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General Motors – Transforming Human Resources

Transforming human resources, including the introduction of a broad learning initiative called “HR Skills for Success,” was one of General Motors’ strategic goals. GM’s leadership wanted to provide an engaging experience that allowed HR professionals to draw their own conclusions about the need for change.

The Business Need

There was a compelling need to transform the human resource function to refocus talent on higher-value services rather than administrative activities. The HR function needed a communication solution to present the case for this change to a diverse, global population of HR practitioners and their internal clients.

The Solution

In conjunction with Root Learning, GM developed a Learning Map® module on transforming the function and roles within human resources. As GM has over 3,000 HR professionals globally – multilingual and culturally diverse – this process, with its visual metaphor, allowed people to talk about the visual without translating it into multiple languages. “This not only saved on expenses,” said Kathleen S. Barclay, Vice President, Global Human Resources, “but people could ‘find themselves’ and see the transformation applying in their area of the world.”

This process and methodology allowed people to examine the traditional, transitional, and potential future state of HR, and enabled discussion on the strategic needs of the evolving future state and the need for skill enhancement. This set up the successful launch of an online learning program that would require a significant investment of time and commitment from GM’s HR community.

Implementation

Testing took place through videoconferencing. Each part of the world had a rollout strategy that best fit the region. In some cases, implementation was done in every location in a region at HR team meetings. In the U.S., GM held open enrollment and people signed up for the session that worked best in their schedule. Sessions were particularly rich when membership included cross-cultural, cross-functional, staff-line HR support, high tech vs. low tech, client facing vs. operational roles, and different organizational levels.

Results

Results were measured in two ways. A quantitative evaluation form was linked to the objectives and garnered a high response rate of about 2,700 people out of 3,300 participants. The project was also evaluated using a virtual global focus group, pulling together representatives from each market.

Here are just some of the results of a post-survey on change readiness:

  • “It is important that we reposition HR to addmore value to the GM business,” 4.42 (out of 5).
  • “I feel that I am part of a change that is very important,” 4.14.
  • “I am excited about the transformation of HR at GM,” 4.08.
  • “This learning presented the case for change very well,” 4.18.
  • “This session was very valuable in helping me understand the transformation of HR,” 4.10.
  • “I would recommend this learning experience to an HR colleague,” 4.20.

GM also realized unexpected benefits. The leaders who facilitated had great experiences; it re-energized them around the change effort. “It also became very clear the general HR population also had increased energy from the opportunity to dialogue about the change with their leaders rather than seeing the leader in the typical position to tell them about it,” Barclay said.