In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, HR leaders are moving away from crisis management towards focusing on what will make their organisations strong for today and the future.
The covid 19 pandemic has created a massive and instant change to how businesses operate, interact and work. Remote working, which the world never foresaw in the nearest future, has become the new normal.
Gartner, Inc.’s 2021 HR Priorities Survey of more than 750 HR leaders found that 68% of respondents referred to building critical skills and competencies as their number one priority in 2021. 46% of the respondents referred to organisational design and change management as a priority, 44% chose current and future leadership bench, 32% referred to the future of work as a priority and, 28% chose employee experience.
Some organisations have been able to stabilise with this new world of work, while some still struggle. But as we move towards envisaging a Postpandemic era, it is right to say that a management system based on old rules will no longer be effective as it used to be in this new world of work. But a more flexible and open management system will take the place of the old rules.
In preparation to usher in the business for the future, business leaders will need to revisit the basic tenets of their business. For example, labour becomes talent and, competitors become ecosystem collaborators.
Below are initiatives to explore which can strengthen your business ability to drive strategic change for the future.
1. Create a Human Resource strategic plan that aligns with your business strategy.
The first step towards leveraging the idea of Strategic HRM is to create an HR strategic plan. Strategic Human Resource success is dependent on how well it links to your company’s goals, aims, objectives, and mission. Note that Strategic HRM follows the business, which means your HR strategy should align with the broader business strategy.
2. Evaluate your Human Resource competency.
Evaluating your current employee skills and competencies will give you an understanding of your employees and their contributions to fulfilling the business goals and objectives. In addition, you will need to take a skills inventory of all employees. Skills inventories assist with discovering and grouping employee competencies according to their proficiency levels.
It also helps you identify employees with training and developmental needs. A great time to access skills is during a performance review.
3. Estimate your company’s future Human Resource requirements.
After comparing your employee skills with your business objectives, then you estimate your Human Resource needs. The estimation should be in the following manner:
- Demand – HR should estimate the number of employees with related skills essential for your company’s future needs to be achieved.
- Supply – Focuses on employees skills and competencies, which will help in achieving its strategic goals.
Forecasting your company’s future HR requirements helps to identify new jobs and roles required to secure the future of the company and the skills needed by employees to undertake the responsibilities of the new jobs and positions.
In a recently conducted research by McKinsey on how businesses can best prepare for the future, data gotten suggested that future-ready companies share three characteristics:
We at pcl., understand the challenges businesses face with Strategic HR Management, which is why we work closely with businesses like yours every day to provide tailored advisory services.
For the past 28 years, pcl. has navigated excellently in Strategic Human Resource Management by offering her clients the leading practice solutions that support their journey to achieving their strategic business goals.
For more information on this, we encourage you to send us an email at people@phillipsconsulting.net
Written by:
Ruth Pelemoh
Analyst
