Many organizations rely on HR to be the strategic drivers of business success.
To accomplish this, HR managers must be forthcoming with programs, policies, and initiatives that will yield a positive impact on a company’s bottom line.
“Strategic HR has transformed itself to become predominantly an engineer instead of a mechanic,” said Ed Hurst, consulting practice leader of
IBM Kenexa. “In the boardroom they are becoming deeply connected to the business strategy, then they design people agendas to achieve those business outcomes.”
He recommends four strategies in particular:
- Establish authority in the boardroom by bringing focused business objectives with relevant data to reinforce the positive impact of HR initiatives
- Make clear that HR is inextricably linked to business outcomes and provide real-life cases that lend evidence to these assertions
- Ensure that HR is flexible enough to evolve with the business and adjust as needed to external threats
- Demonstrate that future success of the company is heavily reliant on HR, and suggest improvements to ensure growth.
Most important of all, HR leaders should always be asking the right questions, and constantly looking at the bottom line to assess whether their actions are achieving a greater return on assets.
“That is the real essence of the HR shift,” said Hurst. “Now, as HR practitioners, we need to build and display these new competencies within our organisations and become the leaders of disruptive change.”
This article was adapted from Shifting HR – leading positive disruptive change.
