How to join us
TNT Express, by Richard Nelson
TNT provides premium mail, express and logistics services in over 200 countries and employs over 162,000 people. TNT states its mission as:
“Our mission is to exceed customers’ expectations in the transfer of their goods and documents around the world. We deliver value to our customers by providing the most reliable and efficient solutions in distribution and logistics. We lead the industry by:
instilling pride in our people
creating value for our shareholders
sharing responsibility for our world.”
In April 2005, the Express Division held its annual HR Conference in Noordwijk aan Zee (Holland) for its 60-strong international HR community. It included a one-day Effectiveness Workshop, designed and delivered by Nelson Consulting to help attendees develop their impact and effectiveness.
We started by looking generally at ‘The Business Context and HR’s Role in the 21st Century’. People are the sources of innovation and intellectual capital, and opportunities for increased profitability and share value are now more likely to be gained through growth and innovation. Thus it is critical to engage people in the pursuit of business excellence - a challenging scenario for business leaders and HR.
There is good news from research into business success over the last 15 years. From work done in the US* we know that effective leadership and people management pays off. In the UK, various studies** have shown that good people management increases productivity and profitability.
Profitability through growth will be realised by people’s performance, innovation and creativity, which is the concern of line management and HR. TNT delegates considered this agenda of leadership and people management issues and the opportunity it presents for HR to influence business success. Nelson Consulting encourages the consideration of three essentials: effective leadership; knowledgeable, skilled and motivated people and an organisation designed to enable people to achieve.
In this context, TNT delegates considered the elements of their role as a real Strategic Business Partner and the knowledge/skill areas they might need to enhance, such as business acumen, organisation design and consulting skills.
Practical Workshop sessions included the role of HR in TNT Express, Communicating and Marketing Capability (within the business), The Consultancy Process, The HR/Client Relationship, and Influencing Skills.
*Cf. Jim Collins and Jerry Poras - Built to Last, Jim Collins’ ‘From Good to Great’, Dave Ulrich’s ‘A New Mandate for Human Resources’ and his colleague Mark Huselid, who demonstrated that good people management practices led to superior sales revenue, profitability and shareholder value.
**E.g. Sheffield Institute of Work Psychology 1997 study