Strategic HR: Advancing C-suite Influence and Business Transformation
It's not just about having a seat at the table anymore for HR. It's about owning that seat and driving the strategic agenda in partnership with the C-suite.
Yet, despite increased board interactions, many HR leaders struggle to influence decisions.
44% of HR leaders feel increased pressure from the C-suite to justify the investment in people programs and only 27% of HR leaders think their C-suite sees HR's impact on business revenue.
UNLEASH is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDC) for SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP recertification.
The role of HR is ever expanding and becoming increasingly complex as years go by – but now, we’re also at a stage where HR’s function is more critical than ever, too.
HR leaders are now moving beyond their “traditional” role to influencing strategy and business outcomes. But how are they doing this?
In this exclusive 60-minute UNLEASH webinar, Toby Hough, People & Culture Director EMEA at HiBob; Saqi Sheikh, Chief People Officer at EcoOnline; and Tom Goodmanson, CEO of EcoOnline, came together to discuss this topic.
Watch now to:
- Move beyond traditional influence: Discover why it’s no longer enough to just expect a voice in the room.
- Company-wide success: Explore how HR can, and should, embed itself within the business.
- Create relevance and impact: Rethink your HR goals that cascade from leadership’s vision.
- Reinvent HR: Learn how to build an “influential HR” function that thrives in the modern world of work.
EcoOnline CEO Tom Goodmanson kicked off the discussion by reflecting on the journey as a senior leader, which began as a CFO in the 1990s.
“Now, everybody recognizes the CFO as part of the C-suite – their position is very strategic and important to the business. But that wasn’t always the case,” Goodmanson opens. “When we started preparing for this webinar, I began to think through what that transformation looked like.
“CFOs aren’t a value add, because they focus heavily on numbers. They never connected the dots between the commercial and the business. Well, the same thing’s true here. How do we commercialize what we’re talking about?”
He continued to explain that people have become businesses’ greatest assets – but not all companies realize this.
I think everybody looks at their assets and wonders how they can get more of them. But people are walking in and out of the office each day with the entire asset base of the company. If you don’t treat your people like an asset, they’re going to walk out the door and you’ll have no assets the next day.
Tom Goodmanson, CEO of EcoOnline
Likewise, EcoOnline’s CPO, Saqi Sheikh shares how she ensured HR became integrated in the business when she first joined.
“When I first came in, I said to Tom, ‘I really need to go out to the business and understand how it all works’,” she says.
“From there, I got to know the various different teams by sitting with them and listening to them. I wanted to understand how work gets done at EcoOnline, because I think, as HR professionals, if we don’t understand that, it’s very difficult to have influence.
For that reason, it’s important to understand how people do their jobs, the opportunities they have, where their bottlenecks are, etc. It’s only then, when you start to understand how you can influence the business to make things better for them.
Saqi Sheikh, Chief People Officer at EcoOnline
Stepping in next, Toby Hough, People & Culture Director EMEA at HiBob shared that when HiBob welcomes new members to the leadership team, they’re often met with surprise when learning about the structure of how HR will work with them.
“They often say that they’re not used to working with HR in this way,” Hough adds, “which I find very interesting.
“Fortunately, in a few weeks, they usually report that they’re getting a lot back from this, which is when they usually start asking for more of these interactions. I do hope that this window runs out – particularly like with Tom’s examples of CFOs.
But right now, we can pleasantly surprise and delight the business by leaning into this expectation of the difference between the quality that we can bring and the legacy expectations that are there.
Toby Hough, People & Culture Director EMEA at HiBob
Watch the session now to discover more!
UNITE WITH HR’S BRIGHTEST MINDS! The world’s largest HR show – UNLEASH World – is back in the heart of culture and innovation, Paris this 16-17 October.
- 7,000+ Attendees: Network with HR’s elite.
- 250+ Speakers: Hear from ground-breaking visionaries, bold entrepreneurs, and disruptive doers.
- Future Insights: Discover what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s next for HR.
Get ahead of the curve and play your part in transforming the future of work. Grab your pass today!