Key HR strategies

The volume of work has grown in your department, people have ceased to have time to do what is supposed to be. You ran to the authorities to ask to expand the staff - with numbers and arguments. “Get out of here!” - such an answer from the authorities will be the mildest. After that you will add more loads. This is staff optimization: personnel management also solves such problems. And many others are no less complex. Today you cannot do without a HR strategy: a lot is changing.

Let's start with the general wording and try to make it shorter: the personnel management strategy is a system of actions for forming a professional, loyal and competent team of organization employees. The personnel strategy is aimed at three objects:

• Company employees.
• The structure of human resources as an integrated part of the entire business.
• Working conditions.

At the start, it does not hurt to recall the problems that impede the creation and, in particular, the implementation of the personnel management strategy:

• Old-fashioned attitudes in the minds of senior executives that HR is an auxiliary function.
• Weak communication technologies, leading to a huge gap between the upper and lower levels of staff: employees, not being aware of strategic changes in the company, do not support and do not comply with new rules, attitudes or functions of new strategies.
• The backwardness and professional incompetence of the personnel of the personnel management departments themselves, as a result of which personnel work remains outside the scope of common business tasks, and we simply can’t talk about a competent strategy. The confrontation between the concepts of personnel policy and personnel management strategy - “old versus new” - is a sad and frequent situation in many companies.

Two features of personnel strategies

1. Serious organization personnel management strategies have never been short-term - they cannot be such by definition. Any changes in the field of human resources are always difficult: new behavioral attitudes require patience, time and competent communication. Changes in the system of human resources cannot be accelerated; this must be remembered and taken into account when planning the dates.
2. To say “close relationship” with the overall business strategy of the company is to say nothing. The correct words in this context are “full integration” with the general strategic objectives in the organization. So, and only this should look like the interaction of the human resources department with any other departments and the company as a whole. And only observing this principle, it is possible to develop competently the basic strategies for personnel management. Assessment and analysis of many of the most diverse factors of the internal and external environment must be attached to such integration. In any case, the planned strategic changes in the company will entail a deep revision of training and development plans, restructuring of personnel in departments, recalculation of its number, mandatory skills, qualification standards, and so on.

Key management strategies

Instead of the word “types”, it would be more correct to say “trends” in personnel management strategies, which are completely dependent on the specifics and state of strategic development of the company.

• Innovative strategies are distinguished by the priority of the personnel work component in assessing personnel, their certification, training and career advancement. Such events go side by side with an updated motivation for work - this is a classic “personnel pair” of work. Any innovation requires the presence of motivated, suitable and competent staff, without this nothing will work.
• Entrepreneurial strategies include finding and maximizing support for people who can work in high-risk environments and make quick decisions. The priority is to create conditions for the work of such people.
• Strategies for improving the quality of work have always been "calm" with a minimum of risky decisions. In this case, the priority is the loyalty of employees to the company and their high involvement in the work processes. Ethical standards, constant training in a traditional format, and observance of the principles of social equality are especially important here. Such companies and personnel strategies can be arbitrarily called "socialist."
• The toughest version of the strategy is often observed in companies with a large staff of sellers. The priority is the results of work - the volume of product release. Any risk is minimized. Plans are drawn up for a relatively short time, study is given in the very minimum amount for the necessary qualifications. The main management methods are the control and monitoring of personnel actions.

The relationship of organization strategies and HR strategies

Using a common skeleton of strategic activities, which usually does not change, HR managers can apply different types of interaction with the general strategy of the company:

• The traditional way of interaction, in which the company's personnel management strategies are a dependent part of its overall strategic plan. With this option, the personnel management department should be well-versed in the business tasks and strategic goals of the company. Only after familiarization with the general strategy does the development of a personnel management strategy begin - as a result, personnel work is secondary. Unfortunately, this approach is still very widespread, despite its obvious “old-fashionedness” and inconsistency with modern formats for working with staff.
• Both general and personnel strategies are being created simultaneously. In such an integrated document, there is no (and should not be!) Division of “this is business, but this is personnel”. HR managers take absolutely equal part in the development and development of the overall strategy. Recently, in the staffing tables of advanced companies, one can increasingly find the name of the position for the HR specialist - “business partner”.

HR goals, examples

1. Providing the company with human resources: competent, professional, as loyal as possible. Do it on time and with preliminary plans.
2. Development and implementation of special targeted programs for employees of all categories for the development of their leadership qualities.
3. Formation of a talent management strategy involving all components of personnel work: training and development, staff assessment, compensation and benefits.
4. Formation of an internal communications system with new channels for disseminating information among all categories of employees.
5. Restructuring of departments with a comprehensive assessment of personnel, certification, review of functional responsibilities and a new appointment of department heads through a transparent competition.

Factors Affecting HR Strategy

The classic approach to creating any strategy has always been a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal environment. The labor market and salaries, social tension in the country (if any), the presence or absence of crises of different caliber and profile, the emergence or disappearance of competitors, the development of new technologies, political processes - these and many other external factors must be taken into account in the most serious way. At the same time, internal factors cannot be ignored: it is still a big question which factors influence more on the formation and implementation of strategies of personnel management systems. Internal factors are as follows:

• Company size. In small organizations, there is not enough space for detailed strategies. Typically, in such companies, a strategy is written for what is already available: goals depend on resources. In large companies, the picture is the opposite: human and other resources are planned depending on the strategic objectives of the company.
• Horizon Planning. For short-term plans for a period of not more than three years, the goals of the organization’s personnel management strategy depend on resources and adapt to them. Priority is given to improving the quality of work, optimizing existing processes, etc. For planning periods of more than three years, all resources will depend on forecasts. The focus of attention will be focused on work on competitive advantages and the formation of innovative ways of investing.
• Competence and motivation of employees. With a competent modern system of remuneration and remuneration, you will have more space for maneuvers and innovative strategies: it has always been so. So it is today.

Strategy formation

There is no fundamental difference between the technologies of creating a personnel or any other strategy. Therefore, before proceeding with the development of a personnel management strategy, it will be useful to answer the following questions for ourselves:

1. What is the staff of the organization at the moment? This section will help professional personnel statistics with information not only with age, gender and educational characteristics, but also with detailed layouts on staff turnover and reasons for dismissal, reviews of labor markets and average wages in the country, industry and region.
2. At what stage of development is the team at the time of formation of the HR strategy? Answers to this question will help staff engagement activities - annual surveys with their most serious analysis.
3. How and in what direction should human resources change (and they should change along with the transformations taking place in the company) in order to contribute to the achievement of the general goals of the company? Everything is simple here: you need not only to know this general strategy, you need to participate in its development.
4. What additional steps need to be taken to ensure that the team meets the new challenges of the company? Here we are talking about new requirements for staff competency and the revision of training and development programs.

Strategy Objectives, Examples

Unlike mission and goals, the tasks of any strategy should be as clear as possible and always with numbers:

• 20% renew the composition of the company's top management by searching for new employees who meet professional standards and are not older than 35 years.
• Reduce staff turnover by 5% among the composition of sellers due to the formation and application of a new system of remuneration and motivation of the best sellers.
• Reduce by 40% the cost of staff training by introducing online training formats on a new educational platform.

What needs to be done to successfully implement the new strategy

The first and most important condition is understanding and supporting changes by all employees. Change management is one of the most challenging areas of management. The introduction of any new component in the usual course of things is always a painful process. This is especially true of changes related to human factors. New responsibilities or an increased volume of work (in modern business with crazy dynamics, this volume will never decrease, but on the contrary, it will only increase rapidly).

The key principles of change management should be the essential tools of an advanced human resources manager. Communications, clarifications, the formation of a team of change agents, the maximum informing of employees about any innovations are mandatory components of work when implementing changes. This is especially true for issues related to adequate remuneration of employees and assessment of their performance. Each employee should be well aware of how he needs to work and what to do during the year, so that, for example, he is upgraded with a corresponding salary as a result of a high rating according to agreed criteria. No surprises with staff transfers at the end of the year - this principle should become one of the most important principles for the work of human resources departments.

Classic strategy components

Regardless of the type of strategy, the degree of advancement of the company itself and the depth of integration of the personnel component in the overall business strategy, there are always classic professional components of personnel work that no one has yet to cancel.

• New technologies in recruiting: in the search, selection and hiring of personnel.
• Changing conditions and requirements for the adaptation of personnel.
• Audit of the personnel assessment and certification system.
• Special strategies for the development of personnel management: new methods and formats for training and career planning within the company.
• Updating and developing new professional standards and job requirements in accordance with the new business tasks in the company.
• Formation of a new personnel reserve adapted for possible changes and forecasts of competition in the market.
• Improving the quality of forecasting and planning of human resource requirements in the short and long horizons of general strategic planning.
• New methods of motivating and stimulating staff, taking into account the analysis of labor markets and new requirements as part of a new overall strategy.
• Formation of a new payroll strategy, revision of employee compensation and benefits software.
• HR records management in new digitized formats.

Additional Strategy Components

The modern human resources management system implies new components of the personnel department. In addition to the "classic personnel", these components are by no means related to secondary actions. They include:

• Occupational health and safety.
• Measures to update and maintain a package of documents related to business ethics, corporate standards (various codes).
• The development of new forms of internal communications.
• Implementation of new forms of social development and social support for employees.
• Implementation of mediation methods for labor disputes and conflicts.
• Search and implementation of new legal ways of solving labor issues.

Stages of creating and implementing a personnel strategy

First of all, it is worth remembering: the strategy and personnel management policy is always repeated, it has a cyclical nature.

1. Mission and strategic vision of personnel management (if there is a need to formulate them separately from the overall mission).
2. Converting the mission and general declarations to specific goals on priorities and main components of personnel work.
3. Analysis and assessment of the internal and external environment, the salary market, statistics of competitors, own personnel statistics.
4. The choice of the type of personnel management strategy with the designation of the main focus of personnel work in the coming period.
5. Planning work with deadlines and responsible persons for each part of the strategy.
6. Implementation of planned activities with monitoring and periodic monitoring.
7. Evaluation of the accomplished with subsequent adjustment of strategic objectives and methods for their implementation.