For HR - The top 3 Strategic Areas to Focus on (Actually four)

Continuing the theme on how to be strategic in Human Resources, this second article is going to provide the top 3, nope 4 things you need to be successful in implementing a strategically focused HR in your organization. 

The tips are:

1. Know your business - and the most important strategic focus will be apparent. 

In my previous posting I give 10 tips on things you can do, that will only take about 8 hours a month, to truly learn how to add strategic value in your business. What is key - is that - what is very strategic for you - will be very different than what is strategic for me. 

One of my favorite HR Strategy books is BeyondHR by John Boudreau and Peter Ramstad, and in there they explain that if you ask to see most strategic HR plans - they are all the same (reduce turnover, increase diversity and develop people) - and if everyone's plan is the same - then there is no competitive advantage. So figure out within your business your most most strategic focus will be key. 

The other three (if you need more) have come out from the Boston Consulting Group who worked with the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA). They surveyed 4300 HR executives in 120 countries and have reissued one of the larger annual studies out there - titled Creating People Advantage 2012. This is a linear study that was also released in 2010. 

The top three priorities coming from this study are:

"

• Managing talent ranks at the top of our survey respondents’ critical list. Given the growing scarcity of talent worldwide, this is hardly surprising.
  
• Improving leadership development, another still-critical topic, was rated second highest in urgency.
  
• Strategic workforce planning maintained its ranking as a crucially important topic for the future, as companies struggle with forecasting long-term scenarios for workforce supply and demand."
  
  
  
  
  I recommend you got to the Boston Consulting site to read the overview and the additional resources on the page. 
  
  
  
  
  Original Pages: 
  
  
  BCG - https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/people_management_human_resources_leadership_creating_people_advantage_2012/
  
  
  WFPMA - 
  http://www.wfpma.com/creating-people-advantage-2012