Strategic Human Resource Management Strategic human resources management

Strategic Human Resource Management is the practice of aligning business strategy with that of HR practices to achieve the strategic goals of the organization. The aim of SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Management) is to ensure that HR strategy is not a means but an end in itself as far as business objectives are concerned. The idea behind SHRM is that companies must “fit” their HR strategy within the framework of overall Business objectives and hence ensure that there is alignment between the HR practices and the strategic objectives of the organization.
Evolution of SHRM


With the advent of new economy industries like IT and the mushrooming of the service sector, organizations all over the world realized that human resources must be viewed as a source of competitive advantage as opposed to treating it much the same way in access to technology or capital is concerned. What this means is that the practice of HRM is being viewed as something that promotes the business objectives of the firms and not merely another factor in the way the firm is managed.
How does SHRM fit in with Strategy?


With the advent of today’s economy where services account for a major share of the GDP and the fact that the service sector is essentially people centric, it is imperative that the people first approach be embraced by the organizations for sustainable business strategy. The practice of SHRM demands a proactive and hands on approach by the management as well as the HR department with regards to the entire gamut of activities ranging from staffing and training and development to mentoring and pay and performance management.
The Way SHRM works


If we take real world examples, many organizations in recent times have dedicated “people managers” whose sole function is to look after the enabling and fulfilling needs of the resources. This is a marked change from treating people as just resources to treating people as assets. For instance, Infosys states that people are its assets and the famous statement by Mr. Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of the company that the capital of Infosys walks in every morning and walks out every evening has to be taken in this context.
Elaborating on this point, one finds that organizations tend to leverage upon the capabilities of the people employed there and ensuring that the “human capital” is nourished and nurtured as a source of competitive advantage. This translates into a dedicated HR department and people managers in every group dealing exclusively with employee issues as opposed to treating this as a line management function.
Strategic HR takes it to the next level by guiding companies on how to engage its workforce to drive results and build its high-performance culture. It also creates a compelling employment brand that helps to attract top talent. Put another way, Strategic HR focuses the company’s talent on winning in the marketplace! For HR to truly be strategic, a company’s attraction, selection, development, performance and rewards strategies and practices need to be aligned with the company’s business strategy and objectives. Strategic HR practices also need to translate the business strategy into action, engage employees at all levels to drive results and be transparent so everyone uses them every day to run the business. Strategic HR practices can result in a competitive advantage for the company in the marketplace, profitable revenue, innovation and strategic alignment.
The following are the essential human resources strategies needed to achieve the business objectives of any high-growth company in today’s volatile economic environment.
• An attraction and selection strategy that delivers the right talent at the right time and acts as a starting place for effective employee engagement
• A development strategy and system that grows the technical, core and leadership competencies that accelerate the company’s performance
• An integrated performance and rewards strategy that engages and motivates employees to deliver results and offers employees what they need to excel in their work
As an example let me detail the differences between tactical and strategic human resources by function. As you will see, tactical HR is administrative and fundamental to running a company and strategic HR is action orientated and creates a competitive advantage in the marketplace through people.
1. Function: Employee Relations
Tactical HR: Policies and records, compliance and discipline, company events and community relations, complaint resolution…
Strategic HR: Engaging employees to drive business results, recognizing teams and individuals strategically, seeing employees as an investment…
2. Function: Attraction & Selection
Tactical HR: Recruiting and hiring, testing and background checks, college relations, temporary staffing….
Strategic HR: Creating a compelling employment brand, workforce planning focused on talent needs, delveloping talent pipelines…
3. Function: Development
Tactical HR: Basic skills training, new hire orientation, values and competencies….
Strategic HR: People strategies that drive results, succession planning and onboarding, creating career and development plans….
4. Function: Performance & Rewards
Tactical HR: Performance management, compensation administration and surveys, job descriptions, executive compensation, benefit administration ….
Strategic HR: Assigning goals and metrics aligned to the business strategy, rewarding employees for business results, measuring the results of delpoying people, rewarding employees for their value, executive compensation tied to business results and shareholder value….
Human Capital Management


Strategic HRM provides comprehensive suites of human capital management, leadership development, organizational development, and change management solutions. These customizable consulting, seminar and workshop solutions are categorized by solution.
Human Capital Management

The era of reactive transactional human resource management has passed. Twenty-first century knowledge age organizations require proactive, transformational human capital leaders and managers who enable business expansion and organizational sustainability. As a result, the human resource management industry is experiencing a profound professional change. Increasingly, human resource management professionals in all functional disciplines are acquiring new knowledge, competencies and skills necessary to transform themselves into human capital leaders, demonstrating self-leadership, professional credibility and the ability to provide business-informed, data-driven contributions that produce measurable business results.
Central to this professional transformation is human resource management professionals’ capacity to acquire new knowledge, competencies and skills necessary to transform themselves from traditional, reactive human service administrators into innovative, proactive human capital leaders and managers.
This professional transformation—demonstrating self-leadership, professional credibility, and acumen to deliver informed, data-driven contributions that produce measurable business results—may be challenging and threatening to many human resource management professionals.
For those human resource professionals willing and qualified to engage in this professional transformation, they will be committed to professional reengineering, reevaluating their capabilities, reeducating, and reskilling themselves. The results of this professional transformation will align human capital management-oriented thought, action, and contribution with the high-performance requirements of 21st century knowledge age organizations.
Human Capital Management Solutions (Consulting, Seminars, and Workshops)
Consulting

  • Human Capital Management
  • Human Resource Management Transformation
  • Outsourcing
  • Talent Management

Seminars

Seminars consist of a presentation, large or small group experiential reinforcement activities, and brief individual professional development coaching sessions focused on strategic orientation, collaborative planning, and workplace application. Seminar formats are customizable to client objectives.
Human Capital Management

  • Human Resource Management to Human Capital Transformation:
    Creating the Future Today
  • From Human Resource Management to Human Capital Leadership:
    The Crises of Relevance and Irrelevance
  • Human Capital Leader and Technology: Building Competitive Advantage

Human Resource Management Transformation

  • Human Resource Management in the 21st Century Knowledge Age: Partner or Pariah
  • Human Resource Management in the 21st Century Knowledge Age:
    Human Capital Management Trends in the Global Business Environment

Outsourcing

  • Outsourcing and the 21st Century Knowledge Age:
    Relevance, Resistance, and Renewal
  • Outsourcing: Human Resource Managements Ally or Advisory

Workshops
Workshops consist of a presentation, large or small group experiential reinforcement activities focused on immediate workplace application.
Human Capital Management

  • Human Capital Leadership: The Ten Competencies, Characteristics, and Capabilities for Credibility
  • Learning Organization Leader: Methods and Tools for Leveraging Communication, Collaboration, and Conflict
  • Talent Management and Retention: Managing the Mainstream: Psychology, Strategies, and Best Practices

Human Resource Management Transformation

  • Employment Law for Non-HRM Professionals: Guidance, Guidelines, and Goals
  • Measure IT Accurately the FIRST Time!
    Foundations of Survey Design, Deployment, and Reporting
  • Collaborative Sustainability: Team Building Through MBTI and Kilmann Conflict Indicator
  • Rationale Decision-Making: Models, Methods, and Tools in REBT

Conclusion

The times when management could arbitrarily dictate terms to the employees and tread upon their rights is something that is not relevant anymore. With the ballooning of the white collar workforce, it becomes necessary for organizations to pay more attention to the needs of the employees more than ever. Finally, the fact that organizations derive their strategy from employees instead of imposing strategy upon them is the essence of SHRM.