Athrú Consultancy
has a proven track record in supporting organisations
develop and implement HR strategy and strategic HRM
practices. We believe that a well developed HR Strategy
is a key building block of the organisation's
overall HR Infrastructure.
HR Strategy is only one part of the organisation's
HR infrastructure. While it provides the road map that
sets out where the organisation wants to be and how
it will get there this will only be possible if equal
attention is paid to how that HR Strategy is delivered.
This delivery will be brought about by having the right
- Design of the HR organisation
- HR capacity in terms of people and their individual
and collective capabilities
- HR Policies, processes and procedures
- HR systems including IT
- HR Analytics framework aimed at using high quality
HR data for making decisions
Athrú Consultancy are of
the clear view that for an organisation to be
truly effective all of the above elements must be carefully
developed and implemented in a coherent and consistent
manner.
Human Resource Strategy is as
much a part of overall Business Strategy as the Marketing,
Financial and R&D
Strategies. To be effective each of these elements
must have a common critical characteristic of being
clearly aligned with the Objectives of the organisation.
In addition the HR Strategy must also take into consideration
the HR Environment in which the organisation operates
which in turn is defined by such issues as the prevailing
Employment Legislation in place, the approach to Social
Partnership the availability of suitably qualified
people etc. Just as the Financial resources available
at any one time can shape the enterprise’s direction
the strength of an organisation’s Human Resource
capability will be of equal importance to its future
success.
The knowledge, skills and abilities
of the people working in any organisation have to
be deployed and used to the maximum effect if the
organisation is to create value. The intangible value
of an organisation which lies in the people it employs
is now gaining recognition by accountants and investors,
and it is generally now accepted that this has implications
for long term sustained performance. A well executed
Due Diligence process no longer confines itself to
the “Financials” and
the tangible assets but assess such things as the risks associated with the workforce
and critically the strength and capability of the management and leaders of the
organisation.
While the HR Strategy must be set within the context
of the overall enterprise strategy the two must be
mutually informative since the quality of the people
in the organisation is the key determinant of the future
direction and success of the organisation. In essence
the way in which people are managed, motivated and
deployed, and the availability of skills and knowledge
will all shape the business strategy.
In essence a Human
Resources Strategy may be thought of as a collection
of key people related directions and imperatives, identified
by the organisation, that are complementary to each
other and when applied in a consistent and coherent
manner provide real competitive advantage. Examples
of such imperatives are
- Attracting and Retaining the best fit people
- Building Talent and Leadership Capability
- Motivating others
- Changing with agility
- Engendering High performance
How an organisation executes
on any of these will define whether it is a leader
or a follower. While excellent organisations need
to be good at all of these they may only need to
excel in a given sub-set. Setting out to excel in
all of these requires very significant resources
(time, management commitment, financial etc.) and
in today’s world with many
competing requirements such resources are rarely available.
Athrú believes that the organisation
must decide on the key imperatives that will maximize
their competitive advantage at the particular point
in time and clearly commit to and focus on their delivery.
Failure to do this will in all likelihood result in
the oft quoted "scatter
gun" approach where organisations quickly become
paralysed by multiple initiatives. Not only does this
sap the energy of employees but can ultimately lead
to cynicism and mistrust of the leadership.
That is
not to say that the key initiatives cannot change over
time in fact the successful organisation will constantly
review its direction in order to ensure that it continues
to focus on what will maintain competitiveness and
success.
In any HR Strategy alignment must
not only be upwards to the overall goals and objectives
but must also be downwards. It is crucial that that
these high level imperatives are translated into actions
that will have a clear impact on how the people in
the organisation behave. This composite set of behaviours
is often what others, particularly customers and those
who interact with the organisation, see as the tangible
manifestation of the organisation’s culture.
As such these behaviours are as
much a element of the organisation’s brand as
the technology it applies or the advertising it undertakes
and it could be argued the most defining since it is
often based on "1-to-1" human
interactions.
