With the changing times, the role of the HR department within an organization has also undergone a significant change. Today, the role of HR professionals is no longer limited only to recruiting new employees. Rather they have now come to play a vital role in ensuring the consistent growth and success of an organization. The HR professionals today work in close co-ordination with the top-level management to create a positive workplace culture and environment. In order to fulfil these new roles and responsibilities in a successful manner, it is essential for the HR professionals to develop and implement the right strategies. According to the HR strategy consultants, the process involves the consideration of various key aspects, which are discussed briefly as follows.
Overall Organizational Goals
For any HR strategy to be successful, it is important to align it with the overall objectives of the organization. This essentially means that the HR professionals need to have a clear understanding of core strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This knowledge enables them to establish the most effective recruitment and other HR strategies that can provide a competitive advantage to the business. In addition, it helps them to better integrate the short and long term business objectives with the recruitment process to create a perfect business model.
Accessing The Existing Workforce
The HR professionals should carry out an in-depth assessment of the existing workforce to gain a better understanding of what the organization is lacking in this respect. Such assessment also enlightens the HR professionals about the redundancy in skills and competencies and helps them to devise the best ways to use them in the most effective manner. Most importantly, assessing the existing workforce enables the HR professionals to plan strategies for improving the core competencies of employees at various levels for enhanced business growth.
Career Advancement Programs
Given that the role of modern HR professionals has expanded to include the creation of a positive work environment, they need to give due thought to career advancement programs available within the organization. The HR strategies should consider the need to improve such programs further to keep the employees motivated. In fact the leading HR strategy execution consulting firms are of the opinion that the HR professionals should incorporate some positive changes in the career advancement programs for the employees with every new strategy they develop.
Practical Implementation Issues
The HR professionals also need to consider are the challenges that are likely to hinder their practical implementation. These can range from lack of proper infrastructure to budget issues or even the absence of desired skills in the personnel responsible for implementing these strategies. It is one thing to develop a good strategy on paper, but to implement it successfully is a completely different issue, at least unless the various aspects have been accounted for.
Effect On Brand Image
Every HR strategy impacts the brand image of the business organization in some way. Hence it is essential for the HR professionals to analyze the influence of a specific strategy before implementing it. This will prevent the development of strategies that can cause a potential negative impact on the brand image and market goodwill.