More and more organizations are embracing strategic human
capital management as not only a tool for the alignment and
development of individual employees, but also as a business tool to
improve overall organizational performance.
Many organizationsfrom publicly-traded companies and
not-for-profits to global manufacturers and government agenciesare
struggling in this economy to do more with less and to find that
competitive edge that will increase their chances for success today
and in the future.
One of an organizations greatest differentiators is how it manages
its workforce. Maximizing workforce effectiveness and efficiencies
is the key to gaining the competitive edge organizations need to
achieve greater success and future security in an increasingly
global marketplace. Though there are many schools of thought on how
to maximize workforce effectiveness, more and more organizations
are embracing strategic human capital management (HCM) as not only
a tool for the alignment and development of individual employees,
but also as a business tool to improve overall organizational
performance.
Strategizing disjoined processes
Strategic HCM is a process, a technology, and a mindset.
Organizations hoping to achieve greater success and market
dominance must recognize the business value of HCM and inculcate
this value into their corporate cultures. Organizations also must
establish and align internal processes for accomplishing HCM
objectives and leverage the right technologies that provide an
integrated approach to support these processes.
Strategic HCM integrates individual processes such as performance,
succession, compensation, recruiting, learning, career development,
scheduling, workforce and expense management, social collaboration,
and HR management. Historically, these functions have been managed
with separate and disjointed processes and silo systems. For
example, performance applications streamline the paper-based
performance assessment process, and learning management systems
provide a platform to deliver and track employee training and
development.
While these and other point solutions to HCM processes produce
valuable results, these results are often detached, significantly
reducing their impact on broader organizational objectives and,
therefore, workforce effectiveness. On their own, they are not
strategic.
To truly maximize workforce effectiveness and propel business
strategy, an integrated HCM platform is essential. The most
profound results are often realized with the integration of these
processes to better align and coordinate resources appropriately.
As a result of this inherent integration, faster reporting and
deeper analysis is achieved at a pace that enables real-time
business efficiencies.
Visualizing important business needs
An integrated strategic HCM solution provides critical
visibilityvisibility into the alignment of organizational
objectives, strategies, and workforce readiness to decision makers
responsible for the overall strategic direction and goals of an
organization. Strategic HCM can reveal critical gaps in workforce
skills and help identify learning activities to close those gaps.
It also can shed light on the impact of talent initiatives, on
business performance and, thusly, the achievement of larger
strategic business objectives.
Such visibility also allows for greater flexibility and
adaptability in changing economic times. Successful organizations
are those that can anticipate market or business changes on the
horizon, and respond proactively by developing employees for
critical roles or adapting to new strategic initiatives faster. In
addition, strategic HCM can better equip organizations for mergers,
acquisitions, downsizing, senior executive moves, and other
significant events by providing a more complete picture of
available talent proportionate to changing needs, addressing gaps
in skills areas for development.
Integrated HCM processes can be viewed as a matter of quality
versus quantity: more information does not necessarily translate
into more effective decision making. Better information, resulting
from this integration, leads to better decisions.
What makes the difference between more and better information is
the delivery and distribution mechanism or platform. An effective
platform delivers and distributes integrated and complementary
information.
Many organizations, however, struggle to make sense of numerous
sets of disjointed data that must be manually integrated to be
strategically meaningful. With a truly integrated solution,
information silos become a relic of the past, and strategic HCM
becomes the new currency to help organizations better achieve their
objectives.