First Centre For Performance-Led HR To Boost Business Performance

A new Centre for Performance-Led Human Resources at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) has been launched to bring together world-class experts to work with top HR Directors to overcome the most pressing issues facing senior HR specialists today.

The Centre’s experts will deliver networking opportunities and work with HR Directors from some of the globe's leading organisations on strategic, bespoke projects and provide members with a whole raft of data to support decision-making at senior levels.

Today HR experts are faced with unparalleled radical change, and the need to lead people performance is more important than ever. A group of 11 leading HR Directors have been invited to join the Centre, namely The Royal Mail Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone, Hansons, The Britannia Building Society, McDonalds, Shell, Cooperative Financial Services, North West Development Agency, NG Bailey and United Utilities.

Professor Cary Cooper, from Lancaster University Management School, said: “Despite the centrality of HR to business performance the new Centre is the first “centre of excellence” in the UK for the study of leading HR and its contribution to business performance.

“Nobody needs telling how tough today’s business environment is for HR Directors. Outsourcing, pressure on costs and the rise of human capital accounting - soon to be a legal obligation - represent only part of an increasingly complex strategic contribution HR makes to business. The stakes have been rising. With added responsibilities and recognition have come increasing pressures to account for added value.”

The movers and shakers at LUMS who are set to run the centre include organisational psychologist Professor Cary Cooper, who was recently voted one of the world’s most influential HR experts in Human Resources Magazine’s ‘Most Influential’ league table and outsourcing and talent management expert Dr Anthony Hesketh. Professor of International HRM Paul Sparrow, formerly Ford Professor of HR at Manchester Business School, has taken on the role of Centre Director. They bring together an extensive range of expertise on researching and tackling the issues facing members.

Tony McCarthy, Group Director, People & Organisational Development, Royal Mail Group, is Chair of the new Centre.