How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars

Three ingredients in how HR can help drive a successful transformation:

Effective sponsorship, the ability to access and visualise data and designing the right operating model - all wrapped up in great change management

HR has a pivotal role to play in successful business transformations particularly with regards to organisational design, culture and people strategy. Get these elements right and your transformation is likely to be on the right road. However, given that 70% of transformations fail, this is a tricky task to do this well.

On this week’s podcast, we are joined by Julie Digby who has led several successful integrations and transformations at Mars, including a two-year project which saw a merger of Mars and Wrigley. What struck me most from our conversation is the key triumvirate Mars forms for successful transformation, comprised of Finance, HR, and the President of the Mars business involved - echoes of McKinsey's G3 there.

You can listen to the whole podcast by clicking on the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.

In our conversation, Julie and I discuss:

• How HR is organised and partners with the business in Mars
• The specific role HR plays in transformation projects, particularly in relation to organisational design, culture and change management
• The role that technology and data plays in supporting, enabling and speeding up transformation work
• The skills that HR needs to develop as it becomes a more strategic function within the business
• And finally, as we do with all our guests on the show, we ponder what the role of HR will be in 2025

This episode is a must listen for anyone in HR involved in transformation change and business partnering.

Support for this podcast is brought to you by OrgVue to learn more, visit orgvue.com.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my interview with Julie, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: The Role of HR in Driving Successful Org Design.

WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there are a couple of videos available on the myHRfuture YouTube channel highlighting two of the topics Julie and I covered in our conversation (links to follow when available).

A SMALL FAVOUR

If you enjoyed listening to the discussion with Julie, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

1. Please subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
2. Please take the time to rate the show on iTunes. We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU

A huge thank you to Julie for sharing her time and expertise. You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn.

Thanks also to Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa and the myHRfuture team, and last but not least to OrgVue for sponsoring Series 5 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.

We'll be taken a break from the Podcast over Christmas and the New Year, but will return on Tuesday 7th January with a special episode featuring Volker Jacobs on the State of Employee Experience and what lies ahead for what is arguably the biggest thing in HR at the moment.

As such, I'd like to thank all our listeners for their support over 2019. We wouldn't be able to make the Digital HR Leaders Podcast without you, so a huge thank you from all of us at myHRfuture. Merry Christmas and the best to you and yours for 2020.

CATCH UP WITH ALL THE FIRST 25 EPISODES OF THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to some of the other episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below:

• EP 25: Julie Digby - How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars
• EP 24: RJ Milnor - How McKesson uses ONA to identify what drives high performance in sales
• EP 23: Rupert Morrison - Rethinking Workforce Planning & Organisation Design
• EP 22: Dawn Klinghoffer - The Evolution of People Analytics at Microsoft
• EP 21: John Boudreau - Reinventing Jobs: The Future of Work and it's impact on HR
• EP 20: Tanuj Kapilashrami - How Standard Chartered designed an exceptional Employee Experience
• EP 19: Anna Tavis: What is Agile HR and how are companies adopting it?
• EP 18: Sarah Johnson: How to use employee surveys to create strategic value
• EP 17: Leena Nair - How HR drives business value at Unilever
• EP 16: Keith McNulty - HR 3.0: more data driven, more agile and more business focused
• EP 15: Jason Corsello - The Shift From HR Tech to Work Tech
• EP 14: Jill Larsen - How does the CHRO successfully partner with the CEO
• EP 13: Frida Polli - How AI and Behavioural Science can reduce bias in recruiting
• EP 12: Ian O'Keefe - The Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase
• EP 11: Dave Ulrich - The role of HR in the Digital Age
• EP 10: Jordan Pettman - How Nestlé uses People Analytics to measure Gender Pay Gap and Equity
• EP 9: Catalina Schveninger - The Evolution of Corporate Learning at Vodafone
• EP 8: Richard Collins - How is Automation, AI and Analytics changing recruiting?
• EP 7: Katarina Berg - Spotify's CHRO on Leading HR in a digital world
• EP 6: Nick Holley - How HR can become more business relevant 
• EP 5: Eden Britt - How to build a People Analytics team in a global organisation | The People Analytics journey at HSBC 
• EP 4: Yvette Cameron - How Blockchain will disrupt the Future of Work and HR Technology 
• EP 3: Didier Elzinga - How to Create a Culture First Company 
• EP 2: Edward Houghton - The Head of Research at the CIPD on Driving Business Performance with People Data 
• EP 1: Sharon Doherty - How to transform HR to be more digital and building a culture of diversity

PRESS PLAY ON YOUR CAREER: JOIN THE myHRfuture ONLINE ACADEMY

Watch. Listen. Learn. Succeed. All in one collaborative space. Access bitesized learning content to help you build knowledge in skills such as People Analytics, Digital HR and HR Technology, Design Thinking and Workforce Planning. Get 12 months of unlimited access to all of the content on myHRfuture for one amazing low price.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. 

SEE ME SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS IN 2020

Now that my speaking gigs are over for 2019, it’s time to look forward to 2020. I’ll be chairing and/or speaking about people analytics, data-driven HR and the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model at the following events until the end of May 2020.

• 29-31 Jan – PAFOW San Francisco
• 19-21 Feb – Tech HR, Singapore
• 16-17 Mar – HR Core Lab – Leading with Talent Analytics, Barcelona
• 24-25 Mar – UNLEASH Spring, London
• 29-30 Apr – PAFOW London
• 12-13 May – UNLEASH America, Las Vegas