Dive Brief:
- Long regarded as the home of “soft” skills, the HR function has always struggled to win a credible place on the executive floor alongside the likes of finance and strategy, according to an article at Forbes from UK-based contributor Roger Tripp.
- Today it is under fresh pressure. HR specialists are facing calls to dismantle HR as well as reinvent it. There are also calls eliminate performance reviews, which are managed under the HR tent.
- UK-based research from Towers Watson focuses on how HR should use its expertise in the area of mergers and acquisitions, which are on the rise globally, in the quest to acheive strategic equality with other areas.
Dive Insight
Towers Watson's analysis of what HR teams do differently in "very successful" deals compared to "fairly successful" deals showed that during the more successful deals, the level of support offered by the HR function was much greater around "influencing the effectiveness of senior leaders," "clearly defining metrics for success" and "creating an M&A centre of excellence."
Researchers said that this suggests these are the areas where HR has the biggest opportunity to exhibit positive influence and position itself as a critical part of a strong deal team, according to EngageEmployee.com
"The level of M&A activity across sectors and around the world is currently extraordinarily high, so there has never been a better time for HR to carve a niche as mission-critical to deal success," said Steve Allan, M&A practice leader in Europe, Middle East and Africa. That's certainly true in the U.S., where mega-deals involving telecom and healthcare have made recent headlines.
