Why HR Strategies Fail

You are setting out for a vacation drive. To get to your destination, you’ll need to know the extent of your drive (scope), how you’re going to get there (a road map), who is joining you for the trip, who is driving, and most importantly, who’s bringing the food supplies (resources). It will also be important to know, an estimation of how long the drive will take (time) and the cost implication, of the drive prior to leaving the house. As a plus, it would be nice to know what will happen if roadblocks or other delays impede your course (contingency plan). 

One of the most common causes of struggling organizations is failed HR strategies. Business results are greatly impacted by negative HR indicators. 

Let’s look into what would cause your HR Strategies to fail.

1. Not having a strategy in the first place

We need to have well laid out objectives and specific goals, with accountabilities and specific timelines. Without this, we can’t possibly expect to meet our strategic imperatives.

The strategic objectives need to go beyond high-level ideas, such as “We want to be the employer of choice” or “We want to increase our employee engagement”, and instead answer the questions, what does that mean? How will we measure it? How will we know when we’ve met that goal?

They key is to understand what you’re measuring and why.

2. Lack of an implementation Plan

Once you have a HR Strategy in place, the next step is to translate it into an implementation plan. According to Kaplan, 1995, A strategic plan cannot be executed when it is not translated into operational terms.

This means, specifying the measurable operational objectives, processes, tasks, and activities that are required to achieve the goals of the HR strategy. On top of this it is critical to allocate responsibility for these actions. 

Without this step it is, impossible to measure the progress of the strategy implementation. 

3. Implementing best practices instead of best fit

Not all best practices will work in your organization. 

It is important to realize that organizations have different needs and are at different stages of evolution. 

The HR strategy should always be uniquely drawn from your organizations’, overall business strategy and needs. 

People think Focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

- Steve Jobs

4. Communication

Do your employees, outside of the HR function and executive leadership team, know about the HR strategy? Do they understand how the strategic plan will support the business?

Having a strategic plan and not sharing it outside the HR function, on how the strategic plan will support the business, will not get you a buy in and will in turn set you and the plan up for failure.

We need to effectively communicate the key highlights, and/or components of the plan and its effect on each business function and the organization as a whole in order to achieve our key objectives.

5. Leadership

One of the key skills in leadership which needs to be honed regularly is strategic thinking and decision making.

It becomes a challenge to plan or execute a strategic plan when these skills are missing. 

The truth is organizations will have a challenge to navigate today’s business environment without highly qualified executive leadership team on board. 

In conclusion, The key elements for a successful strategy are;

• Ensure you have a strategy in place and document it.
• Ensure that you Measure and track implementation of the strategy.
• Communicate the strategy and get a buy in, to the strategy. Engage all relevant stakeholders to ensure achievement.
• Execute the action plan. Get on with it.
• Keep it up to date and review it often.