Four Groups Blog

I read a great story in Personnel Today looking at the HR function at Home Depot – Home Improvement. The two juicy bits are the rapid rate of growth and the pay of the HR director. On the subject of company growth;

The company’s rate of expansion in recent years has been huge. When Donovan joined in 2001, Home Depot had 1,319 stores and 251,488 staff. These figures have since grown by 44% and 29% respectively.

Looking at the rewards of Dennis Donovan, the CEO who hired him, Robert Nardelli is

reported to have paid Donovan a whopping $21.5m (£11.3m) for his first year at Home Depot, in line with the ranking suggested by Peters (a recent survey of HR directors’ pay estimates Donovan’s total annual pay package is now $6.4m (£3.4m) – the second-highest of any HR director in the US).

How does Donovan do this? The answer seems to be driven by his personal influence, the value that he contributes and the fact that this is recognised by others in the business, not least the CEO.

His value is also reflected clearly in the amount of influence he enjoys at the company – more like that of a traditional chief operating officer than a traditional HR director. He helps to mould and disseminate company policies; he involves himself in everything from the financial performance at store-level to supply-chain management, to the procurement of new IT systems; and he meets major shareholders every eight weeks and addresses a conference of analysts twice a year.

If you want to look under the covers, here are some interesting perspectives on Home Depot and how they do it.

Commentary on the Home Depot HR strategy – The Home Depot Goes for Gold

For The Home Depot, focusing on employees and their success outside the big-box store powerfully delivers several key messages: (1) we respect our employees and their individual skills and pursuits; (2) the people you find working in our stores are passionate and driven about what they do; (3) price is not our differentiator: our service and experience and support will carry you through your own DIY effort.

The fly on the wall perspective – Home Depot Bet Bet Weblog

Many people asked what it was like to spend 16 hours in the home depot. For those who want to know I provide you with a transcript of the journal that I kept during the event.

The Home Depot brand – Do you have a Home Depot problem?

Walk into the store and you can see which worldview the story is tailored to. It’s not for the homemaker or the occasional do it yourselfer. No, the store is clearly designed by, stocked for and organized around people who buy in volume and, even more than that, hardware geeks.