Scottish Rugby

Reviewing the effectiveness of the HR function

Scottish Rugby is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland.  It is accountable for developing the Scottish game and has been transforming the structure of club rugby whilst growing revenue and reducing debt.

Watershed has supported the Chief Executive, Mark Dodson, on several projects.  One project was a high-level independent review that objectively established the current strengths of the HR function and the potential areas for development.

In order to determine the scope for improvement, we reviewed the HR functions:

  • organisational structures
  • roles and accountabilities
  • policies
  • tools
  • processes
  • working practices.

With the findings from our review, we were able to:

  • to identify examples of good practice and the opportunities for improvement in the short and long term
  • to eliminate duplicated effort and unnecessary work
  • to analyse the value for money of HR services and the effectiveness of HR processes
  • to assess the ‘bench strength’ of the HR team and provide a view on the future development of capability and succession risks.

We recommended changes to the organisational structure and then recruited a new Head of HR.