Leveraging the Impact of Strategic HR
 It has been our experience that many individuals struggle with the concept of defining "strategic HR" outcomes. Yet who can scale a professional services firm with no investment in those delivering the services? How does an organization overcome the barriers to attracting and retaining a highly productive workforce without a disciplined intention and plan to do so? How can a government contracting organization meet its contract requirements without the influence of strategic HR? How can a trade association meet the needs of its members if it cannot first address the needs of its employees?
Many leaders struggle with understanding what exactly HR is and how an intentional focus on HR development will positively impact their organizations.
 It becomes increasingly important to develop a strategic approach to hiring, retaining and engaging a targeted workforce. So how do we leverage HR in doing so?
Among many contributions, strategic HR strengthens organizations by:
- Ensuring organizational mission/vision & values are clearly communicated and understood by employees, candidates and clients;
- Developing processes and training managers to hire for fit against these organizational competencies;
- Developing programs and training managers to clearly communicate performance expectations;
- Developing performance management processes which apply individual accountability consistently;
- Recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance in order to reward and retain top performers;
- Developing a set of operating guidelines and a code of conduct which provide consistency and minimize risk of employment litigation; and
- Increasing awareness of the importance of ethical behavior and its impact (or lack thereof) on all.
What strategic HR is NOT:
- It is not a function intended to absolve managers of their responsibility to "manage" and hold their employees accountable;
- It is NOT a function that should have primary ownership of planning office parties; and
- Although its role is to generate and interpret policy; it is NOT the policy police.
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric once stated: "HR should be every company's 'killer app'. What could possibly be more important than who gets hired, developed, promoted or moved out the door?"
As we begin not only a new year, but a new decade, consider how an intentional focus on strategic HR in your organization will contribute to you having a break out year!
Goal Alignment: Is it Working?
Jacqueline Dendievel, Practice Leader, Helios HR
 Ask each of your employees to name their New Year's resolutions and you'll likely hear a wide variety of responses, reflecting the breadth, depth and interests of the talent you employ. But if you ask them where your company is headed in 2010, and what the organization's top goals are for the coming 12 months, will you also get varied responses across your workforce, or will you hear one consistent reply?
Most importantly, if you ask each of them how their job and responsibilities tie in to the organization's 2010 goals, can they respond without hesitation? Do they know how their contributions impact the company's success? If so, you've likely done a great job of communicating clearly and consistently, and the new year is the time to reinforce key messages with renewed clarity and purpose.
However, if employees are not clear on where your organization is headed in 2010, and how they each play a part reaching the company's goals, the new year brings with it the opportunity to re-align the contributions of each employee toward the same end goal; to ensure that everyone is rowing together, in the same direction, and toward the same destination.
Every person you employ has a distinct and important role to play in achieving the organization's overall success. Their ability to do so relies in part on ensuring they have accurate and clear information to ensure their efforts are most effectively aligned with the company's as a whole.
Senior leadership can restate and reinforce key organizational plans, goals, objectives and challenges in the year ahead so that every employee knows the answers to: where are we now, and where do we plan to be in 12 months from now? What is our focus for 2010, i.e. grow revenues? Maximize profits? Increase market share? Ensure superior client support and service delivery?
Next, managers' roles are critical: to help each of their direct reports translate the organization's goals into their individual jobs. Managers can help ensure that each employee is able to answer, "How does what I do today impact the bottom line, and the organization's success?" by working together with employees to carefully set - or revisit - individual goals aligned to these outcomes. This means combining the familiar, tried and true "SMART" goals formula - Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound - with the often ignored but critical TOPS - Tied to Organizational Priorities and Success.
Ultimately, this collaborative process should be owned by both manager and employee, with the employee accountable for achieving the goals, and the manager accountable for ensuring the employee has the tools, resources, and requisite experience, skills and expertise to accomplish them. Both employee and manager alike should be able to easily articulate what success would look like if goals were achieved.
If your company conducts annual performance reviews in January as many organizations do, you already have a mechanism in place to review past performance and goals, clarify organizational priorities, and to set new goals in the year ahead. If your organization conducts performance evaluations on a rolling basis or at a set time in a different point in the year, you can still take advantage of the new year to reinforce clear messages organization-wide, and hold check-in meetings or discussions with each employee. Either way, invest in the time and effort as 2010 begins to ensure that each person's efforts are in synch and tied to the same end goals you hope to achieve by 2011.
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