Eric Martin

Most HR teams that recognize a misalignment with the business make the same mistake — they start by looking at what HR does today and try to evolve from there. That approach anchors the function to legacy structures and programs that may have no connection to what the business actually needs. The right approach works in the opposite direction. It starts with the business — its objectives, its strategy, its capability gaps — and works backward to design the HR function the organization...

HR teams are great at measuring how busy they are — but activity isn't impact, and until people programs are measured against the business KPIs that define organizational success, there's no way to know if any of it matters.

It's a question that has surfaced in every corner of HR over the last few years — the growing realization that HR strategy and the programs it designs and delivers need to be anchored in business objectives. Not adjacent to them. Integrated into them. Making that point is the easy part. The harder conversation — and the one most organizations aren't prepared for — is what comes next. In the video below, Meklen Managing Director Eric Martin responds to a question that gets to the heart of this...