Strategic human resources is key to organizational success

Strategichuman

The first strategic objective of a business is to stay in business. This is probably what Peter Drucker has in mind when suggesting that “business has only two basic functions — marketing and innovation.” That is, create or increase demand for what is offered and constantly make it better. Meanwhile, create something else that is even better.

Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Christopher Lee for Halogen Software’s TalentSpace blog. To read the complete article, check out others, learn more about the firm, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.

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What is the role of HR in organizational success?

Before we can answer that question what we really need to do is ask, “What do we mean by success?”

If success is defined as helping the organization make a profit, it muddies the issue. If success is defined as helping the organization achieve its mission, vision, strategy, and goals (MSVG), HR’s role is clearer.

This broader definition highlights the line of sight perspective that every HR professional must acquire according to HR guru David Ulrich and other experts.

This involves recognizing that the link between helping an individual employee, their team, their department, and their company perform better is a matter of context and HR strategy.

HR professionals must ensure that there is a direct connection between the policies, procedures, programs and services they offer and the organization’s larger purposes. Absent clear and deliberate linkages, the HR department is just a cost center that is undervalued and unappreciated.

Chief Human Resources Officer’s must take a strategic approach to work. Strategy starts with thinking, long before the doing.

Our business or HR philosophy, our guiding principles or our operating framework makes all the difference.

Strategic human resources is about harnessing human potential

Many HR professionals are held back by clinging to the outdated notion that the human resources function is about serving employees. As a young CHRO in the early 1990′s, I developed what I thought was the ultimate slogan for my HR department. I proudly touted it until my reeducation as an HR manager a decade letter.

It said, “We take care of those who take care of business.” It was simple, powerful, and poetic.

Yet, it was wrongheaded.

This approach caused me to have a helping and serving mindset and influenced how I set about organizing, staffing, and operating my department. To my understanding today, the purpose of the HR function is to leverage human potential on behalf of the organization so that the latter achieves its MVSG.

In the past, I advocated for people and things, developed programs, and made decisions that did not have a return on investment. They were nice to have ‘feel-good’ programs that seemed to make sense for employees and morale.

They were allegedly in the best interest of employees, but not necessarily the organization as a whole. If an organization becomes uncompetitive, unprofitable, and ineffective because employees see their relationship with their employer as a provider of perquisites, then the organization will likely go out of business.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Chris Lee is a self-described HR evangelist. He believes that strategic HR is the solution to all organizational problems. In addition to being a chief HR officer himself, Chris is an adjunct professor, researcher, and author. His area of expertise is employment, training, and performance management – or, in his words, “finding, developing, and managing talent in organizations.” He holds both a master’s degree in HR Management and a doctor of philosophy degree in HR Development.

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