Business Edge

A comprehensive human resource strategy plays a vital role in the achievement of an organization’s overall strategic objectives. The followings are several HR Strategies that are adopted by Fortune 500 firms, to ensure ever-growing profitability and productivity;

1. It has the right people in place
2. It has the right mix of skills
3. Employees display the right attitudes and behaviors, and
4. Employees are developed in the right way.
5. Articulate clearly the organization’s vision, mission and values
6. Employees are clear with the compensation and reward systems

Before ensuring the above strategies are adopted, there are some ground works. The human resource division must identify which of these strategies are so fundamental that there must be clear plans to address them before the organi­zation can achieve on any of its goals. These ground works are likely to include:

-          Workforce planning issues

-          Succession planning

-          Workforce skills plans

-          Employment equity plans

-          Motivation and fair treatment issues

-          Pay levels designed to recruit, retain and motivate people

-          Remuneration system which is seen as fair and giving proper reward for contributions made

-          Dealing of employment issues which impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation and emotional quotient

-          Consistent performance management framework which is designed to meet the needs of all divisions

-          Career development frameworks which look at development within the organization at equipping employees with “employ-ability” so that they can cope with increasingly frequent changes in employer and employment patterns

-          People-friendly frameworks to ensure that people development issues are addressed systematically (i.e. competence frameworks, self-managed learn­ing, and skill transfer)

In addition, these HR strategies can add value by ensuring that, the organiza­tion takes account of changes internally and externally, which are likely to have a major impact on the organization, such as:

-          Changes in the overall employment market – demographic or remuneration levels

-          Cultural changes which will impact on future employment patterns

-          Changes in the employee relations climate

-          Changes in the legal framework surrounding employment

-          HR and employment practice being developed in other organizations (i.e. flexible work practices, flexible hours)

Most corporate and business leaders assume that sales and marketing are key profit generators. That assumption is absolutely true! As we dig beyond that truth, sales and marketing staffs are human resource to an organization. There­fore, owning an effective human resource management increases the productiv­ity of the sales and marketing divisions.

Effective human resource management also means having the right sales and marketing people at the right time, with the right reward, to meet rapidly growing competition — if not taken care of, could squeeze profit margins. This is a phenomenon that FORTUNE 500 firms could not afford as they are answer­able to hundred and maybe thou­sands of shareholders.