October is a good month to start working on your HR strategy for the next year.
Of course the business strategy and the business issues are leading.
In most large organizations the following four themes will appear in the HR strategy. Four potential big HR issues.
1. Succession- and talent management
How strong is the leadership today? Do we have successors for the key positions? How strong is the leadership bench? What is our view on the talent pipeline? Do we have a clear view on what the model behaviour is we expect from our leaders? Are our leaders role models?
2. Leadership alignment
How strong is the teamwork at the top? Does the top team speak with one voice? Are the leaders around the world (“Top 200”) aligned, and do they feel connected to the global vision and strategy? Do the leaders in the Top 200 have the feeling that their voice is heard?
3. Performance management
How do we deploy our strategy? How do we align strategy and behaviours? How do the people around the world know what is expected from them? Is our reward strategy leading to the desired behaviours?
4. Strengthening the (global) connections
How do we create communities? How do we leverage our capabilities? How do we strengthen communications in all directions? How do we make sure people feel connected? How can we facilitate free flow of knowledge and innovative idea? How do we connect old and new generations?
Our subjective feeling: in many organisations people (management, HR, the people who do the work) are not so happy with the current status of these four issues. The succession management process is too slow and the succession- and talent data is not up-to-date. Leadership is far from aligned. Performance management does not lead to the expected impact, and increasingly performance management does not fit in an annual cycle. Creating global communities with the help of Yammer and other tools is not as easy as it seems. Physical meetings seem to be necessary, at a high cost.
In summary: big opportunities for HR. If HR finds ways to deal with the four issues, many people will be happy. HR has a lot to offer to make working in organizations more fun, and to use the potential there is in many organizations.
