News Analysis: Part 2 - What HR Leadership Will Need to Profit From Enterprise Engagement
As outlined in the ESM article, News Analysis: Part I - Enterprise Engagement Creates Big Opportunity for HR Management, CEOs face increasing pressure to have a formal strategy to engage all stakeholders in a strategic and systematic way, not only from investors and ISO standards, but potentially from regulators. HR can help by educating the C-suite on these trends and driving the strategic and tactical solutions to help organizations profit from them.
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The need for CEOs to develop and implement more strategic and systematic engagement efforts across the enterprise provides natural opportunities for Human Resources leadership to elevate their importance. Now that Human Capital strategies increasingly are viewed as a tangible contributor to the bottom line, a means to enhance the stock price of public companies and are now a requirement in 60 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, CEOs need someone to support the charge. This means day-to-day responsibility and authority for managing the creation and implementation of a strategic and systematic stakeholder engagement plan linked to the organization’s brand, values, goals and objectives. HR remains the best choice for assuming this role. Qualifications for this new post require people experienced in working with leadership across the organization and with the tools of engagement, communications, learning, innovation, community and diversity, rewards & recognition, technology and analytics, and Human Resources is best equipped to make this happen in most cases.
The Need for Leadership and Support
When the Quality Management movement took hold in the 1980s, companies put someone in charge, either part-time or full-time. That position has evolved over the years and today is called by different names. The vision of organizational practices is to ensure that they are better aligned and measured. That said, someone needs to be accountable for the effort, and while the CEO has to lead the charge, someone has to oversee the strategic and tactical process.
The job responsibilities for this new HR role reporting to the CEO include working with the senior management team to develop a strategic and tactical plan to engage all stakeholders in the brand, mission, values, goals and objectives of an organization in a measurable way and oversee its implementation across all departments. This doesn’t necessarily mean hiring a new HR executive or creating a new role, but rather redefining the role of the Senior HR executive. The job requires many of the skills of a marketer in terms of understanding the importance of the brand proposition, and of sales in terms of getting buy-in, so this new HR leader will also have to think like a CMO to help support the brand promise and think like a Sales VP in terms of how an organization can, in effect, make everyone a salesperson supporting the customer, either directly or indirectly through service to other internal departments. This person has to have the authority to break down silos and foster alignment and cross-functional efficiencies.
ESM has already reported on two great examples of this new role. Companies as diverse as Adobe software and Shefit.com sports apparel have placed senior executives in charge of the customer and employee experience because of the recognized strategic connection.
The Job Description
Here’s the job description for this new senior executive HR position reporting to the CEO:
- Working with the senior management team each year to clarify the brand definition, values, goals, objectives and human capital scorecard.
- Facilitating a cross-functional strategic plan to connect the dots between all the ways organizations interact with key stakeholders, including customers, distribution partners, to employees, vendors, communities and shareholders.
- Developing a written Engagement Plan for the organization and facilitating the creation of each department’s related plan to ensure they connect the dots between their initiatives and the organization’s brand, goals and objectives.
- Tracking the overall process on a quarterly basis, bringing together division heads to make sure efforts are on track based on the plan and scorecard, and looking for opportunities or challenges that require action.
- Regrouping at the end of the year to assess results and use that information to plan for the subsequent year based on new objectives, products and services, or recalibration of the brand promise.
- Overseeing creation of the Human Capital disclosures for annual reports at public companies or reports to Boards of Directors or private owners.
- Overseeing the people management elements in ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 45001 Safety Management, and 58 other ISO standards that involve stakeholder engagement.
As long as Human Capital boiled down to an intangible asset, the case for Human Resources management as a driver of shareholder value has faced considerable headwinds. But now that so many investors, ISO and a growing body of educators recognize the importance of a strategic and tactical approach to engagement, HR has the opportunity to seize the initiative by making sure the C-suite is aware of the compelling return-on-investment of a Human Capital strategy and helping to develop and implementing a formal plan.
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Master the Principles of Enterprise Engagement to Achieve Organizational Goals and Enhance Your Career
- Profit from a new systematic approach to engagement to enhance your organization’s brand equity; increase sales, productivity, quality, innovation, and safety, and reduce risks.
- Achieve ISO 10018 Quality People Management Certification to demonstrate your organization’s strategic commitment to people to your customers, employees, distribution partners, vendors, communities, investors, and regulators.
Live Education: Enterprise Engagement in Action Conference at Engagement World, April 3, 2019, in San Francisco, in conjunction with the Selling Power Sales 3.0 Conference. Learn about the economics, framework, and implementation process for an ISO certifiable approach to achieving organizational objectives by strategically fostering the proactive involvement of all stakeholders. Learn more and register now. 
In Print: Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap 4th Edition, How to Achieve Organizational Results Through People and Quality for ISO 10018 Certification.
The first and most comprehensive book on Enterprise Engagement and the new ISO 9001 and ISO 10018 quality people management standards.
Online: The Enterprise Engagement Academy at EEA.tmlu.org, providing the only formal training on Enterprise Engagement and the new ISO 9001 and ISO 10018 quality people management standards. Provides preparation for professionals to support organizations seeking ISO 10018 employer or solution provider certification, as well as elective courses on Trade Show Engagement, Rewards and Recognition, Government, and other topics.
Plus: 10-minute short course: click here for a 10-minute introduction to Enterprise Engagement and ISO standards on Coggno.com.
Services: The International Center for Enterprise Engagement at TheICEE.org, offering: ISO 10018 certification for employers, solution providers, and Enterprise Engagement technology platforms; Human Resources and Human Capital audits for organizations seeking to benchmark their practices and related Advisory services for the hospitality field.
The Engagement Agency at EngagementAgency.net, offering: complete support services for employers, solution providers, and technology firms seeking to profit from formal engagement practices for themselves or their clients, including Brand and Capability audits for solution providers to make sure their products and services are up to date.
C-Suite Advisory Service—Education of boards, investors, and C-suite executives on the economics, framework, and implementation processes of Enterprise Engagement.
Speakers Bureau—Select the right speaker on any aspect of engagement for your next event.
Mergers and Acquisitions. The Engagement Agency’s Mergers and Acquisition group is aware of multiple companies seeking to purchase firms in the engagement field. Contact Michael Mazer in confidence if your company is potentially for sale at 303-320-3777.
Mergers and Acquisitions. The Engagement Agency’s Mergers and Acquisition group is aware of multiple companies seeking to purchase firms in the engagement field. Contact Michael Mazer in confidence if your company is potentially for sale at 303-320-3777.
Enterprise Engagement Benchmark Tools: The Enterprise Engagement Alliance offers three tools to help organizations profit from Engagement. Click here to access the tools.
• ROI of Engagement Calculator. Use this tool to determine the potential return-on-investment of an engagement strategy.
• EE Benchmark Indicator. Confidentially benchmark your organization’s Enterprise Engagement practices against organizations and best practices.
• Compare Your Company’s Level of Engagement. Quickly compare your organization’s level of engagement to those of others based on the same criteria as the EEA’s Engaged Company Stock Index.
• Gauge Your Personal Level of Engagement. This survey, donated by Horsepower, enables individuals to gauge their own personal levels of engagement.
For more information, contact Bruce Bolger at Bolger@TheEEA.org, 914-591-7600, ext. 230.
