International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research 2018, Vol 3 No 1: 43-57
doi: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.3.101

The Value of an HR Professional Group for Organizational Learning

Vivienne Griggs, University of Leeds, UK
Jenny Allen, Formerly NHS Digital, UK

Abstract

This paper reports on the value of the HR Professional Group at NHS Digital. A partnership between an academic researcher and an HR practitioner was adopted to bring together organizational knowledge with extant research. The study examined the lived experiences of members of the HR Professional Group in relation to social learning activities. Thirteen interviews were conducted with members of the HR Professional Group. A thematic analysis was undertaken on the resultant narratives. Three key themes emerged from the analysis. These were: strategic direction and ownership; professional identity and knowledge sharing; reflection and transfer of learning. The findings suggest professional groups offer a means of developing an expert learning community through the integration of research, practice, reflection, and knowledge sharing. By offering development beyond current job roles it contributes to talent development within the organization. Drawing on the findings, a model is proposed for professional groups which offers both development for the existing groups at NHS Digital and a template for HRD practitioners wishing to develop professional learning communities in their organizations. The proposed outcomes relate both to action for the organization and a contribution to knowledge in this field.

Key words: organizational learning, HR, professional development, identity, community of practice

Introduction
This article offers a reflection on practice regarding an approach to professional learning at NHS Digital. NHS Digital is an executive, non-departmental public body and is the national (England) provider of information, data and IT systems for patients, service users, clinicians, commissioners, analysts, and researchers across health and social care. The organization’s role is to improve health and social care in England by putting technology, data, and information to work. NHS Digital has been positioned at the forefront of the government’s national agenda to radically reshape and digitize patient experiences within both the health and care system.

The HR Professional Group is a forum where HR professionals in the organization can collaborate and share knowledge around professional practice. Professional Groups were launched across NHS Digital shortly after the organization’s creation in April 2013 with the aim of building and sustaining a professional workforce developing individual capability in support of organizational strategy. As well as aiming to build vibrant professional communities across the organization, to share knowledge and develop standard ways of working, it was also hoped that professional groups would provide a clear view of relevant professional training requirements and support staff in shaping career paths with professional competencies and consistent job descriptions. At that time, these objectives directly supported NHS Digital’s strategic workforce ambitions to be more flexible, to develop staff, and to facilitate resourcing and recruitment into the organization.

It was also felt they would help to respond to feedback from the annual staff survey about professional development and equality of opportunity.

The purpose of the HR Professional Group is to develop members’ capabilities; to generate and exchange knowledge. Whilst most definitions of talent development focus on identified groups of workers, the definition by Garavan, Carbery and Rock (2012, p. 6) could encompass the more inclusive approach to talent development taken here:

Talent development focuses on the planning, selection and implementation of development strategies for the entire talent pool to ensure that the organization has both the current and future talent supply to meet strategic objectives.

Talent development as a means of building capability and flexibility has much to offer to an organization like NHS Digital which was going through a period of organizational transformation. Investment in talent development practices have been seen to have benefits to the organization broader than the intended learning outcomes, such as attracting talent to the organization (Kucherov & Zavyalova, 2012); affective commitment (Chami-Malaeb & Garavan, 2013). However, Human Resource Development literature has focused on identifying talent, talent pools, talent pool strategies (Lewis & Heckman, 2006) seeing talent development as an activity targeted at selected individuals rather than a strategy for a more collective form of organizational development. Garavan et al. suggest “talent development is a significantly under-developed and under-researched concept” (2012, p.14), with evidence suggesting organizations are designing customized talent development for their organization but often focused on leadership rather than broader workforce development. This study of the professional group approach at NHS Digital, therefore, offers a rare insight into the approach adopted by one organization to take an inclusive, group approach to talent development.

As a particular learning initiative, the Professional Group is less easy to categorize. Although the group fits within the broader concept of talent development it does not easily match the list of interventions cited in the literature. Whilst team learning has begun to attract more attention, the distinction between a team with interdependence and a group of this size with more diverse roles and a lack of interdependency is more elusive in the literature. Where large group interventions are explored, for example, appreciative enquiry (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2001) or open space technology (Owen, 1997), they are often seen as a more innovative approach rather than a more traditional form of workplace learning. The approach to professional groups seems more aligned to networks often developed in organizations to support the learning of particular groups e.g. female managers, BME groups, graduates etc. (see for example: Bierema, 2005; Friedman & Holtom, 2002; Cromwell & Kolb, 2004).

Beyond the research around specific groups of workers the closest alignment to extant research for this more inclusive approach to development appears to be in the sphere of Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The stated aim of the group aligns to some extent with notions of Communities of Practice and Wenger’s definition:

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (2011, p. 1).

Other research on developing professional learning communities has been done in education and healthcare settings. Following a review of the literature in schools, Stoll et al. (2006) concluded that developing such communities had potential for building capacity and sustaining improvements. De Groot et al. (2014) discuss how learning communities can support continuous development for autonomous healthcare professionals.
As such this examination of an inclusive approach to talent development makes an important contribution to the literature.

The Value of an HR Professional Group for Organizational Learning, Vivienne Griggs and Jenny Allen

The Value of an HR Professional Group for Organizational Learning

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