The Department of National Defence is in the middle of a significant people management redesign, and two recent updates are useful well beyond government because they show what happens when a large employer stops treating HR structure, conduct, performance and workforce planning as separate projects. The first change is organizational. Defence established a Chief Human Resources Office earlier this year and is continuing to bring civilian and military people functions together. It is also moving professional conduct training and strategic personnel functions into the HR integration structure while combining conduct and culture oversight with review services in a separate organization intended to preserve independent oversight. The details are specific to Defence, but the operating model question is familiar. Large organizations often accumulate people functions around the problems that created them. Talent sits in one place, conduct in another, learning somewhere else and workforce planning in a strategy group.
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