John Boudreau (CEO), Ian Ziskin (CEO), and Ravin Jesuthasan (Towers Watson) shared their latest research, examples from companies, and next steps on the Future of HR. They reviewed cases and examples of what companies and CHRO’s are doing today to meet the changing demands of business.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Making Talent Analytics and Reporting Into a Decision Science
John W. Boudreau (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explain how talent analytics and reporting must shift from a focus on cost-efficiency and process effectiveness, while familiar and important, to a balanced combination that also extends to strategic measures that enhance talent and business decisions.
Bright, Shiny Objects and the Future of HR: John Boudreau’s latest post on HBR.com
Informal networks matter much more than hierarchies. Whatever the source, you find yourself doing what so many HR leaders have done before. You grab that bright, shiny object and take it home, in the form of pages of excitedly scrawled notes and an intense resolve to get your team working on it.
Global Trends in Human Resource Management: A Twenty-Year Analysis
Global Trends in Human Resource Management, the seventh report from CEO, provides the newest findings about what makes HR successful and how it can add value to organizations today. Edward E. Lawler III and John W. Boudreau conclude that HR is most powerful when it plays a strategic role, makes use of information technology, has tangible metrics and analytics, and integrates talent and business strategies.
Talent Analytics Measurement and Reporting: Building a Decision Science or Merely Tracking Activity?
John W. Boudreau (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) ask the question “Is the use and effectiveness of talent and HR reporting progressing from a focus on cost-efficiency and process-effectiveness, and toward a balanced combination that includes them, but extends to strategic measures than enhance talent and business decisions?”
Does HR’s Grasp Match Its Reach? (video)
Editor David Shadovitz speaks with John Boudreau at the 2014 HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas about the challenges that stand in the way of HR playing a more strategic role.
Strategic Role of HR
What is the relationship between the design and management of the HR function and HR’s role in organizational strategy? This is the key design question and one that can be answered by examining the research evidence from John W. Boudreau’s (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler’s III (CEO) international survey of hundreds of HR leaders that has been done every three years since 1995.
It Takes a Village: Creating HR Strategic Impact by Reaching Out Beyond the HR Function, 9/23/14, recording/slides
John Boudreau (Professor and Research Director)
Do your chief strategy, marketing, operations and technology officers help create your organizations HR strategy? They should.
Effective HR Management: Will HR Capabilities Face the Future
USC professors John Boudreau and Ed Lawler describe a unique longitudinal study of the evolution of the HR function that began in 1995 with data collection done every 3 years. The results suggest that HR is changing slower than most HR leaders believe, and they suggest how to accelerate the path to a more effective HR profession.
What is the future of HR?
John W. Boudreau (CEO) Ian Ziskin (CEO) and Carrie Gibson (CEO) take a different departure point by starting with prominent emerging general trends and examining their potential effect on HR, now and in the future, and HR’s desired and actual role in addressing them.
Appreciating and ‘retooling’ diversity in talent management conceptual models: A commentary on “The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda”
This commentary by John W. Boudreau (CEO) on “The Psychology of Talent Management” suggests that readers should avoid concluding that the diversity of talent management concepts across psychological disciplines is something to be “corrected,” and instead embrace it as a resource to be tapped for future understanding.
Strategic Approaches to Future Trends in HR: Does HR’s Reach Exceed its Grasp?, 9/19/13, Recording/Slides
John Boudreau presented findings from several recent research projects, including the Future of HR Trends Consortium and the “Achieving Excellence in HR” global survey, which suggest that there is a significant association between HR strategic partnership and HR success measures, but that today HR’s ambitions exceed its current role in many areas.