The Role Of HR In Business Strategy
The Human Resources function is an integral part of organizations today and well structured HR teams are delivering systems and practices that offer significant competitive advantage. Ensuring organizational goals are translated into actionable objectives, equipping managers with relevant performance tools and engaging talent at diverse touch points are some of the key areas where HR leaders help define functional alignment with business strategy.
By defining improvements to talent acquisition, employee engagement, learning and reward processes, and adapting to deliver to newer demands/disruptions that influence their ecosystem – HR teams walk in tandem with the leadership to define and embed the business strategy within the organizations’ systems and processes.
Crafting HR’s influence
Successful HR leadership in times of organizational change and growth includes delivering improved outcomes through innovation and improvements to core functional processes, and aligning them better with organizational goals and business strategy.
Here, we examine the top 5 actions that HR leaders initiate to ensure they uniformly secure the business strategy across the organization-
1. Anchor the organisation’s vision and values
An organization’s vision and values are its foundation, and in times of change and growth serve as the compass using which systems, processes and practices can be realigned.
HR leaders are aware that business managers can get held down with the nitty-gritty’s of strategic planning and day-to-day operations overview. So they help champion the core values and work across teams to re-grind the core purpose and ideas driving the business strategy –this enables managers and employees to demonstrate the desired behavior and motivations while designing their goals and meeting delivery requirements.
2. Review and strengthen core processes
HR leaders understand the importance of sound employee processes in securing the organization’s core values and culture. Therefore, they focus on reviewing and strengthening several internal processes/practices including –
• Strategic talent acquisition – bringing on board the right people into the right roles and driving increased engagement and productivity at the delivery lines.
• Improved team structures – enabling positive work-ethic and effective workforce design by and brining in the right mix of skills, talent and work backgrounds to create teams that function cohesively and effectively.
• Driving increased learning- working closely with business leaders to design and curate learning content that increase understanding of technology and market influences to help employees adapt, assimilate and deliver within evolving delivery frameworks and customer expectations.
• Employee engagement- understanding employee motivations and engagement needs that extend beyond monetary and career progression prospects.
• Broadening reward systems- designing and driving rewards systems to cater to a multi-generational workforce with diverse motivations and styles of engagement at work.
3. Use culture as a key enabler of strategy
Workplace culture is all about how we interact, engage and get things done at the workplace. HR leaders are aware that in times of change and growth, culture plays a critical role in ensuring cohesiveness and synergies within organizational processes. They work with managers in understanding the impact to process, workflow and communication between teams, and work to create the right alignment between the organizational culture and growth objectives. It helps create a bridge that simplifies and broadens understanding of objectives at the individual/ team unit level and secures buy-in from across stakeholder groups.
4. Define and articulate people components
Overall, organizations alter and redefine their business strategy primarily to drive improved financial and market goals and people related insights more often than not, take a backseat.
HR leaders help bring their deep people insights to ensure talent priorities are given adequate importance as part of the business strategy. They design tools to assess the areas of change and impact, and create improved ways to attract and retain top talent, drive engagement and enhance capabilities.
5. Ensure support systems for better alignment
Business strategy implementations bring about deep organization wide impact. During such times, HR leaders design initiatives to deliver tactical implementation tools and improved platforms for support, communication and engagement. These ensure greater preparedness, offer information and plan references, and educate managers on how they can guide their teams in committing to improved performance. Further, they also design tools and templates that can be easily implemented, and ensure consistency in outcomes and measures.
Strategy facilitation as an exercise can be complex, multi-faceted and challenging. With several stakeholder interests at play, HR assumes multiple roles such as custodian, sponsor, planner and enabler to partner differently across varied groups and support them with their needs. With the right measure of stewardship and understanding of practical business requirements, HR leaders can help create a strong framework that uses proactive planning, communication and process enablement to ensure successful implementation. In the end, these help embed the business strategy and drive performance excellence across the board – including employee groups, teams, functions as well as geographies.
The Role Of HR In Business Strategy
The Human Resources function is an integral part of organizations today and well structured HR teams are delivering systems and practices that offer significant competitive advantage. Ensuring organizational goals are translated into actionable objectives, equipping managers with relevant performance tools and engaging talent at diverse touch points are some of the key areas where HR leaders help define functional alignment with business strategy.
By defining improvements to talent acquisition, employee engagement, learning and reward processes, and adapting to deliver to newer demands/disruptions that influence their ecosystem – HR teams walk in tandem with the leadership to define and embed the business strategy within the organizations’ systems and processes.
Crafting HR’s influence
Successful HR leadership in times of organizational change and growth includes delivering improved outcomes through innovation and improvements to core functional processes, and aligning them better with organizational goals and business strategy.
Here, we examine the top 5 actions that HR leaders initiate to ensure they uniformly secure the business strategy across the organization-
1. Anchor the organisation’s vision and values
An organization’s vision and values are its foundation, and in times of change and growth serve as the compass using which systems, processes and practices can be realigned.
HR leaders are aware that business managers can get held down with the nitty-gritty’s of strategic planning and day-to-day operations overview. So they help champion the core values and work across teams to re-grind the core purpose and ideas driving the business strategy –this enables managers and employees to demonstrate the desired behavior and motivations while designing their goals and meeting delivery requirements.
2. Review and strengthen core processes
HR leaders understand the importance of sound employee processes in securing the organization’s core values and culture. Therefore, they focus on reviewing and strengthening several internal processes/practices including –
• Strategic talent acquisition – bringing on board the right people into the right roles and driving increased engagement and productivity at the delivery lines.
• Improved team structures – enabling positive work-ethic and effective workforce design by and brining in the right mix of skills, talent and work backgrounds to create teams that function cohesively and effectively.
• Driving increased learning- working closely with business leaders to design and curate learning content that increase understanding of technology and market influences to help employees adapt, assimilate and deliver within evolving delivery frameworks and customer expectations.
• Employee engagement- understanding employee motivations and engagement needs that extend beyond monetary and career progression prospects.
• Broadening reward systems- designing and driving rewards systems to cater to a multi-generational workforce with diverse motivations and styles of engagement at work.
3. Use culture as a key enabler of strategy
Workplace culture is all about how we interact, engage and get things done at the workplace. HR leaders are aware that in times of change and growth, culture plays a critical role in ensuring cohesiveness and synergies within organizational processes. They work with managers in understanding the impact to process, workflow and communication between teams, and work to create the right alignment between the organizational culture and growth objectives. It helps create a bridge that simplifies and broadens understanding of objectives at the individual/ team unit level and secures buy-in from across stakeholder groups.
4. Define and articulate people components
Overall, organizations alter and redefine their business strategy primarily to drive improved financial and market goals and people related insights more often than not, take a backseat.
HR leaders help bring their deep people insights to ensure talent priorities are given adequate importance as part of the business strategy. They design tools to assess the areas of change and impact, and create improved ways to attract and retain top talent, drive engagement and enhance capabilities.
5. Ensure support systems for better alignment
Business strategy implementations bring about deep organization wide impact. During such times, HR leaders design initiatives to deliver tactical implementation tools and improved platforms for support, communication and engagement. These ensure greater preparedness, offer information and plan references, and educate managers on how they can guide their teams in committing to improved performance. Further, they also design tools and templates that can be easily implemented, and ensure consistency in outcomes and measures.
Strategy facilitation as an exercise can be complex, multi-faceted and challenging. With several stakeholder interests at play, HR assumes multiple roles such as custodian, sponsor, planner and enabler to partner differently across varied groups and support them with their needs. With the right measure of stewardship and understanding of practical business requirements, HR leaders can help create a strong framework that uses proactive planning, communication and process enablement to ensure successful implementation. In the end, these help embed the business strategy and drive performance excellence across the board – including employee groups, teams, functions as well as geographies.
