{"id":278,"date":"2006-01-09T01:00:22","date_gmt":"2006-01-09T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2006-01-09T08:02:34","modified_gmt":"2006-01-09T16:02:34","slug":"defining-hr-strategy-talentism-vs-systematichr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Defining HR Strategy – Talentism vs. systematicHR"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought I’d take a shot at this as a separate post. I actually wrote my strategy post before reading Jeff’s stuff at Talentism<\/a>, and I’m glad I did. I think we vary slightly in our approach to the topic, but let me explain after I note the 2 definitions of strategy.<\/p>\n

In Jeff’s post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

First question\u2026. I define strategy as follows: the plans that, when executed properly, will increase investor return to a greater extent than if any other set of plans had been followed.<\/strong> Most McKinsey types take this to mean \u201cPlans that increase shareholder return.\u201d But that is too limiting. It is part of the old \u201ccapital is more valuable than talent\u201d orthodoxy. Shareholders are just one form of investor. As long as capital was the only value worth measuring, shareholders were the only investor worth having. But as I have talked about here, an investor in the creative age is described by any person, group or institution that provides value to the enterprise and expects consummate or greater value in return. So \u201cstrategy\u201d could be plans that increase return to employees… Or \u201cstrategy\u201d could be plans that increase returns to vendors.<\/strong>Hunter, Jeff, January 4, 2006. “Strategic Step 1 – The Three Questions.” Retrieved from http:\/\/www.talentism.com<\/a> on January 7, 2006.<\/footnote><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And my post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[HR strategy is] shaping the workforce around the organization’s business needs, and manipulating behavioral changes to match the desired environmental goals.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nIs it really so different? I don’t think so. A well executed strategy should really achieve both of these objectives. I think our core difference is in approach and philosophy, although I’m guessing and would not presume to speak for Jeff. In my opinion, the return of value is a financial metric quite useful in measuring our success. Generally I’m a quantitative person, but in this case I’m going to defer to my background as an HR practitioner and argue that my philosophy (shaping the workforce) is a more traditional approach.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I should expand on “shaping the workforce.” Shaping the workforce simply means that it acquires and manages the workforce population toward a set of skills (competencies or whatever you want to insert here) required to achieve the business goals and objectives. Perhaps this is where the systematicHR definition is different from Talentism”. In my definition, a perfectly executed HR strategy may not yield increasing value if other non-HR strategies are executed poorly. If I were Jeff, I would now argue that a perfectly executed HR strategy would shape the executive workforce as well, thus minimizing any chance that the business strategy could go astray.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to point out something that Heather mentioned in the comments<\/a> for Jeff’s post. “People in staffing need to get comfortable with the fact that most of what they do is tactical and that there’s real value there.”Ibid<\/footnote> I tried to say something similar in my post, but didn’t do it as well. Every process we execute is tactical – they are tactics in pursuit of an HR strategy, which is in turn in pursuit of a business strategy.<\/p>\n

I think increasing value (employee or vendor as Jeff calls it) is a broader business objective. The HR sub-function drives toward the business objective by deploying a sub-strategy. In my opinion, this is to define and shape the workforce. The end result of shaping the workforce is hopefully an increase in value. What Jeff’s definition does better is to tie directly to the business objectives. I can already hear my critics. “If you want a S.A.T.T (seat at the table – ugh…) your strategy must match that of the organization…” I’m not sure this is true. The HR strategy must support the foundational business strategy, but it need not be the same, nor must it have the utilize the same metric.<\/p>\n

So, we all know there isn’t a right answer on this. The key is that Jeff and I are both right. We have tied our HR strategies to overall business objectives through slightly different approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought I’d take a shot at this as a separate post. I actually wrote my strategy post before reading Jeff’s stuff at Talentism, and I’m glad I did. I think we vary slightly in our approach to the topic,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}