cost is human costs. Here, HR also creates and manages an effective resource management strategy with an ability of swift resource mobilization. At level three are all other costs of the firm.

   Almost all costs of the firm are influenced or managed by the people of the firm. HR has the responsibility to create a culture of cost consciousness within the organization. Cost 360 is therefore a gamut of all costs influenced by the people of the organization, extending beyond direct people costs influenced by HR through a sense of ownership and governance.

6. PERFORMANCE – HR organizations the world over carry out performance assessment cycles geared to not only assess, but also to measure and improve employees’ performance. Most such programs are logically tied to financial gains such as increments, bonuses, and such like. Often companies also use this opportunity to review and benchmark compensation with the external world. All of these run the risk of side lining the real issue – performance enhancement.

   In its role of a performance booster, HR has the responsibility to allow leaders to focus solely on business performance. Performance is usually measured against expected deliverables geared towards a common corporate goal. Each individual carries a share of both strategic and executable goals with their extents varying for different roles. Some leaders of the organization have the principal obligation to set the business context, show direction, be inspiring and visible. Others are expected to deliver on defined, agreed and time bound targets. Most leaders carry a reasonable mix between the two sets.

   HR as mentor to the process ensures an overall relevance to the common purpose – both current and for the future. Maintaining a sharp Performance Edge within the organization is to align strategic and operational goals to achieve enhanced performance. It also includes identifying new competencies and capabilities of future of work.

7. ENGAGEMENT It is well known that a highly engaged workforce in-turn creates highly loyal and engaged customers. Engagement is the emotional connect an individual has with the organization. It is the extent to which people are passionate about their work and devote themselves to their work. Engaged employees for instance, give discretionary effort, which increases creativity and performance. It isn’t just about attitudes in the workplace; it has a serious impact on the bottom line.

   Engagement is a two way street. It is futile to expect engaged employees in absence of engaged and emotionally rewarding employer relationships. Creating an effectively engaged work place is as serious leadership issue. It has to be lived each moment. Leaders have to make emotional investments into their work environment – in addition to creating tangible and tactical engagement models around empowerment, participation, encouragement and empathy. This is equally true for the suppliers of the company as it is for the employees.

   Engagement Circle is the set of practices and behaviors of engaging with the potential, existing and exiting employees of the organization, and also with all people who interact with the organization such as suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.

8. CHANGE – the only constant in the world today is a much talked of term. Leaders accept and even encourage change a lot more readily now than before. Even the VUCA world is an acknowledged reality. Unfortunately that does not make the change any easier to deal with. Open communication and honest engagement work out to be the best tools available to managers to help tide through periods of change. Being positive in times of uncertain future can be a daunting task for some and may require specialized support. Leaders who continue to show the bright side of change create a powerful agenda that everyone feels a part of; motivating employee’s to get on board.

The 3 ‘I’ Framework provides measurable tools that can be applied as a solution to bring about this transformational change for HR to become contributors to strategy.

HR as Change Champion is required to lead or manage change having transformational impact and help people embrace or adapt. This could include both preventive and curative strategies.

The 3 ‘I’ framework mentioned above is a reflection of the changing face of HR. It has been created as a result of the deep research and conversations with several industry veterans, business leaders and HR experts. It provides measurable tools that can be applied as a solution* to bring about this transformational change for HR to become contributors to strategy. As technology evolves rapidly, businesses seek alternative ways to approach human capital more strategically with a clear aim to achieve maximized business performance and its competitive advantage. Business situations are changing almost overnight and each company is attempting to grapple with their own unique situation. HR Team then becomes an enabler and a strategic contributor to bring forth dynamic perspectives through engaging dialogues amongst the key stakeholders and deliberate the next steps in order to revitalize the organization thought process and action – to achieve that elusive sustainability in competitive advantage.

To know more about 3 ‘I’ Framework, write to us at info@sharedservicesforum.in or call us at +91-73032 44077