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Transformation | Skanska's HRD reveals drivers for true transformation

Skanska's HRD reveals drivers for true transformation

Harvey Francis, Executive Vice President HR, at construction firm Skanska doesn’t pull any punches about what HR used to be like at the Sweden-headquartered construction giant.

As he described, HR was an order taker; it was disparate and processes were often duplicated, with multiple payroll systems.

This had to change. When the firm, which has 5,700 UK employees, relaunched its values alongside a new business strategy and a more societally-centric purpose five years ago, the people function also changed tack. “We got commercial,” Francis, who joined from Pfizer in 2007, added. 

For the multi-billion-pound construction giant, much had to be overhauled for a proper commercial transformation of the HR function – which included looking at the capabilities in the HR department and making some difficult decisions.

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