In yesterday’s article, we covered the need to define your company’s culture and ways to go about doing so. In today’s article, we’ll cover the second step in finding your way through the current job market, by developing a human capital strategy.
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Step 2—Build a Human Capital Strategy
The ability to forecast and design an action plan to meet future staffing needs (6 months, a year, and 2 years out) reduces the stress on your business. This Strategic People Plan (Human Capital Strategy) should be as robust and thorough as your business plan.
Build a Strategic People Plan
How does your business plan translate into people requirements? Start by engaging your CFO to partner with HR to build a Human Capital Strategic (growth) plan.
Many companies have business plans organized by geography and product line, containing revenue and operating projections. Create a Strategic People Plan by converting these monetary projections into “people” using labor costs and historical support requirements and factoring in turnover and planned exits.
From there, build an organization chart that contemplates the same horizon as your business plan. Finally, conduct a gap analysis of the present state of your talent pool with your future requirements for reaching your strategic goals.
The result may not be pleasant, but it will present a complete picture of your people-related growth challenges and show you where you need to invest to achieve your objectives.
Build a People Dashboard
Develop a people dashboard for your entire leadership team. Include metrics for time to hire, retention, internal promotions, planned versus actual hires, level of cross training, and costs versus budget for recruitment.
If appropriate for your organization, add safety metrics, as injuries are costly and result in unplanned labor shortages. Remember, what gets measured gets better. Once the dashboard is in place, assign ownership to ensure the Strategic People Plan is aligned with the business plan and stays on target.
Develop Career Paths
Great employees leave when you fail to identify their career interests or pressure them to accept unwanted promotions or transfers. Ask your key employees about their goals and passions, including what it is they want to do, where they want to do it, and why it appeals to them.
You may be surprised that many will want to stay in their current role. Great. You need them. Some will have specific career goals, and others will have general goals. Build Career Paths to help them reach their objectives.
Developing Career Paths requires HR to collaborate with leaders in other departments to define these paths, as well as the implementation of e-learning and on-the-job training programs.
Teach Your Business (Capture the Power of e-Learning)
If your internal learning processes and systems are outdated, quality talent will view your company as behind the times. E-learning is absolutely essential to attracting and retaining Gen Xers and Millennials, who expect virtual processes and trainings. Make learning available so employees can see career advancement opportunities are available through learning.
Internal “colleges” do not have to be expensive to be effective. Learning management systems deliver cost-effective e-learning content across geographies directly to your employees’ desks. Leverage e-learning platforms to teach employees your go-to-market strategy and business plans. Teach your Values Statement in your internal college, and employees will share it with customers and prospective employees.
Compensation and Benefits
Competitive pay and benefits are necessary to attract talent. Determine your positioning strategy.
If you compete in a price-sensitive business, higher pay and benefits might price you out of the market. However, remember that you are competing for talent against employers in your community who are not in such a price-sensitive market.
Instead, consider offering unique perks to serve as a counterweight. If you offer a fun culture and good work/life balance, you position yourself to pay at or below market without sacrificing quality talent. Alternatively, if your business demands a large time commitment from employees, you may need a more robust pay and benefits offering.
Your Values Statement and culture will help determine what you will need to provide in terms of pay and benefits to stay competitive. Before assuming you must increase compensation to compete, consider whether your culture could help attract and retain talent. Cultural changes take more work than adjusting compensation, but they are a more sustainable strategy in the long run.
Now that you’ve developed a human capital strategy, it’s time for Step 3—telling your story. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll cover tips and best practices for sharing your company’s success story.
| Kurt Meyer is an award-winning HR leader and the Managing Consultant at Best Workplace Solutions, a division of Michael Best Consulting. To learn more about Meyer and Best Workplace Solutions, please visit www.bestworkplacesolutions.com. Chuck Palmer is a Partner in Michael Best & Friedrich LLP’s Labor & Employee Relations Practice. Palmer has been selected by his peers as one of The Best Lawyers in America for the past 8 years and was named the Milwaukee “Lawyer of the Year” in Employment Law in 2013. To learn more about Palmer and Michael Best, please visit www.michaelbest.com. |