Strategic HR increases an organization’s ability to achieve its vision, mission and strategic objectives. This is done by developing (not in a vacuum) HR strategies (initiatives) that align with the organization’s direction.
- 1. HR andOrganization Strategy Steven V. Manderscheid,
Ed.D.
2. Road Map
- Introductions and course overview.
- Changes in the professional world.
- Strategic HR/strategy alignment and competencies.
- Leadership and management.
- Strategy management and planning.
- Strategic formation and implementation.
3. Strategic HR Defined Strategic HR increases an organizations
ability to achieve its vision, mission and strategic objectives.
This is done by developing (not in a vacuum) HR strategies
(initiatives) that align with the organizations direction. 4.
Strategic HR What does it mean to be strategic from an HR
standpoint? 5. How Can this Be Done?
- One or more HR professionals (leaders) are involved in the
organizations strategic planning efforts (best-case scenario).
- HR will develop a strategic plan to support the overarching
plan.
- HR is asked to lead strategic planning for the
organization.
- HR is asked to find a professional to lead strategic planning
for the organization.
- HR is an advocate for strategic planning so the organization
has a foundation to develop its plans.
6. Effective HR Leaders
- Identify someone you believe is an effective HR leader. Then
identify someone you believe is a marginal HR leader.
- Identify the attributes and characteristics of each. Why would
you want to work or not want to work with them in the future?
- Work in small groups. Share your examples and create a list
that shows marginal leadership characteristics and best leadership
characteristics.
7. HR Competencies HR Professional BusinessCompetence
Professional &TechnicalKnowledge Integration Competence Ability
to Manageand/or Lead Change Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart,
B., & Wright, P. M. (2000).Human resource management: Gaining a
competitive advantage (3 rded.).New York, NY: Irwin McGraw-Hill 8.
HR Leaders How do you differentiate betweenHR leaders and HR
managers? 9. Managers and Leaders Management is responsible for
maintaining order; leadership is responsible for producing change
or movement. Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do.Harvard
Business Review, May-June , p. 103-11. 10. Managers and Leaders
- In addition to Kotters definition, Bennis provides the
following for differentiating between managers and leaders:
- Managers administer; leaders innovate.
- Managers maintain; leaders develop.
- Managers control; leaders inspire.
- Managers have a short-term view; leaders, a long-term
view.
- Managers ask how and when; leaders ask what and why.
- Managers accept the status quo; leaders challenge it.
Bennis, W. G. (1989).On becoming a leader . Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley. 11. Leadership Defined Northouse defines leadership
as a process. Leadership involves influence; leadership occurs
within a group context; leadership involves goal attainment. Based
on the previous construct, Northouse further defines leadership as
a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals
to achieve a common goal. According to Bennis, leaders tend to
share some, if not all, of the following three characteristics:
they establish a guiding vision; they have passion; and they act
with integrity. Bennis further defines leadership as a process by
which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner.
Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley. Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership: theory and
practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 12. Consensus
- Consensus is a decision that all team members can support. It
may be--but is not necessarily--the alternative most preferred by
all members. When true consensus is reached through a process in
which everyone participates, the output is usually a superior
quality decision. Moreover, it is a decision having widespread
acceptance and support for implementation. Most important, team
members are motivated to see the decision through to completion
(Brilhart and Galanes, 1989).
- Brilhart, J. K., and Galanes, G. J.( 1989) . Effective Group
Decisions.
- Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Publishers. p. 201-203.
13. Involvement Involvementis a key leadership practice to
ensure you facilitate ownership and gain commitment and
involvement. It results in better decisions before moving forward
with valuable organizational resources.Know who to involve, when,
how much, how often, etc. Each situation is different but before
moving forward with a strategic initiative, be sure you have laid a
foundation for success. 14. What is Strategic Planning?
- Astrategic planis a road map to lead an organization from where
it is now to where it would like to be.
- Strategy formationis a set of processes involved in creating or
determining the organizations strategies.
- Strategy implementationare the methods by which strategies are
operationalized or executed.
Griffin, R. W. (2002).Management(7th ed.). Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company. 15. Strategic Planning
- Clarify or develop a vision, mission and values.
- Identify four to six key focus areas.
- Develop a follow-up process and communication plan.
16. Two Constructs to Consider
- Operational Effectiveness Is your organization performing
similar activities better than your competitors?
- Strategic Positioning What actions can your organization take
to distinguish itself from competitors? What does your organization
consider to be its competitive differentiators in the
marketplace?
- Note: It is important to have clarity on these concepts before
starting the strategic formation process because they provide a
guide as the organization develops strategic initiatives.
Porter, M. (1996, NovemberDecember). What is strategy?Harvard
Business Review, 74 (6), 6178. 17. Active Inertia Active inertiais
an organizations tendency to follow established behavioral patterns
even in response to dramatic environmental shifts. Because they are
stuck in the modes of thinking and working that brought success in
the past, leaders perpetuate their tried-and-true activities.Sull,
D. (1999, July-August). Why good companies go bad.Harvard Business
Review, 77 (4), 42-52. 18. Strategic Plan and Vision
- Astrategic planis a road map to lead an organization from where
it is now to where it would like to be.
- Avisionis an engineers rendering of the achievement of that
map.
- HR should have a supporting vision and strategic plan as well;
there must be alignment.
19. Vision
- Avisionis a depiction of what you would like your organization
and HR department to be like in the future.
- Avision statementis a brief explanation (one or two sentences)
with some explicit commentary about why the vision is
desirable.
- Vision statements should be more than slogans. They are a
distillation of your organizations values, dreams and
priorities.
20. Characteristics of an Effective Vision
- Imaginable:Conveys a picture of what the future will look
like.
- Desirable:Appeals to your long-term interests and the interests
of other stakeholders.
- Feasible:Has realistic, attainable goals.
- Focused:Is clear enough to help guide decision-making.
- Flexible:Is general enough to allow for individual initiative
and alternative responses in light of changing conditions.
- Comprehensible:Is easy to communicate; can be successfully
explained within five minutes.
Kotter, J. (1996).Leading Change.Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School Press. 21. Mission
- Effective mission statements include the following
elements:
- The concept of your organization.
- The nature of your business.
- The reason your organization exists.
- The principles and values under which you intend to
operate.
22. Sample Mission Statements
- XYZ is committed to delivering exemplary, compassionate and
professionally rewarding internal medicine care to patients with
complex multi-system diseases.
- XYZs HR department is committed to providing professional,
progressive and strategic human resource leadership to all
stakeholders.
- XYZs HR department provides the organization with people,
policies, processes and practices that best support a flow of
talent capable of meeting businesses needs.
23. Values
- Valuesare the essential and enduring tenets of an
organization--the guiding principles that have a profound effect on
how everyone in the organization thinks and acts.
24. Types of Values
- Core valuesare the values applied in daily choices. For
example, a core value might be honesty; you act on it when you
consistently tell the truth and are frank and open with
people.
- Inspirational valuesare the values you want more of in your
life. A good example might be to achieve better work/life balance.
If you are not actively working on it, develop strategies about how
to achieve it.
25. Why Values?
- Why is it important to identify and articulate values?
-
- Values create alignment and drive behavior. They provide a
framework to help make decisions, prioritize actions and interact
with each other.
-
- Articulating values is a representation of the organization to
the outside worldyour stakeholders.
26. SWOT Analysis
- A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluates
trengths,w eaknesses,o pportunities andt hreats. A SWOT analysis
informs the goal-setting process and provides a context for future
strategic planning discussions.
- Strengths and weaknesses are internal to an organization.
- Opportunities and threats originate from outside the
organization.
27. A Sample SWOT Analysis Matrix Positive Negative Internal
External Strengths High-quality employees. Strong, committed HR
staff. Good reputation in the organization. Location (close to our
stakeholders). Good rapport with other departments. Work well as a
team. Good technical competence and tools. Weaknesses Vagueness of
role in our acquisition strategy. Lack of data or measurements.
Poor communication. HR partner bandwidth. The volume of HR
initiative on the table. Compensation design and benefit program.
Opportunities Stability in leadership. Expansion of services.
Referral centers. Integrate talent management systems. Secure new
talent via our merger. Further develop our self-service model.
Threats Budgetary constraints. Stagnation/complacency.
Turnover/leadership changes. Rising health care costs. Internal
conflicts & overworked employees. Marketplace uncertainty. 28.
Key Focus Areas
- Key focus areasare the areas in which the organization will
focus its attention in the next 1-3 years.
- Leaders should assign ownership of each key focus area and
identify objectives and action plans. From an HR perspective, key
owners could be HRD managers, compensation specialists, HR regional
directors, etc.
- Note: Ensure consensus on 4-6 key focus areas. This will
increase the likelihood of cross organizational support.
Kusy, M., & McBain, R. (2000). Putting real value into
strategic planning: Moving beyond never-never land!Organization
Development Practitioner, 32(2),22. 29. Sample Key Focus Areas
- Employees:XYZ Corporation will proactively attract and retain a
committed and qualified professional staff to meet our clients
needs.
- Programs:The HR department will define HR IT systems and
programs to streamline processes and better serve our
stakeholders.
30. SMARTS Goals
- S pecific: Is the statement clear and concise?
- M easurable : Is the statement quantifiable?
- A ttainable : Is the statement realistic?
- R easonable : Can it be accomplished under current conditions
and with current resources?
- T ime Specific : Does have a completion date?
- S tretch : Does it require the employee to develop new skills
or stretch their current abilities?
31. Sample SMARTS Goals
- By June 15, reduce the average human resource service center
response time by 15 percent.
- Performance measure: Response time.
- Develop and communicate an organization-wide total rewards and
value proposition by May 1.
- Performance measure: A plan with strategies, action steps and
measures that starts in late May.
- Conduct two formal manager feedback sessions every three months
and use the feedback to develop a written report with
recommendations to improve the organizations talent acquisition
process.
- Performance measure: A written report that summarizes results
and includes recommendations based on customer feedback.
32. Template Owner: Team: Key Focus Area: Strategic Objective #1
Activities Completion Date Measurement Strategic Objective #2 33.
Implementing Strategy
- Ensure that leaders can communicate the plan and manage
performance.
- Assign ownership of key focus areas and goals.
- Establish interim debrief sessions with owners and measure the
progress.
- Acknowledge and make success visible.
- Link strategic goals and values to the performance
systems.
Manderscheid, S., & Kusy, M. (2005). How to Design Strategy
With No DustJust Results! Organization Development Journal,
23(2),62-70. 34. Emergent v. Intended Strategies
- Anintendedordeliberate strategyis an intended plan which is
then realized.
- Anemergent strategyis a set of actions or behavior that is
consistent over time; a realized pattern [that] was not expressly
intended in the original planning of strategy.
- Most strategies involve a bit of both. A pure deliberate
strategy requires that the outcome was realized totally as intended
(unlikely). An emergent strategy typically incorporates consistent
actions that will have some intentionality.
Mintzberg, H. (1994).The rise and fall of strategic planning.New
York: The Free Press. 35. Thank You! For more on Indian HR
industry,click here Resource made available by SHRM US