Aidan Lawrence

Title of Keynote: The Relationship between Research and Practice – A Practitioner Perspective

Aidan has provided the following preview of his address:

In my presentation I will explore the opportunity and need for academic research to

inform and contribute to strategic HR practice from a HR practitioner’s perspective. The

speed of business change and the constant drive to improve competitiveness through

innovating new customer products and solutions, aligning operating costs, engaging

employees, and delivering shareholder value is placing the HR Function centre stage in

terms of its charter to drive strategic capability development and deliver positive

organizational change.

It is becoming commonplace to have the HR Function drive key organizational competitive strategies, and as a

result senior HR Leaders now have all HR programs, policies and practices under constant review to ensure that

they are directly enabling the overall business strategy. As a result HR practice is going through rapid development

and change, and practitioners need to learn faster, innovate new practices, and importantly leverage the use of new

IT tools and data analytics to accelerate strategic human resource decision making.

In particular the charter for the Learning and Development Function is being transformed, with increased senior

stakeholder engagement in the definition of strategic capabilities required to enable business growth strategies. For

HR leaders, the investment in employee development is one of their strategic contributions to the success of the

business. The focus is now on investing in the “critical few” strategies that will deliver positive organizational change.

We are fast moving to an environment where the investment in L&D is no longer viewed as being good for the

organization, but is viewed as the lever to create new competitive capabilities, and if that lever does not deliver,

then the investment needs to be moved to other competitive investment strategies that will deliver impact and

financial return.

The rapid rate of change and the need for higher ROI is presenting a huge opportunity, if not a requirement that HR

Practitioners and Academia collaborate and engage more closely. Academic research has the potential to directly

inform strategic intervention selection, accelerate implementation, create faster learning cycles, and reduce failure

rates. It can provide proof points from research outcomes, and predictive business impact models to engage senior

stakeholder investment and commitment. The longer-term benefit from a stronger collaboration will be to increase

the value and relevance of future research for both Academia and HRD practitioners.”

Bio of Speaker:

Aidan is World-wide Learning and Organization Development Director for the Hewlett-Packard Personal Systems and Printing

Business. Managing a global team of L&D professionals, he has direct responsibility for; management development, graduate

programs, and strategic capability development for global Product Development and Operations business units. He also

manages the WW L&D Operations function.

Prior to HP, Aidan’s career has been in the high technology sector, including roles in Training and Development management,

Productions Operations Management, Senior Production Planning and two years working as a Senior Management

Consultant. A graduate of University of Limerick and University of Sheffield, he received the ASTD Excellence in Practice Award

in both 2009 and 2011, and the Brandon Hall Gold Award in 2014.