Five Essential Steps to Constructing an Effective HR Strategy

Creating an HR strategy is as crucial as having a business plan. A robust HR plan impacts every level of your organisation, ensuring you build an engaged and successful workforce.

1. Recognise the Organisational Strategy and Objectives

Start by thoroughly understanding your organisation’s mission, long-term goals, and the future skills and capabilities required to achieve these objectives. Here’s how:

Grasp the Mission: Understand the core mission and strategic goals.
Determine Future Skills: Forecast the needed skills and capabilities.
Assess Current State: Evaluate the current skills and competencies.
Formulate HR Objectives: Develop clear HR goals and success metrics.
Ensure Communication: Ensure your HR strategy is well-communicated throughout the organisation.

2. Identify Future Capabilities and Skills

Engage with each business unit to understand how their strategic goals will shape future HR requirements.

Evaluate Needs: Discuss the essential talent considerations.
Fast-track Actions: Identify actions to accelerate goal achievement.
Assess Risks: Consider the impact of talent risks, such as competition.
Address Talent Issues: Prioritise key talent issues that affect success.

3. Assess Current Capabilities and Skills

Evaluate your organisation’s current capabilities to identify gaps between existing skills and future needs. Here’s an approach:

Conduct Gap Analysis: Highlight areas requiring improvement.
Set Talent Objectives: Align talent goals with strategic objectives.

Example:

Goal: Expand market presence globally.
Current Capabilities: Lack necessary skills and resources.
Needed Resources: Hire or relocate 200 FTEs, including multilingual employees.
Financial Implications: Calculate costs for compensation, benefits, and relocation.

4. Develop HR Goals and Success Criteria

Set clear HR goals that align with business objectives and establish measurement criteria for success.

Concrete Goals: Develop strategic HR goals based on business goals.
Action Plans: Create detailed action plans to achieve these goals.
Involve Subfunctions: Engage relevant departments in execution.

5. Communicate Your HR Strategy

Craft a clear communication strategy to ensure everyone understands their role in achieving the strategic goals.

Effective Communication Tips:

Overview: Provide an overview of the HR strategy and its alignment with corporate goals.
Highlight Changes: Explain significant changes and their implications.
Tailored Presentations: Show the benefits of the strategy to different units.
Champions: Use regional or global leaders to champion the strategy.
Proactive Resistance Management: Address resistance proactively.
Segment Communications: Tailor communications to enhance understanding and support.

Utilise Visuals and Templates

Strategic Plan Template

Vision Statement: Outline the organisation’s future direction.
Statement of Strategy: Summarise the strategic plan succinctly.
Current State: Metrics describing the current situation.
Plan: Initiatives to reach the desired state.
Future State: Metrics describing the target outcome.

Example Initiatives:

Implement development programs to enhance digital skills.
Redeploy non-critical talents strategically.
Embed a new hybrid work model to boost productivity.

Ongoing Strategic HR Management

Continuous Improvement

Regularly revisit and adjust the HR strategy to adapt to changing needs. A dynamic HR strategy can significantly benefit both large and small organisations, aiding in efficient scaling and success.

By following these steps, HR leaders can craft a comprehensive strategy that aligns with organisational goals, driving business success and fostering a productive workforce. Your HR strategy should be resilient, integrated with strategic and tactical HR elements to achieve critical business outcomes like increased productivity, higher employee satisfaction, and improved profitability.

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