Strategic HR management aims to align a company’s mission and strategy with its human resources processes, in order to better meet its employees’ needs and ensure the organization’s success.
Why Is Strategic Human Resources Management Important?
Strategic human resources management aligns human resources practices more closely with overall corporate strategy. It makes it possible to better anticipate and respond to customer needs, in order to achieve the company’s strategic objectives.
The advantages of strategic human resources management are as follows:
- Avoid costly surprises that interfere with strategic objectives
- Dealing with problems before they become crises
- Promote employee well-being and productivity
- Provide strategic objectives to guide training and development
- Develop an appropriate organizational culture
What Are the Steps Involved in Implementing an HR Strategy?
Strategic HR planning forecasts an organization’s future HR needs, taking into account the current workforce, labor market trends and organizational objectives. The HR strategy makes it possible to achieve the HR objectives determined during the planning process.
The steps involved in implementing an HR strategy include:
- Reflecting on the company’s mission and objectives
- Assessing of current and future HR capabilities
- Prioritizing the most important objectives to achieve
- Developing strategies to reach them
- Monitoring and analyzing the results of implemented strategies
What Are Examples of Strategic HR Management Tasks?
Tasks related to strategic HR management include:
- Forecasting the number of employees to be hired in the short and medium term
- Evaluating the results of implemented strategies
- Setting corporate objectives
- Implementing new HR strategies
- Keeping abreast of HR trends
What Are Some Examples of Strategic HR Issues?
Strategic HR issues depend on the business context. Examples of common issues include:
- Change management
- Employee training
- Health and safety
- The war for talent
- Labor shortages
- Talent retention
- Compensation
What Is The Strategic Human Resources Management Process?
Before implementing a human resources management strategy, HR professionals must:
- Understand the company’s overall objectives
- Evaluate the resources available to the HR department
- Estimate the company’s future needs
- Determine the resources required to achieve the company’s objectives
- Plan and execute human resources management strategy
- Evaluate results and implement corrective actions if necessary
What Is an Example of Strategic Human Resources Management?
For example, if a company plans to hire 20 new employees in a given year, the HR department must develop a recruitment, integration and training plan for each new employee.
The department may choose to hire all 20 employees during the same period, or to spread the hiring process over the whole year. The best strategy needs to be evaluated in terms of available resources (budget, personnel, team capabilities, etc.).
A company whose objective is to improve employee retention rate may decide to invest in developing its culture. For example, monthly team-building activities can be organized to foster bonds between employees.
