In the competitive business world, finding and retaining top talent is the key to a successful human resources division. But how do you attract top talent in a fast-moving, competitive industry?
Once you have them onboard, how do you keep them happy, engaged, and motivated to keep performing? Are your managers doing enough to close their skill gaps and support them in reaching their full potential?
Today, HR professionals must answer these questions and constantly sharpen the tools in their strategic HR toolbox to remain competitive and have a voice at the executive leadership table.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at the ways HR professionals can leverage a strategic approach to shift the mindset of HR from being just another administrative function to a strategic asset and grow into valued and respected leaders within their organizations.
What Is Strategic HR?
As the name implies, strategic HR tackles the breadth of challenges Human Resources face in attracting, retaining, and developing talent, creating a positive work environment, and achieving business objectives through HR programs, policies, and strategies.
At the end of the day, the job of your HR department is to empower people to love their jobs and do great work. Strategic HR management relies on integrating the human resources department into your business’s core strategic planning process to ensure that you use your talent in a way that aligns with your business objectives.
Developing HR strategies rests on a foundation of understanding core business objectives, aligning HR strategy accordingly, and utilizing workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management, and employee development and engagement tactics with the help of data and analytics. HR strategies use the hard data underlying their use of these tactics to continuously monitor and evaluate the HR department’s performance and optimize accordingly.
Benefits of Strategic Human Resource Management
Utilizing HR strategies offers numerous benefits to your organization, including:
- Improved business performance
- Increased engagement and creativity out of your employees
- Opportunities to identify and train future leaders in your organization, promoting long-term business health
- Better adaptability in a changing business world
- More informed decision-making processes
- Reduced burnout and improved employee morale
- Improved company branding and reputation in the workforce, making your business more attractive to talent and reducing company recruitment costs
- Better compliance with labour laws and regulations, minimizing the risk of reputational damage or legal issues
These are just a few of the benefits you reap when you make the HR department a holistic part of your business’s planning with the help of HR management strategies. Ultimately, strategic HR planning is essential to growing your business.
How to Be More Strategic in HR
So you know how important strategic HR is—now how do you take advantage of it in your organization?
Building a strategic human resources department requires shifting your HR department’s role from a purely administrative role to something closely and firmly intertwined with the broader business goals of your company, which is easier said than done.
Shifting to strategic HR management is about shifting your mindset. That’s why it often helps to take advantage of HR consulting resources to take that first step and start becoming more strategic in how your HR department runs.
Strategic HR consulting provides guidance, support, and skill development that you can use to keep on top of the evolution of the HR industry. By taking advantage by a trained HR consultant, such as an HR Catalyst, and other training resources, you and your fellow HR professionals in your company can achieve the necessary mindset shifts to achieve a more strategic HR department:
- Develop self-awareness about your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement as a department and as individuals so you can better recognize your potential in contributing strategically to your business
- Gain a deeper understanding of your business’s strategic objectives and priorities and receive guidance in aligning your HR efforts with those objectives
- Learn to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) strategic goals for your HR department that will better align your department with business objectives
- Develop leadership skills to enable your HR professionals to collaborate more effectively with senior leadership and shape your company’s strategic direction
- Build relationships between the HR department and other key stakeholders to earn a seat at the strategic decision-making table
- Develop the skills to effectively analyze HR data and metrics to better drive data-driven decisions that align with your business’s strategic needs
- Create a culture of continuous learning, strategic and long-term thinking, and accountability toward achieving goals
- Build resilience and adaptability to handle changes and other challenges that may result from shifts in the industry landscape or within company culture
Implementing Strategic HR with Gameplan HR™
People and culture are the key to driving your company’s success. While data and analytics are one of the core principles of effective strategic HR, you need a system, not just software.
At Gameplan HR™, we provide the tools you need to streamline operations and change your HR department’s mindset from an administrative role to a holistic, strategic role within your business, including:
- HR Catalyst™: An HR training academy to help you become a strategic HR leader.
- HROS™: A powerful HR Operating System™ that streamlines your implementation of HR strategies.
- HR Velocity™: Our hands-on HR leadership program for senior HR professionals.
Reach out to us today to get started optimizing your HR strategy.