PricewaterhouseCoopers Offers Advice for Companies on Transforming Their HR Departments to Deliver Greater Value

NEW YORK, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- CEOs are demanding more value from their human resource departments, according to a new publication "10Minutes on Transforming HR" from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).  Throughout the publication, PwC provides insight into how organizations can transform their HR departments to become more strategic by reconnecting the HR model to the business in four key areas: brand, corporate vision, financial performance, and employee performance.  By aligning HR with these areas, PwC believes that companies can shift time and attention away from HR administration to focus on more strategic human capital issues.

According to PwC's 13th Annual Global CEO Survey, 79 percent of CEO's intend to refocus on how they manage people through change, suggesting a fundamental need to align HR strategies with the overall business strategy.

Interaction with recruiters is often one of the first encounters that potential employees have with an organization and its brand.  HR professionals who creatively personify the brand can help attract top-tier talent.  "10Minutes on Transforming HR" states that HR professionals need to "embrace and creatively employ leading-edge tools," whether that involves announcing job fairs via social networking, twittering media announcements, or publicizing important new hires in industry press outlets.  HR has a responsibility to be a steward of the brand by using new technology to focus in on the best recruits, provide higher-quality service for employees, and produce more actionable human capital data.

"The HR department performs two roles: promoting the desired corporate culture by supporting the brand externally and internally," said Duncan Harwood, a Principal at PwC. "By aligning approaches and practices with how HR wishes to be perceived externally, companies can successfully use HR to enhance their corporate brand."

PwC notes that HR professionals should educate themselves on their company's industry, the challenges and strengths within their company and learn the organization's long-term business goals.  By having this knowledge, HR professionals and senior executives will be able to create dialogue and HR can then become a powerful force for attracting talented employees with the right values for the company.

Today more than ever, corporate leaders are demanding that their HR executives understand the company's financial and business goals. "The connection between talent and business results was never clearer than during this recession," added Harwood.  "In many cases, it was the organization's pivotal talent, high performance culture and brand that enabled survival against all odds."

The right to be heard carries with it the responsibility for HR leaders to prepare themselves for a more strategic, big-picture outlook.  PwC recommends that HR departments offer two kinds of value to their organizations:

• The strategic ability to find and motivate the right talent
• The administrative know-how to correctly allocate employee resources and manage costs

"The solution lies in a true partnership between HR leadership and senior management," continued Harwood, "Companies can find this common ground in various ways, such as establishing rotations for HR leaders in other parts of the business and encouraging key business unit leaders to take leadership roles in HR."

According to PwC's 2009/2010 Human Capital Effectiveness Report by PwC Saratoga, companies invested slightly more in 2008 than they did the previous year in the Compensation and HR Talent Management functions, indicating that they focused on retaining top talent even as they trimmed costs in deference to financial constraints.

As the economy improves, HR executives will need to engage business units as true partners, helping execute the overall business strategy by getting the most out of the company's talent.  "HR, in step with management, should develop fact-based HR effectiveness metrics, which will provide more and better information about an organization's return on talent," said Harwood.

For more information or to obtain a copy of "10Minutes on Transforming HR," please visit: www.pwc.com/us/peopleandchange.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers' 10Minutes Thought Leadership Series

The 10Minutes series provides PwC's perspectives on critical business issues of interest to senior executives in crisp, to-the-point language and a simple format that requires about 10 minutes of an executive reader's time. To learn more, visit www.pwc.com/10minutes.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory Practice

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory professionals help organizations improve business performance, respond quickly and effectively to crisis, and extract value from transactions.  We help clients implement their business strategies and priorities to build effective organizations, innovate and grow profitably, reduce costs, manage risk and regulation, and leverage talent.  As business integrators, we look across the entire organization -- focusing on strategy, structure, people, process and technology to help our clients drive sustainable change that yields measurable results.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for our clients and their stakeholders.  More than 163,000 people in 151 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.

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SOURCE PricewaterhouseCoopers