According to Hibob, the aim of HR strategies is to drive overall business success by spurring employees to provide high-quality work. All in all, a HR strategy maximises your HR potential in such a way that the goals of your organisation are met. Workforce planning is integral to this, succession planning is also of great importance. Thus a HR strategy is a must have for any business seeking to grow. 

The marketplace has changed drastically in recent times. There has been an overturn of the laid down systems of recruitment. The employer does not have as much power, influence and choice as he used to. With the workforce ageing in addition to the multiplication of sectors and change in customer behaviour, the rate at which employers used to have the best talents on their hands and just choose who they will have has almost halved.

Therefore, organisations have to plan their workforce if they must survive. The talent hunt is real and if you have a company, whether you like it or not you are on the hunt, if not you will end up with all the talents that are left after your competitors have had their pick (you don’t want that).

First, let’s take a look at why you need an Effective HR strategy before we move on to how to develop an effective HR strategy for your organisation.

• To Attract and Retain Top Talents: 

According to Management Consulted, top talents are business professionals who are both independent and innovative within their chosen field/industry. You need an effective HR strategy to be able to hire talents who can do your business good. HR strategy around employee growth and development, employee engagement and developing and maintaining positive work culture will attract top talents. An Effective HR strategy will enable you to know what your organisation needs. Your company does not need every kind of talent, with an effective HR strategy you always know what you need per time. Without being intentional, which is exactly what a HR strategy enables you to be, you cannot attract top talents.

• Identifying Talent Gaps: 

According to Harver, The talent gap is the space between your employees’ current level of talent, skill, or competencies and where you’d need them to be to meet your organisation’s goals. With proper HR planning, you will anticipate gaps in talent on time quickly and act proactively. An Effective HR strategy prevents such wastage of resources. One way to identify talent gaps is to conduct a talent gap analysis. In so doing you measure the skill level of your staff against the goals of your organisation. A skill gap is ultimately the gap between the skills of your employees and your organisation’s goals, not the gap between their skills and the goal of your competition or current trends.

Making the necessary pivots in your recruitment system which will also involve the HR is the most effective way to deal with talent gaps. Don’t also forget to brand your organisation to attract top talents.

• Clarifying Your Business Goals to Your Staff

If you own a company, then you had a dream, a vision, you happened upon an idea and you were passionate enough to want to bring it to life. However, along the way you discovered that you could not do it alone. You had high dreams for your company but you needed people who would join you on the journey to realise your dreams. This is the reason you have employees. You hired them ultimately, primarily to help you achieve your business goals.

I have noticed over the years though that we seem to do away with the link between our employees and our business goals. Effective HR strategy prevents this risk. Now let’s go over our how. HR through its various relations with your staff ensures that these goals are prioritised. This is done through the various engagement activities, it is also expressed in talent development through targeted training for staff, aimed at achieving the goals of the organisation. In everything your HR does the goal of the business is reinforced.

How to Develop an Effective HR Strategy or Your Organization

1. Go back to Your Business Goals and Objectives:

Your business goal is the whole purpose of your business, and the aim towards which all your employees work. Your business is still in business because it has goals and objectives. These goals and objectives which are certainly centred around the customers must be the centre that drives every other activity in your business. 

You cannot develop an effective HR strategy without having a clear picture of how it  contributes to the achievement of your business goals, so please put this in order. You may discover that your business has veered away from this or that your business has not taken much cognizance of your goals in recent times, it is time to bring it back to the centre. Your employees are the hands that eventually deliver the value you offer to your customers. Therefore the department that sees to their welfare and development must be aligned in all ways possible with the objectives of your organisation.

2. Conduct an Evaluation of Your Current Human Resource Pool and Discover your Talent Gaps: 

It just so happens that you surely can’t get to your destination if you do not know where you are right now. So where are you? Do you have talent gaps that need to be filled urgently? Are some of your staff becoming indispensable to the business? Are you struggling with an ageing human resource pool? In doing this you will discover what you have and what you don’t have but need. If you must weep, do so, but afterwards get right up and let’s keep moving!  The whole process is stated in the “identifying talent gap” point already discussed. 

Afterwards, Assess and Appraise Past Strategy or no strategy. This will lead the way for change in the future and is especially necessary if you did not have a HR strategy before now. 

3. Build Your Talent Pool: 

Become obsessed with employee development. Your human resource is your most valuable asset, invest in them. Organise training and seminars, give your employees an opportunity to grow with you, and overtime loyalty will be developed. The result of such loyalty is that your employees will be retained and turn over reduced. A lot of resources are spent in the recruitment process. Increase in retention is a great plus to your HR strategy. Don’t forget to brand yourself to attract top talents.

4. Workforce and Succession Planning:

We have articles that are equivalent to mini courses on Workforce planning and Succession planning, please read up. Planning your workforce and Succession  is the cure for Talent Gaps. If you want to grow, you don’t need talent gaps. Your best employee won’t live forever, but your dream can and there are other people who can effectively replace your best employee when they can’t work anymore, so plan your workforce.

Workforce planning enables you to maximise the human resources you have currently available and succession planning ensures that you pass on key leadership roles properly so that your organisational structure does not crumble under an incompetent leader. In doing this you will be able to address properly your need for talents at all times.

5. SAP HR SuccessFactors for Analytics:

Data rules the world and analytics will help you utilise data effectively. SAP HR SuccessFactors will help you have everything under control and keep your HR busy with more rewarding tasks that will help you grow. With SuccessFactors, you can say goodbye to talent gaps since you would always know where your human resources stand. This is exactly what you need for an effective HR strategy.

Now, don’t forget that review and appraisal are necessary for growth because you have to keep up with the times. This will also enable you to maintain a work culture that is not averse to change in your organisation. Don’t forget to take the steps mentioned above and in the right order; reinforce your business goals, assess your current talent pool, build your talent pool, plan for succession and finally, include tech in this process.

SAP HR is a great place to start. Periodically review how well your HR strategy is working for you because there will always be areas to improve on. In fact, things will only get better. Don’t forget to carry the necessary stakeholders along so that this can become the culture of your organisation.