HR Partner as Consultant 

– Use the 7Cs of Consulting to deliver sustainable change

Background

As HR practitioners migrate their role from line support to business partner a primary goal will be to establish effective relationships with the client groups and to offer the best possible HR service across the business. However, HR needs to find a voice that goes beyond being perceived as the purveyor of policies and procedures - to move from a transactional level of support where they add value and instead move up a level where they help 'create value'. As such HR teams need to be able to empathise with the commercial pressures their client line managers are under - they need to understand the context of the business, financial pressures, barriers and help create solutions that will be both successful and sustainable. 

To help achieve this - HR partners will typical need three factors in place:

  • A Consistent consulting style - one that signals professionalism across the HR team. No matter which partner the client is dealing with they should be following the same client route map and not being confused by yet another diagnostic technique. 

  • A  high level of personal Confidence  when dealing with clients. One of the hardest things about a partnership model can be the subtle shift from a subordinate position to one of equality. If an HR Partner has spent many years being perceived as (and acting in a way)  a service provider, it can be difficult to shed this subservient image and forge a new style of working that is based upon an equal footing. Because it is a joint relationship - then the HR partner must feel able to challenge the client, this needs a great deal of confidence  especially if the client happens to be the paymaster.   

  • The ability to Coach the client and to not always be the provider of solutions. The risk in any consultative partnership is that the client expects the consultant to provide the solution. By this they can abdicate responsibly for the outcome and can consequently pass the blame back to the HR Partner when the change fails to deliver sustainable value. In a successful partnership the ability to create value comes in helping the client to help themselves - or coaching the client.  

The 7 Cs programme is an established and proven framework that can help deliver these three factors. It provides a simple but powerful framework that can tie all HR change activities under a common platform. By ensuring that a professional framework is being applied across the HR team a number of outcomes will be realised:

  • The HR partner will have a proven toolkit in their back pocket to help deliver sustainable value to the client.

  • The HR manager will see a consistent approach and language across the team that in turns leads to a more collective style of working.

  • The HR leader or director is clearly signaling to the organisation that they will operate on an equal footing as professionals.     

  • The HR organisation will have the ability to deploy its full range of interventions using a common platform and thus begin to reduce the hidden costs that arise from varying models of change.    

In many ways there is little choice here - HR needs to take a consulting approach if they are to take a full part in shaping the business agenda and helping their clients to be successful. To do this they need to develop and deploy a consistent and professional approach to the way it partners with the client groups.

Benefits to you and your organisation

By the end of the programme the delegates will understand:

  • The generic pattern that underpins a successful HR consultancy engagement.

  • The factors that contribute to a successful and sustainable change programme.

  • How to manage each stage of the consulting life cycle.

  • How to challenge and educate clients without appearing confrontational.

  • What personal strengths and weaknesses they have in each of the seven stages.

The business benefit will be:

  • People who share a proven client-centered framework.

  • Improved market opportunities through the delivery of change that is sustainable.

  • An accreditation process that offers a quantified assessment of each participant for quality control purposes.

  • Improved operational effectiveness as more time is spent on activities that deliver sustainable value and clear outcomes.

  • Enhanced client relationships through the application of a shared framework.

  • Reduced costs through more effective management of their time and resources.

  • Reduced costs by challenging the client more effectively and reject or reframe high-risk projects that are unlikely to succeed.

Client Feedback

In a recent review, our clients offered the following thoughts on how the 7Cs programme had added value to their business 3-12 months after attending the event:

  • ‘Enables us to drive up the level of Project success from the current 20%.

  • ‘Creates a client centric perspective from managers previously centered on their own departmental interests.’

  • ‘Creates a change leadership perspective from managers previously centered on simple stewardship of the status quo.’

  • ‘Offers a framework that gives us a shared model for how we talk to customers and understand their needs.’

  • ‘Gives us a great basis for initial project design discussions and determine if a project will be successful at its inception.’

  • ‘Helps clients understand the necessity of tackling the human aspects of change as well as the process and structural and system factors.’

  • ‘Ensures we only take on work that is valuable for the business as a whole, and that we make a proper job of what we do take on.’

  • ‘Provides a framework for people who are inexperienced in management (or in the art of responsibility taking) and who need 'structure' to begin to manage their teams/work in an efficient and effective manner.’

  • ‘Change’s clients mind sets about what a good change project is and does.’

  • ‘Makes sure the Client understands the consequences of doing what he has always done.’

  • ‘Enables the Client to understand change and the reasons it fails and educate them in ways that it can succeed.’

  • ‘A language for change that we can leave behind with our clients so that they remember us afterwards.’

  • ‘A consistent house style for the delivery of a broad range of otherwise quite different consulting services.’

  • ‘A visible investment in the professional development of our staff.’

Who should participate

  • HR Managers and consultants from all disciplines that are involved in leading client-focused change.

  • HR teams who are making the shift toward a client facing or account management model

  • HR Teams who are being outsourced and need to develop a new professional and commercial relationship with the previous company

Programme costs

The following prices are based on a delegate rate and on the assumption that the client provides training and residential accommodation for the delegates and all tutor costs. The 3-day event costs £899 with a minimum of 10 people. 

The Day 4 option (where delegates reconvene to refresh the model and undertake a peer review assessment to determine their understanding of the consultancy framework) costs £299 per delegate.

Source material 

 

The course is based upon ideas contained in the 'Seven Cs of Consulting' book written by Mick Cope and published by the Financial Times.

 

Course Content

Day 1

  • Understand the seven factors that cause HR programmes to fail 

  • Define the HR consulting intervention  

  • Introduce the 7Cs framework and how it can be applied in client facing engagements.  

  • Map personal change project against the common standard.  

  • Explain how the 4 STEPS model helps towards the development of an effective client relationship  

       

  

  • Client – Understand the client's orientation of the world, their perception of the situation and test to ensure that they fully understand the impact and outcome of the desired change.  

         

Day 2
  • Clarify - Determine the nature and detail of the problem to be addressed. Determine what areas pose a risk for the assignment. Ensure that all the necessary shadow factors are surfaced.

  • Create - Ensure that a Managed Create process is applied to balance the focus on divergent and convergent activities to generate a viable solution that has the support of all stakeholders.

  • Change - Understand the fundamental aspects that drive and underpin the change process. Ensure that resistance to the change is managed, the consumer group are properly segmented and all systematic implications are understood in the development of a transformation strategy.

Day 3
  • Confirm - Assure that change has taken place, taking into account the issues of depth and timing.  

  • Continue - Ensure that change will be sustained by mapping and managing the forces that will erode the value of the engagement.  

  • Close - Close the engagement process with the client, emphasizing the need to release dependency, understand the final outcomes, the differentiated value, new learning and what further action you might undertake.  

  • Rapid Mapping - Define and apply a personal questioning structure that allows the delegate to undertake a rapid diagnostic spin with any client. 

  • 1-3 month break
Day 4

  • The 7Cs stage 1 assessment process closes the learning engagement and is essentially our Confirm, Continue and Close with the delegates following the 3 day programme.

  • It is designed primarily to test the delegate’s knowledge of the Seven Cs at a conceptual level. It also offers an opportunity for each delegate to indicate they can apply the framework in the workplace.  

  • Validation is by a peer review supported by a WizOz licensed 7Cs facilitator. 

End

 

Background:

  • We can design and deliver a programme for up to 20 people per session.

  • Although the programme is based upon the ‘7Cs of Consulting’ model, we are able to flex and adapt the content and style to suit your particular requirements.

  • By the end of the programme all participants will understand the 7Cs framework and how to apply it within their field of expertise.

  • The programme will primarily focus on the creation of a shared operating map rather than the delivery of specific skills. Once the framework is place then further dialogue can take place with the client group and consultants to define what specific skills are required.

  • The standard programme will include 7Cs validation . This is designed to assess and validate  each delegate’s understating of the core-consulting framework. The validation process is based on a mix of expert assessment and peer review. The peer review is key because it helps reinforce a sense of collective responsibility within the consulting team.

  • There are options for each delegate to progress to a ‘7Cs Applied accreditation' where the consultants demonstrate the application of the consulting framework through a submitted dissertation, client referrals and board interview.

Further details on this framework can be found in the toolkit page of the WizOz website

 

(c) Mick Cope