ALIGNING HR STAFF WITH HR STRATEGIC GOALS

Executive Summary

1.     This briefing will show that the process of identifying and developing new skills in HR can be successfully focused through the lens of the learning and growth perspective of an HR scorecard.

2.     Becoming strategically and business-focused is the key 'competence' requirement for HR leaders. Indeed, simply creating an HR scorecard is one way for leaders to develop such knowledge.

3.     Linked to the above, developing such strategic and business awareness should occur deep inside the function.

4.     Sylvia Chrominska, HR executive vice president at Canada-headquartered Scotiabank outlines five key competency requirements for HR staff who want to successfully contribute to their businesses, these being:

-  knowledge of the business

-  a results focus

-  relationship-building skills

-  project management skills

-  willingness to take risks.

5.     Furthermore, leading HR thinker David Ulrich, and two colleagues, Brian Becker and Mark Huselid have also identified five crucial HR competencies, which are (in order of importance):

-  personal credibility

-  management of change

-  management of culture

-  delivery of HR practices

-  knowledge of the business.

6.     Importantly, Becker, Huselid and Ulrich have also identified a sixth competence, which they say is 'new' to HR, and which relates to 'strategic HR performance management'.

7.     Linked to point 6, HR professionals must develop an excellent understanding of performance measurement; this requires knowledge of how measures are identified, implemented and, importantly, how findings are acted upon.

8.     It is critical that HR staff develop a good grasp of financial measurement systems. By doing so they will be able to better make their case for investment and, crucially, will be able to speak the language of the business.

9.     Change management is a key skills requirement for HR staff, as this is essentially about changing the mindsets of people.

10.   Hubert Saint-Onge, senior vice president, strategic capabilities for the Canada-headquartered financial institutions company Clarica, explains why the HR function itself needs to be 'repositioned', which calls for a more radical transformation than just a narrow focus on HR up-skilling.

11.   A case study on the US-based Nextel Communications shows how HR has utilized the teachings of Jack Phillips and his ROI evaluation methodology in demonstrating the bottom-line benefits of HR interventions.

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