There’s a lot of buzz out there about Human Resources being a strategic player within an organization.  In our latest eBook, "There Has to be a Better Way" (download it here for free), we talk about how being freed up from the minutiae of administrative tasks with a robust HRM system in place can allow your team to contribute to more meaningful and strategic tasks; but what does that really look like? 

What makes an HR activity strategic depends on whether it solves a pressing business goal or objective.  Since every organization has different goals, what is strategic HR in one organization may not be considered strategic in another. ~Source

Here are four key attributes that strategic HR departments have in common:

1. Proven ability to attract and retain the best talent

With an increasingly competitive landscape for people to choose from, a strategic HR function is to meet the challenges of recruiting and retaining a company’s most valuable asset: their people.

2.  Ability to adapt

A strategic HR function is the ability to manage change in a timely and fairly graceful, flexible manner, even having the ability to predict different scenarios and being armed with strategies to face even the most challenging possibilities. 

3. Having a seat at the executive table

This is a phrase that is used a lot.  But again, what does this really mean?  It means when executive level management considers their HR department an integral and critical part of the overall strategic initiatives and direction of the company. 

4.  Being a go-to resource

Strategic HR is being known as a resource that other managers and departments can go to and utilize early on in planning and other mission-critical business decisions.  

Hard to Grasp

Strategic human resource management links standard human resource practices with strategies to support and drive broad-based business objectives.  Yet for many executives and HR professionals, being able to identify this practice in their own organizations can be difficult and hard to grasp. 

Because of HR’s historically administrative role, there are some barriers to becoming a strategic contribution.   A large majority of that limitation comes from using antiquated and/or multiple HRM applications.  

There are multiple software options out there.  When considering one, make sure you’re partnering with an organization that’s going to give you the type of support you need, throughout the entire process from discovery to implementation to maintenance.  Contact us today and let us know how we can help you.