How can HR practitioners best demonstrate the impact of their work and position themselves as enterprise-wide, commercial leaders? A seasoned Chief People Officer shares her advice.

I thought you were in HR?”

“I am,” he said.

“From the way you shared that data-driven plan to impact sales, I wouldn’t have guessed it.” 

This was intended to be a compliment, and it was said to an HR leader I met when I relocated to the US for a global assignment earlier in my career. He wasn’t someone who’d landed in HR because he “liked people”. 

He’d come from commercial roles and stayed in HR because he understood how to drive business outcomes through people. I noticed he did something differently. He always started with the business problem: improve top-line sales. 

For example, a manager capability uplift program wasn’t about “developing leaders”; it was tied to performance and profit. It was about clear commercial results, not HR vanity metrics. 

That moment struck me right as I was getting good at getting the wrong things done in my HR job. I was focused on managing my inbox when I should have been focused on getting top talent into revenue-generating roles.

As my HR career has progressed, I’ve gained valuable skills and advice to learn how to operate as a commercial HR leader. Below, I share four lessons that have stood out to me.

1. Own your own narrative

What if the core challenge isn’t how HR can get a seat at the table, but how HR becomes a business growth engine?

When HR is tightly aligned to business value, the impact becomes obvious. It shifts the role from service provider to performance enabler. It pulls us away from firefighting and ‘HR-only’ work and redirects towards the business outcomes that matter most: margin, growth, risk, retention and productivity.

When asked, “What does HR actually do?” we have an opportunity to own the narrative. We can say: “I help leaders perform by uplifting accountability, sharpening decision-making and closing capability gaps that cost time and results. HR done right builds high-performing leaders at scale,” or, “I make sure you’re not flying blind on your biggest asset and cost – your people. That means fewer people dramas and late-night surprises, and more confidence that the right capabilities are in place to deliver.”

“Strategic HR leaders act as credible activists and paradox navigators. They build trust, challenge constructively and translate ambiguity into action.”

2. Streamline the noise

Despite years of conversation about strategic HR, research suggests HR still spends a lot of time in reactive mode. 

That includes solving individual issues, responding to requests and managing low-leverage tasks. The result is a constant tug-of-war between urgency and impact.

Add to that the layers of complexity HR has inherited, including policies, programs and systems that require effort. And that’s before we factor in AI, hybrid work, compliance and geopolitical shifts.

When we streamline the noise, we can find the levers that deliver true value. This results in:

• Simplified workflows that reduce drag and cost.
• People leader rituals that improve clarity and accountability.
• Strategic workforce planning connected to business cycles.
• Time reclaimed from low-quality meetings that drain cognitive capacity.
• Performance conversations reframed around business value.

These are the pieces worth repeating and investing in.

It’s easy to get stuck doing HR work that sounds strategic, but doesn’t drive results. Programs that are well-intentioned, beautifully designed, but disconnected from the business agenda – such as leadership development without clarity on the decisions leaders need to make; values workshops without consequences for behaviour; and HR tech that adds effort without insight. 

Essentially, it’s about stopping doing great work on the wrong problems.

This will look different in every organisation, but could look like standardising and automating wherever possible; defining what requires strategic HR support and what doesn’t; equipping leaders with tools, not dependency; and clarifying when ‘done’ not perfect is required.

Melissa MacGowan will be speaking at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition about Secure your ticket today.

3. Solve problems with commercial capability

Many HR practitioners are already taking a commercial lens to their problem-solving. I’ve seen it in action. For example, I’ve witnessed:

• A CPO reframed a reskilling program not as L&D spend, but as a future productivity driver, tracking increases in internal mobility, reducing time-to-performance and delivering ROI.
• An HRD treating a business turnaround project like a commercial investment. She pitched to the CFO with forecasted savings, productivity targets and leadership accountability built into the project P&L.
• A sales incentive redesign tied directly to profitable growth metrics. It improved retention and increased the team’s contribution to EBITDA by rewarding the right behaviours.
• A data-driven safety initiative reducing absenteeism and incident claims, saving $5 million annually while improving resilience and reducing risk exposure.
• A CPO freeing up capacity equivalent to hundreds of FTE by removing a million hours of administrative load through process redesign. That time was reinvested in customer delivery and frontline impact.

These are examples of HR solving business problems with commercial credibility. The value of this is backed up by research. According to Boston Consulting Group, high-performing HR teams:

• Spend 25 per cent more time on enterprise-wide influence.
• Prioritise fewer, more focused initiatives.
• Align their efforts to business KPIs, not just HR ones.
  

HR thought leader Dave Ulrich’s global HR research echoes this. It found that strategic HR leaders act as credible activists and paradox navigators. They build trust, challenge constructively and translate ambiguity into action.

The Australian HR Institute’s 2024 research into high-performance work systems adds local insight, finding that 76 per cent of private-sector organisations using high-performance HR systems report above-average financial results, compared with just 43 per cent of those that don’t.

4. Don’t position HR as an investment

If we want to be seen differently, we need to behave differently. That means:

• Saying ‘no’ to good ideas that don’t align with strategy.
• Measuring outcomes, not effort.
• Showing up as challengers, not rescuers.
• Framing proposals with commercial logic.
• Operating with the same rigour as other business functions.

One CPO told me that the disconnect between engagement and performance hit hard when they acquired a company reporting 95 per cent employee engagement alongside negative EBITDA. Employees were engaged in the day-to-day, but disconnected from commercial realities.

I’ve seen this too: culture and capability initiatives that feel strategic, but lack a clear business case, making them vulnerable to cost-cutting.

That’s where data makes the difference. Seasoned HR leader Russell Kronenburg asked a question that, in my opinion, more HR leaders need to consider: “Can we connect culture to commercial outcomes?”

Drawing on research showing that purposeful, aligned cultures drive outperformance in revenue, margin and customer satisfaction, he developed a diagnostic to help companies prioritise culture as a strategic lever, not just a feel-good initiative.

This mindset shift reflects what one board chair told me: “Don’t position it as HR investment. It’s investment in the business, its people, its strategy – and HR is the delivery arm.”

It’s an exciting time to be in HR. The function is evolving. The biggest shift? From proving impact to delivering it.

When HR is focused and commercial in driving business outcomes, it doesn’t need to seek a seat at the table; it commands attention at it.

A longer version of this article first appeared in the June/July HRM 2025 edition of HRM Magazine.

Hear more from HR leaders like Melissa MacGowan at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in Sydney from 19-21 August. Secure your ticket today.