A Cascade HR survey recently revealed that HR professionals still seek more respect for the impact they have in the boardroom. Findings showed that 76.22% of respondents – from administrators to senior managers – believe HR’s strategic input remains poorly acknowledged.

Such statistics are interesting, but what can we actually do about them? As we prepare for this year’s CIPD’s Annual Conference & Exhibition, that’s been the very question we’ve had on our minds at Cascade HR.

Cascade’s CEO Oliver Shaw commented on the matter: “HR is widely misconstrued as a function with ‘softer’ business benefits, yet it is in fact well placed to have a well-earned voice in the boardroom. However there needs to be something of a mindset shift. Analysis is not high on the agenda for some HR professionals, and talks of ‘big data’ are sometimes feared. But this needn’t be the case.”

Because he is so passionate about the subject, Oliver, a commercially astute CEO and experienced Operations Director, will take to the stage  at ACE 2015, to show which metrics truly matter in the boardroom. The advice-led seminar ‘HR Hacks – making a truly strategic contribution to your organisation’, will be delivered at Manchester Central, on 4 November, 12:00.

The premise is to deliver a number of ‘hacks’ (practical calculations and tips), that will show HR professionals how to capture the attention of their senior management team, make meaningful rather than mindboggling use of big data, and transform the productivity and profitability of their organisations.

Because it is important that HR and payroll specialists have new questions to ask when they get back to the office, and different ways to uncover and confidently present information that will make Operations Directors, Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers stop and listen. They need to know how to truly understand how many people they have in productive work on any one day for instance, and how to manage the recruitment pipeline to fulfil an organisation’s target headcount.

Oliver continues: “I’m not just going to stand and talk about the importance of things such as succession planning. I’m going to show how to really tackle this, which elements of data need to be triangulated and how to work out the bottom line impact of the exercise. I’ve even got free resources such as a formula-driven recruitment planner, for delegates to take away with them.

“I hope they’ll find it a refreshing slant on topics they would typically only hear about from their peers. By drawing on my own boardroom insight, the seminar will show HR how to challenge senior management in order to run businesses more profitably. This will prove key to the profession achieving the strengthened boardroom position it has so long craved.”

Registration for the exhibition – and the ‘HR Hacks – making a truly strategic contribution to your organisation’ presentation – is free.  Sign up here: https://www.livebuzzreg.co.uk/2015/cipd15/reg/. The Cascade HR team will also be exhibiting at ACE 2015, on stand G60.