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Human resource (HR) professionals play a leading role in keeping any organization functional and successful. They’re responsible for acquiring and retaining talent, developing and engaging employees, and so much more. But without the benefits of a well-crafted HR strategy, they’ll lack the direction and resources they need to advance your company’s immediate and long-term objectives. Take a look at how an HR strategy can ensure that your company’s most valuable asset — its employees — are engaged and productive.
What are the components of HR strategies
While you should tailor your organization’s HR strategy to address its most pressing needs and high priority goals, there are some core components that every HR strategy should incorporate in one form or another.
Employee engagement and feedback
Engaged employees are consistently excited about their work, expressing interest in taking on new tasks and staying motivated when challenges arise. Improving employee engagement and maintaining it at a high level should be a primary focus of any HR strategy. Every workforce is different, however, and it’s best to develop a strong understanding of what factors are holding employee engagement back before moving ahead with costly and time-consuming HR initiatives. Provide avenues for employees to share their thoughts at any time through pulse surveys, one-on-one meetings, and always-on, AI-powered HR chatbots. Use an employee engagement platform to collect and analyze this feedback, then shape your HR strategy to address the issues team members raise.
Employee recognition
Recognition is a powerful tool for boosting employee engagement while reinforcing behaviors and actions that align with your HR strategy. Your company’s HR strategy should place employee recognition front and center with a program that enables every team member to share messages of thanks and provide others with tangible rewards. Your organization can simplify the process of showing appreciation by adopting an employee recognition platform with fun and engaging social recognition features, along with a points-based reward system. This lets employees boost the impact of each moment of appreciation by including gifts of reward points that their colleagues can use to select enticing items and experiences from a built-in rewards marketplace.
Talent acquisition and retention
It should come as no surprise that HR plays a central role in attracting and retaining the talent your company relies on. HR personnel should work with leadership and other stakeholders to identify current skill gaps along with long-term organizational needs, develop an employer brand that entices the best candidates to apply, and build a recruitment and onboarding process that sets new hires up for success. They’re also responsible for tracking retention trends, zeroing in on the causes of unexpected turnover, and working with leadership to take action in response.
Teamwork
Successfully executing an HR strategy depends on collaboration across and within teams. This keeps employees on the same page as they engage with HR initiatives while contributing to a more cohesive organizational culture. Offer a variety of team-building activities that cater to a range of interests and personality types, but remember to keep participation voluntary — no one enjoys mandatory “fun.” And adopt communication tools — especially if your workforce is hybrid or remote — to build and maintain organic connections between employees and ensure they’re able to seamlessly cooperate whenever necessary.
Professional development
Investing in talent development should be a part of every HR strategy. When organizations provide opportunities for team members to develop their skills and pursue professional interests, it’s a win-win for both employers and employees. HR should lead the way by working with managers to design and administer training initiatives, mentorship programs, and individualized career paths.
Examples of winning HR strategies
Now that you know the fundamental parts of an HR strategy, let’s see how real-world companies have put their own strategies into action successfully with these three examples.
Netflix’s culture of autonomy and responsibility
Netflix’s HR strategy is centered around the concepts of freedom and responsibility, giving employees the autonomy to make decisions and take ownership of their work — with the understanding that with significant reward comes significant risk. Netflix’s famous Culture Deck emphasizes the importance of hiring and retaining top talent who can thrive in an environment with minimal rules, lots of flexibility, and high expectations. Netflix offers top-of-the-market compensation packages and provides equity in the company to encourage every employee to think like an owner. It also relies on the so-called “Keeper Test” to actively remove team members that a manager wouldn’t fight to keep, contributing to a high-performance, agile environment where disengaged employees don’t last long.
Salesforce’s focus on inclusion and wellness
Salesforce prioritizes creating an inclusive, healthy workplace where all employees feel valued and respected. It actively promotes diversity and inclusion through initiatives like the Office of Equality, which oversees programs aimed at reducing bias and increasing representation of underrepresented groups. Salesforce also supports a variety of employee resource groups that focus on different dimensions of diversity. And it prioritizes employee wellbeing with a range of health and wellness programs, from mental health resources, to on-site fitness centers, to unlimited PTO.
Patagonia’s embrace of environmental and cultural health
Patagonia’s HR strategy is centered around its mission to be an environmentally responsible company. The company attracts employees who are passionate about environmental activism and align with its commitment to sustainability. Patagonia even lets team members take paid leave to work on environmental projects through its Environmental Internship Program. Its commitment to environmental health is reflected in its concern with employee wellness. Patagonia offers benefits like flexible work schedules to support work-life balance (so its people can go surfing), encourages a transparent and participative management style, and invests heavily in childcare programs for employees.
3 steps to developing effective HR strategies
You understand the components of an HR strategy, you’ve seen how it can make a difference at your organization — but how do you put all the pieces together? Follow these three steps, and you’ll soon have an HR strategy that makes sense for your company.
1. Assess current HR capabilities and define your goals
Any effective HR strategy requires an understanding of your current HR capabilities and organizational needs. Begin by conducting a comprehensive audit of your existing HR practices and policies, evaluating all the components discussed above — like employee recognition, engagement, and retention — and others important to your company. Gather information through employee surveys, one-on-one interviews, and analyses of historical data to identify current strengths and see where HR can make the biggest impact.
Once you’ve assessed your company’s current HR capabilities, it’s time to define what you want your HR strategy to accomplish. These goals should address the key areas identified in your assessment. Consider using frameworks like SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) or OKRs (objectives and key results) when setting goals for your HR strategy. These will help you strike the right balance between setting high-level objectives while addressing the concrete targets your organization has to meet on the way to achieving them.
Involve key stakeholders in this goal-setting process as well to keep your HR objectives aligned with those of the organization at large. Team members at all levels of the organization are likely to have innovative thoughts on how HR can support these business goals in the short and long term. Connecting with a range of stakeholders also provides you with a great chance to clearly communicate the importance of your HR strategy and how it will contribute to the overall success of the company.
2. Develop and implement HR initiatives
With clear HR objectives and goals in place, the next step is to develop and implement HR initiatives that align with these targets. Begin by outlining the specific programs your strategy may call for, like revamped retention strategies, expanded talent development opportunities, or a wider range of employee engagement activities. Once you have a list of potential initiatives, prioritize them based on their impact and feasibility, considering resource and time constraints.
After developing the initiatives, move forward with executing them. Produce a detailed implementation plan for each initiative, covering the necessary steps, responsible parties, and timelines. Communicate the reasoning behind the new programs to your employees, explaining their purpose and intended benefits, incorporating employee feedback, and providing any necessary training. As the initiatives get off the ground, you can move on to monitoring their impact and evaluating whether any adjustments are needed.
3. Monitor HR strategy progress
Monitoring the progress of your HR strategy and measuring its success starts with establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for each of your HR objectives. Example metrics include employee retention rates, time-to-hire metrics, employee engagement scores, or training completion rates. Regularly collect data related to these KPIs — preferably with the help of a robust voice of the employee solution — to track the progress of your HR initiatives. Analyze the data to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement, and share these insights with key stakeholders to keep them informed and engaged in the process. Then make data-driven decisions to refine and improve your HR strategy, adapting it to changing circumstances, and keeping it aligned with organizational goals.
Achievers accelerates the results of HR strategies
An effective HR strategy is within reach for every company — provided that their HR professionals are empowered by a modern employee experience solution. The Achievers Employee Experience Platform provides your people leaders with the data and tools they need to turn HR into a primary driver of organizational success. From showing appreciation and providing rewards with Achievers Recognize, to gathering and acting on employee feedback with Achievers Listen, to building a sense of belonging with Achievers Connect, the Achievers Employee Experience Platform has all the capabilities HR personnel need to have a transformational effect on your company.
See how the Achievers Employee Experience Platform can act as the cornerstone of your organization’s HR strategy with a free demo.
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