The capabilities needed to manage changes to roles and/or to council structures that result in impacts to people in a lawful way.
What do we mean by organisational HR change?
The ability to manage changes to roles and / or to council structures that result in impacts to people.
This section of the framework should be read in conjunction with the Change Management section. Professional HR advice should always be sought before embarking on changes to roles or structures.
Why is it needed?
Many council transformation initiatives result in impacts to people’s roles, either by re-shaping roles to undertake different duties, or to reduce the workforce as a result both reductions to service provision of more efficient service delivery.
HR restructuring capabilities are needed to ensure that people-related changes are managed lawfully, ethically and in line with organisational policy.
What capabilities does it need?
To manage changes to roles and structures, councils need to be able to:
- consider the impact of proposed change on roles, teams and people
- apply relevant laws, regulations, policies and procedures
- engage and consult with employees affected by proposed changes
- manage HR change related risks effectively
- plan and enable workforce development.
Each capability is defined in more detail in the sub-pages below.
Capabilities have been defined to be read both in isolation, or in combination. For this reason, there is a necessary overlap between some of the capabilities.
Related roles
There are multiple roles within local government that support HR activity of this nature. Some roles are HR specific and some related to transformation planning and support, or line management activity.
- Director of HR / OD
- Head of Human Resources
- HR Business Partner
- Business Change Manager
- Programme Director
- Programme Manager
- Project Manager
- Line manager
Essential enablers
Other than having the right capabilities in place, there are several essential enablers that also need to be in place for councils to manage Organisational HR change.
A related HR maturity index has been created to enable councils to understand their current maturity and to set, and work towards, a target state. This can be downloaded below.
Resources
The following resources have been suggested by councils as references or tools that they have found useful in relation to organisational HR change.
