The Josh Bersin Company’s Systemic HR Initiative is a long-term play that attempts to organize the wide range of conversations regarding HR’s evolution into something that’s manageable and can actually be used.
Released last week, the Initiative offers research and services designed to guide HR leaders through the adoption and implementation of systemic HR. In the coming year, the Systemic HR Initiative will release a number of products, including education from the Josh Bersin Academy, case studies, research-based webinars and an organizational assessment.
All of this arrives as HR becomes more complex, shouldering challenges related to skills, hybrid work, hiring new generations of workers and modernizing HR’s activities overall, not to mention DEI, productivity, retention and engagement.
Task-Oriented to Systemic HR
HR is transitioning from a service-oriented back-office function to a more strategic player within the organization. That’s led to an assortment of advice for CHROs attempting to transform their department away from operating as a workforce-focused silo to being an integral part of business planning and operations.
Some call Systemic HR an operating model while others might call it a refined approach. Whatever the label, it take a more holistic view of HR and the organization, encompassing most anything – talent needs, technology solutions, experience – that touches workers and in some way contributes to business results.
“We call this ‘Systemic HR’ because all the siloed areas of HR must now work together,” said Kathi Enderes, the Josh Bersin Company’s SVP of Research “ Doing so means moving from a dated operating model to what we call an ‘operating system,’ where HR professionals are cross-trained, work in agile teams and use world-class technology to serve, train, enable and support employees while solving the biggest business problems.”
Walking the Walk
Whatever it’s called, the need to rethink HR is a constant source of discussion in the business world, fueled by the growing importance of talent to business and the evolution of HR to meet employers’ shifting challenges.
While HR talks a lot about change, more than two-thirds of HR teams remain primarily administrative functions, Bersin said. Research by the Josh Bersin Company and LinkedIn found 68% of HR organizations are lagging in their skills and operating models, while only 11% have implemented a systemic HR approach.
Employers committed to systemic HR are 12 times more likely than their peers to accomplish high workforce productivity, Bersin said. They’re seven times more likely to adapt to change, six times more likely to innovate effectively and nine times more likely to engage and retain their workforce.
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