The HR Strategy is many times a reason, why the HRM Function is not valued as a real business partner, but a strange department with problems not connected with the rest of the organization. The HR Strategy is not fully connected with the overall business strategy and the top management does not see Human Resources as adding value to the business.
The employees in Human Resources miss the feeling for the real business. The feeling people in Sales, Operations and Finance have naturally. They feel the priorities and they feel the initiatives with the biggest financial impact on the business results of the company.
The employees of Human Resources are usually softer oriented and they are in HR as it is the function without the numbers. Generally, the top management refuse to respect everything emotional, usually. Just the activities, which are transcripted from emotions to real numbers as the evidence, are taken as a part of the decision process.
The HRM Function takes care more about the employees than the overall business numbers. This approach is right, but the HRM Function has to respect the reason of the existence of the company – the profit. Without the profit, the company will have no employees sooner or later.
The top management is many times confused by the strategical priorities offered by the HR as the HR Strategy. Example works well:
Strategy defined by Top Management:
- Increase sales volumes and sales force effectiveness
- Bring three innovative products
- Decrease operational costs by 15%
HR Strategy proposed by HRM:
- Start new initiative to improve work life balance
- Conduct the opinion polls about the new workplace
- Bring new leadership courses
When top management sees such a proposal of the HR Strategy from the HRM Function, they have to be really confused about the role of Human Resources in the company, do not you think so?
