Get More Competitive Advantage from Your HR
People are your organization’s greatest asset. This phrase is spoken so often that it is almost a cliché and very few leaders would disagree with it. But if everyone knows that people – your organization’s combined human capital – are potentially its greatest asset, then is it really a competitive advantage?
In order to truly elevate the potential contributions of your employees to the level of competitive advantage, your HR department must think and act differently when it comes to establishing an environment that boosts the contributions of employees and managers. Here are four strategies that small business and nonprofits can implement to get more from their HR department:
- Measure Performance and Outcomes, Not Time and Tasks. If an employee is at their desk working on their standard tasks and activities, does that mean they are performing well? One essential requirement for any performance-based organization is to establish clearly defined roles and expectations about performance and to ensure that managers communicate those expectations and provide consistent accountabilities to validate their fulfillment. With a true performance strategy, your HR department can develop value-added tools for Effective Individual Performance Feedback; Counseling Memos & Annual Performance Appraisals that Improve Results; and Team Collaboration Assessments that Reduce Team Conflict.
- Commit Energy, Resources, and Time Into Employee Relations Efforts That Increase Engagement. When your HR department is seen as the “paychecks and paperwork” people, the vital employee relations component of strategic human resources development gets lost. When you invest in people, your HR department can plan and deliver critical resources like Employee Relations Best Practices; Workforce Retention & Employee Engagement Strategies; and Internal Communication (Employee Surveys, Company Announcements, etc.) that Keep People Aligned.
- Develop Strategic Priorities and Align the Objectives With Individual and Team Roles. When the organization has a plan and realistic action steps to implement it, the ability to “influence change” rather than “react to change” is increased. The HR function in your organization can be converted to a source of strategic planning and functional alignment among people and resources required to implement plans. When this value-added shift occurs, HR people in your organization can acquire or deliver services like: Annual Strategic Planning Facilitation; Quarterly Action Planning Facilitation; Leadership Development; and Succession Planning Consultation.
Sostrin Consulting provides affordable HR Consulting packages for small businesses and nonprofit organizations that can jumpstart your capacity to implement these and other critical strategies. By providing this retained, expert consultation on an on-demand basis, we can solve a wide range of your organization’s HR issues while building the capacity for your administrative staff to effectively address their day-to-day HR responsibilities.
Download the free HR Consulting Information Guide to find out how we can power your people to perform.
