ACTIVITY VS IMPACT

CHALLENGE IT - CHANGE IT - STOP IT

"Busy isn’t a business outcome, activity isn’t a measure of value,

and when we try to do everything - we don’t land anything"

The Activity Trap

How much value is your HR function delivering for your people, your business and your customers? When was the last time you asked this question - and gave yourself and your team the time and space to really consider the answer?

We often default to measuring success by what we’ve completed - the programmes delivered, the systems implemented, the actions completed. But if this doesn’t move the organisation forward, it’s no longer enough.

Delivering real impact starts with seeing through a new lens. It means asking better questions, challenging what we’ve inherited and aligning our work to what truly matters - for our people, our business, and our customers.

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters. Because when we make the shift from activity to impact, the business outcomes follow.

In my book High-Impact HR, I share the full approach and tools

behind these principles. It's available here.

The Problem with Measuring Activity

HR often gets judged. From outside our function, our relevance and our value can be questioned. For being too transactional, too reactive, for being seen as a support function rather than an enabler. That’s hard for us to hear when we invest so much of ourselves in our people practices. But from the outside looking in, it’s not always clear how much we have to manage behind the scenes - it’s very easy to judge.

Legacy HR was built on activity completion. Working through priorities and ticking the boxes to evidence what we’d delivered. And when the workload is relentless, it’s easy for us to keep going through the motions. But measuring success through completion of activity isn’t a true indicator. Just because we’ve completed a piece of work doesn’t mean it created value. And HR teams running at full capacity doesn’t necessarily mean we’re being effective.

We need to ask: are we solving the right problems? Are we doing the work that truly makes a difference? Are we moving the organisation forward? The reality is: busy isn’t a business outcome, effort doesn’t equal impact, activity isn’t a measure of value. And when we try to do everything, we don’t land anything.

From Activity to Impact

The reality is, it’s easy to slip into tick-box thinking. We can find ourselves caught in a cycle that never ends. The overflowing portfolio of work, the annual calendar of delivery, the legacy initiatives we’ve not challenged in years, the requests we fulfil because we always have.

The risk? When we try to do too much, we dilute our energy, overstretch our teams and waste our valuable resources. And this limits the scale of results we can deliver. We simply cannot do it all - and do it well. And not everything is worth doing. We need to do less, but better. To realign our resources - and our energy - to where it really counts. We need to put business value first.

If we want to be a high impact HR function, we have to change our mindset. We have to be the change we want to see and harness the true power within our functions. We have to continually come back to the question - how are we contributing to the business strategy? This is where we have the opportunity to redefine ourselves:

1 - From activity focused to business impact focused.

2 - From a support function to an enabler of the business strategy.

3 - From a cost centre to a competitive advantage.

This means making the shift from a focus on completed activities, to focusing on the value and return on investment we’ve delivered for the organisation.

Here’s what this looks like:

1 - From tick-box activities to business aligned activities.

2 - From an overflowing book of work to targeted, value adding priorities.

3 - From supporting the organisation to enabling the organisation.

This approach means prioritising the work that makes a measurable difference. It means aligning every activity to the business strategy or people outcomes. It means becoming an impact focused and value-adding function by design. And the time for change is now. So, how can we do this in practice?

Building an Impact Focused HR Function

Taking a look at your current activities can help you understand how much value your work is really adding - and where your efforts might be going to waste. Here’s how:

Look across your landscape end to end. Not just the work that you carefully plan out, or the ongoing activities that need to happen - everything. The day to day, the hidden effort, the tasks and requests that drain time and resources. Get really clear on what’s filling your book of work, your calendar and your attention.

This is your moment to pause and reflect. What’s legacy? What’s aligned? What’s genuinely making a difference? This isn’t about doing more. It’s about removing what’s not adding value to make space for what is. This helps us focus our time, energy and resources on what matters. And to be brave enough to stop what doesn’t.

Here are some questions you can ask:

1 - How does this work contribute to our business strategy?

2 - What’s essential activity to keep our people and organisation safe, compliant and operating effectively?

3 - Is this activity creating value for our people, our business or our customers?

4 - Which activities genuinely move the organisation forward?

5 - Which activities don’t add value - and why are we still doing them?

6 - If we want to become a true enabler to the business strategy, what’s missing?

If the answer isn’t compelling it’s time to challenge it, change it, or stop it. And if it’s not adding value, it’s got to go. Protect what matters. Remove what doesn’t. And create space for what really moves the organisation forward.

This approach can help create opportunities to think differently, unlock hidden capacity, and build a function that delivers what your people and business really needs.

And remember, challenging legacy practices isn’t always easy - the best things never are. But it is achievable. And what’s more the investment in time and effort is absolutely worth it.

Takeaway Tips

Make the shift from completed activity to business impact and value delivered.
Ask better questions. Why this? Why now? What outcome are we driving?
If it’s not adding value for your people, business or customers - it’s got to go.
Step back and refocus. Review your book of work and reset your priorities.
Speak the language of value. Frame everything around outcomes and impact.
Build an impact and value-first mindset and way of working across your HR function.

Are you ready to make the shift from activity to impact?