Transforming HR: Creating Value Through People, Second Edition

HR practitioners are under ever-increasing pressure to transform and deliver greater value to their organizations. The HR transformation agenda involves the effective use of technology, outsourcing and development of HR capability to provide high quality internal support, but reliable guidance on how to make this transformational change happen can be hard to come by.

Transforming HR, 2nd edition offers robust, practical advice on changing the way human resource management is undertaken in organisations, walking you through the transformational process from initial planning to the evaluation of outcomes. The authors draw on their experiences and those of leading HR practitioners to address the critical questions and present the latest research in the area to inform your decisions and approach to transformation.

Since the first edition of the book many organisations have restructured their HR functions and invested in better HR information systems but with new issues emerging all the time, the journey towards transformation must continue. To support this journey with tried and tested experience and insights, the new edition features:

• New chapters on HR’s value proposition, Web 2.0 and benefits realisation to demonstrate their critical role in transformation
• Cutting edge research on the experience of line managers and the use of Web 2.0/social media technology by HR to bring you up to speed on emerging topics
• Views and experience of senior practitioners drawn from a broader organizational base to enrich the discussion and knowledge-base
• A chapter structure more closely allied to the HR change cycle
• Closing considerations of the challenges that HR must face in the near future to realise the promise of HR transformation

Intended as an inspiring, hands-on guide to planning, implementing and evaluating transformation strategies, Transforming HR, 2nd edition is an essential companion as you work to increase the value of HR in your organization.

About the Authors

Mark Withers is Managing Director of Mightywaters Consulting Limited, a strategic HR and organisational development consultancy. Mark is passionate about the need to create working environments which enable people to excel, in teams and individually. He is equally passionate about the contribution HR professionals can make in creating these high-performance cultures and in ensuring that the people agenda delivers real value to organisations.

Mark brings a 'whole system' way of thinking to HR transformation and works closely with HR leadership teams and senior executives to create a shared vision for the new HR delivery model, identify HR's value proposition, deliver the benefits of HR transformation and identify and build HR and line capability. He is a highly skilled facilitator and is able to use these skills to engage stakeholders and sustain commitment to change throughout the transformation journey. He enables organisations to identify the contribution they require from HR in order to deliver value through people.

His early career was spent with Shell and a Whitbread/Allied Domecq joint venture. Before founding Mightywaters Consulting in 1998 he worked with Price Waterhouse Management Consultants (PwC) in the areas of HR consulting and strategic change. Mark's clients include National Grid, National Express, BBC, AXA, Rackspace Hosting, London Midland Railway, BT, Cable & Wireless, ESAB and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

Mark holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the London School of Economics and a Master's, in Organisational Behaviour from London University (Birkbeck College). He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and has written and spoken on organisational change internationally.

Mark Williamson, MBA, BEng (Hons) is a Partner at KPMG in the UK and leads their HR Transformation Practice, having joined the firm in 2008. Mark led the consulting team that supported Martin Reddington and the HR transformation programme team at Cable & Wireless — a project for which Mark and his team were recognised and honoured with a Management Consultancies Association Best Management Practice Award.

Mark has been at the forefront of HR transformation for over 10 years. He is a frequent commentator on trends in industry and has spearheaded work in business and HR strategy alignment, HR transformation business case development, HR operating model definition and implementation change management within HR and across the line functions. He is especially interested and adept in building the linkages between the technology elements of HR transformation programmes, the operating models and business processes, and the benefits that ensue.

During his career, Mark has undertaken assignments in a wide variety of industries and geographies, giving him a very broad base of project and programme experience. Mark's experience includes government, financial services, pharmaceuticals, utilities and telecommunications.

Before joining KPMG in the UK, Mark spent 14 years with a number of other leading companies, and 6 years prior to that, with Rolls Royce in a variety of line roles in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. Following his first degree in Engineering from the University of Sheffield in 1987, Mark was awarded his MBA from Warwick Business School in 2000.

Dr. Martin Reddington, DBA, MBA, BSc (Hons), MCMI, MCIPR, MIEE runs his own consultancy, Martin Reddington Associates, and is Visiting Research Fellow at Roffey Park, the University of Glasgow and Edinburgh Napier University.

He performed the role of Programme Director, HR Transformation, at Cable & Wireless: a global programme which received acclaim at the National Business Awards and Human Resources Excellence Awards in 2002.

Since leaving Cable & Wireless, Martin blends academic research with consultancy. His doctoral thesis examined the perceptions of managers towards Web-based HR and how these perceptions can affect future HR-led investment decisions.

He is a member of the CIPD's national advisory group on technology and HR, and an expert adviser on HR transformation to the Public Sector Personnel Managers' Association (PPMA). He recently co-authored a CIPD Research Report which examines the impact of Web 2.0 in organisations and offers guidance to the HR profession on how best to utilise these new technologies.