Aligning HR Strategy with Business Goals

Aligning HR with Company Goals

• HR departments should have a “seat at the table” for business decisions, and understand that they need to be a part of those higher level conversations.
  
  • There is no business strategy without aligning HR with the business strategy.
• The reason why HR plays such a key role in establishing business strategy is because they are at the forefront of bringing in the right people and finding the right role for them in order to help the business succeed. 
• Including HR in the conversation can make HR a business leader and assist with strategic planning.
  • If companies are really embedded in their HR strategy, the businesses will understand the power and potential of where the business can go with their HR department.
• HR has also been the face of a now remote workforce, and has been a lifeline for everyone from C-suite executives to frontline workers.
  • Since the pandemic, we have become a more geographically diverse workforce, and companies are looking for a performance management perspective now that the world is living outside of a 9-5.
  • More savvy HR departments have embraced their responsibility to help lead companies through the pandemic and keep the workflow on track.

HR and Business Leaders

• HR has a function in every corner of the business, and have a perspective on the organization as a whole, understanding the “people perspective” of business. 
• We cannot execute a successful business strategy without people, and HR professionals are in the business of people. 
  • HR sits at the center of how we work in an effective and proactive way, which includes deeply understanding business strategy and aligning HR with business strategy. 
• HR is a unique opportunity to translate the needs of a business into the fundamentals and thinking about the workforce as a whole. 

Building Strategy

• A strong Human Resources department is key to developing a strong business strategy. When leaders recognize HR as an equal contributor, and align HR with business strategy, it becomes easier to turn around and bring in leadership and frontline workers. 
  • Human Resource specialists are able to weave in long-term business strategies, which can look at 5-10 years in the future. Doing so mobilizes, incentivizes, and inspires people to execute the strategy to contribute their best ideas and efforts towards achieving said vision. It is important to ask the tough questions about what that future might look like and what is needed to achieve them.
• It is important to identify the capabilities and fundamentals of a business, and determine how to build on existing strategies to develop short and long term action plans.
  • This starts by working on the core capabilities to leverage how to address them and expand
• Every Human Resources leadership team needs to talk about the importance of data and analytics, and recognize what they lack in, and how to grow and align HR with business strategy. 

Looking at Other Departments and Leadership

• It is imperative to include other departments into important business conversations about success. 
• There’s always an opportunity for other departments to contribute to the conversation, and figure out where HR fits in the equation of a successful business, and why these roles matter.
• We cannot succeed without fully understanding a business’ strategy, and having the building blocks for that strategy takes a lot of long term vision.
  • It is important for Human Resources professionals to take the time to carve out opportunities to think beyond the practical, and help guide the business to stay on track long-term.
• It is important to not only build a 3-5 year business trajectory, but build out a people strategy that aligns with that plan.
  • This involves incorporating senior business leadership and laying out the key points of a people strategy and how it works in tandem with the company’s business strategy .
  • It is imperative that HR leadership build a solid, cohesive people strategy, and then present that to c-suite executives to show the importance of that strategy for the business as a whole. This makes leadership as actionable, strategic, and aligned with the business goals as HR. 
• Examining people strategy is an evolution of a business model, and by not prioritizing a people-based strategy, it makes that company fall behind the others.
• Organizations are trying to differentiate themselves and recognizing the importance of data and analytics in terms of the core capabilities of the organization, and what each team can offer or the business as a whole.
  • Tracking the metrics only does so much, and just because you are tracking certain data points doesn’t mean you should. Utilizing an HR perspective for business decisions provides a human element to that data and develops a narrative behind the metrics. This creates real insight on what the data means, and can develop long term strategies for a business that data alone could not.

Talent Boost

• Talent Boost strengthens the alignment between Human Resources and business leadership to accelerate outcomes.
  • They provide mentoring, one-on-one coaching, and leadership retreats to highlight the need for leadership teams to work together on business ventures. 
• Teams, new and old, are so important in bringing together businesses and developing cohesions within leadership and within a company. 
  • By examining the functionality of a team and it’s intentions.
  • Collaboration is vital to a successful team, and being able to communicate and remain curious is important to keeping teams focused and together.
  • If one team at a company fails, the entire business can fair, so it is important that the main focus of an organization is to help keep the leadership teams within a company aligned.
• The Growth Readiness Assessment cracks open the DNA of a business, examines how it operates, and examines its leadership structure in a step-by-step guide. 
  • This test assesses how ready a team or a business is to grow and fulfill the mission it has set out for itself.
• As of this episode posting, Ms. Chandler is currently conducting a research study about the future of organizations and the success of their strategic outcomes.
  • In this survey, business leaders are invited to share their perspectives on the gap between what businesses need to deliver and what HR departments actually can deliver.

Claire Chandler Background

• MS in Professional & Technical Communication from the New Jersey Institute of Technology
• BA in English from Fairfield University
• Certificate in Strategic Human Resources Leadership from Cornell University ILR School
• Ms. Chandler began her career at United Water, serving as Director of Communications, Director of Customer Relations, Vice President of Talent and Career Development and, ultimately, Vice President of Human Resources
• She worked as a Human Capital Practice Leader for MESA Research Group, and as a Copy Director (Consultant) for Baldwin & Obenauf
• Currently, Ms. Chandler serves as the President & Founder of Talent Boost
• Additionally, she also serves as a Strategic Advisor for ACML, a Growth Hacker for CY9 LLC, and an Advisor at Guidepoint.

Links

• Talent Boost website
• The Growth Readiness Assessment
• The Future of HR Survey

Contact

• Claire on LinkedIn
• Claire’s email: claire@talentboost.net