Fujitsu Services is a leading IT services company with 24,000 employees operating in Europe, Middle East and Africa. It designs, builds and operates IT systems and services for large scale clients in both the public and private sectors. Its business approach is based on establishing long term relationships that builds on success and mutual benefit.
The challenge
It was critical that HR became a more strategic and proactive force within Fujitsu Services, thus adding more commercial value to the business.
People Development Manager, Paula Graham, explains, “We had not invested in HR for a while and a fresh impetus to re-evaluate our position within the company was required. We found that over the preceding years, HR managers were frequently operating beyond their remit and getting involved in projects that were not their responsibility, so we decided to refocus the HR function and adopt a business partnering model that would allow us to re-engage across the company. To work effectively, we needed to better understand the role and purpose of HR in Fujitsu for the future and to develop skills to work more effectively in partnership with the business.”
Fujitsu Services already had a number of in-house ‘academies’ established to train staff across various business units. Paula wanted to ascertain whether a HR Academy would help Fujitsu Services’ HR professionals meet the needs of the organisation while equipping HR professionals with the transformational tools and skills needed to ensure best practice and consistency across the organisation.
Meeting the challenge: a partnership approach
Roger Leek, Group Human Resources Director, Fujitsu Services, had worked with Roffey Park previously and his experiences suggested that it would make the ideal partner for a HR Academy project.
“Roffey Park’s reputation preceded them,” adds Roger. “I’ve worked with them for over fifteen years and they genuinely understand their customers’ business needs. They combine research, thought leadership and their deep experience of their associates with a flexible approach that adapts to our commercial needs. By going the extra mile to understand our business, Roffey Park sets itself apart from the competition.”
The Roffey Park team spent a considerable amount of time with Roger and Paula to understand the challenges facing Fujitsu’s HR department and to develop an Academy that would meet their needs.
The programme
Roffey Park recommended six key development needs:
- The HR Vision – developing a shared understanding of HR’s role and purpose and its strategic relationship with the business units and their commercial objectives.
- Getting Closer to the Business – balancing the requirements of the business units and the needs of core services to deliver productivity and efficiency, while learning how to develop HR solutions in tandem with business managers.
- Benchmarking – identifying what ‘good practice’ organisations are doing and benchmarking Fujitsu Services against them.
- Change Management – learning how to make large scale and small stage change by a deeper understanding of the change process, the role HR plays and how to manage projects effectively.
- The HR Toolkit – providing HR professionals with appropriate tools and an understanding of when to use each tool while recognising the need for innovative ideas and skills in handling conflict resolution specifically.
- Enabling Line Management – promoting skills in coaching, facilitation and counselling as well as empathy and building rapport to build stronger relationships with line managers.
These formed the basis of the Academy which takes the form of a two-day residential foundation course, reinforced by ongoing learning sets, and a number of elective courses.
“Working with Roffey Park allowed us to develop a comprehensive but flexible Academy structure that provides a consistent set of skills across the company,” adds Paula. “By combining residential courses with peer-supported learning sets and the ability to select specific development areas, we were able to meet the diverse learning requirements of HR professionals throughout the organisation.”
After the first year, a far-reaching evaluation of the HR Academy was carried out jointly by Fujitsu and Roffey Park. A web-based survey was conducted across the Fujitsu HR population and was supported by targeted calls and unsolicited feedback.
Based on the feedback, Roffey Park streamlined the Academy to focus on six core areas: consultancy skills, managing change, organisational development, influencing and impact, mediation and conflict resolution, and project management.
“The response was entirely positive – the learning sets, in particular, were well received by participants,” explains Roger. “For example, the influencing and impact module has made our HR directors far more commercially aware and thus able to add more value on the ‘front line’”
The results
Roger Leek has been impressed with the results so far: “We evaluate the Academy on an ongoing basis and the response is uniformly positive. People have a far greater awareness of others’ roles and responsibilities combined with a better understanding of the business overall. The learning sets are helping resolve issues and challenges with colleagues and many of them remain in place long after the course is complete. From a strategic perspective, the HR function is more widely respected across the business.”
Perhaps most significantly, the HR Academy is helping the overall business win tenders. Roger explains: “We put HR at the forefront of our bids as a result of the Academy and it is a real differentiator from our competitors. One particular bid which would involve transferring 550 of the customer’s staff to our own payroll was won specifically because we had put so much effort into how to induct, integrate and include those people. The Academy played a central role in winning this client over.”
Looking to the future, Roger concludes, “We’re developing the Academy on an organic basis and plan to extend the range of the elective courses to include areas such as advanced mediation and conflict resolution. Furthermore, I’m taking a more global perspective on our HR requirements as so much of our work is becoming international in scope. Roffey Park’s involvement will be critical to how we expand our focus successfully.”