Danny Harmer and Joel Davies: Commerciality in HR – being a strong partner

In order to be a strong partner, they took it back to basics for the room, starting out in your career when answering the question, why HR?… Just FYI, “because I like people” doesn’t quite cut it. Danny emphasised the need to be curious, to be driven by data, and constantly look through a commercial lens. To be an effective commercial partner you must understand the business, which the customer is, and how people contribute to the success of an organisation. In other words, you need to follow the money.

This felt incredibly relevant in the current economic climate coming off the back of the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis. What can organisations do? What can HR do? In this discussion, Danny emphasised in HR, you must be ahead of the curve taking a solution to the business not the other way around, in order to make the most impact on those who need it most. These decisions as a strong HR partner must be grounded in “data, experience, expertise and the resources around you”, which will shape the people strategy from what employers can do around the cost-of-living crisis, to parental leave and rewarding performance.

The feedback after the event has been incredible, everyone walked away very inspired and with different pieces of information that resonated. One of my personal takeaways came from Joel, encouraging our HR community to “be bold”, to be a brilliant and commercial partner, you have to say yes to new opportunities, gain exposure and learn from those around you. Don’t be afraid to challenge and get creative with solutions, and ultimately look to the future and where you want to be.

Long gone are the days when HR is only the reactive support function of “Personnel”.  HR now has to be at the forefront of business strategy, actively shaping the people agenda to build a company’s success and empower the workforce. It is essential that the people strategy matches the business strategy with HR at the heart of this, everyone in the room felt empowered to be a driving force in their organisation.