HR Transformation Report 2021

By Marc Effron, President, Talent Strategy Group
Our first HR Transformation survey brings generally good news but with a number of warning flags. We found that many companies achieve their HR transformation goals, but often slower, less completely and with less satisfaction with the results than they expected. Our primary conclusions are:
- Finding #1: HR leaders were less satisfied than expected with HR’s effectiveness after the HR transformation. There were meaningful gaps between HR’s predicted effectiveness and the post-transformation reality. HR teams transform more slowly than expected: Companies found that the average HR team took twice as long as expected to perform in the new HR operating model and they often received less than a day’s worth of training in how to succeed in the new model.
- Finding #2: HR leaders took longer than expected to perform in the new organization. This finding is not surprising given the minimal training that most respondents reported their HR teams received to perform in the transformed organization.
- Finding #3: HR leaders overestimated the improvement in how the HR organization would function post-transformation. While improvements were broadly predicted in every area from HR decision-making quality to HR engagement levels, organizations fell short of their predictions in every area and sometimes saw worse outcomes than prior to the transformation.
More About The Author:
- Marc Effron, President, Talent Strategy Group
- Marc founded and leads The Talent Strategy Group and consults globally to the world’s largest and most successful corporations. He co-founded the Talent Management Institute and created and publishes TalentQ magazine. He co-authored the Harvard Business Review Publishing best-seller One Page Talent Management and 8 Steps to High Performance.