Purpose: The purpose of strategic human resources management is to help you maximize productivity and value of your employees while minimizing risks and costs of involuntary turnover and loss of corporate knowledge.

Intended Results: Strategic human resources management helps you develop and implement policies aligned with your overall corporate strategy.  For example, if your strategy is to provide a quality industrial type service to large organizations, your HR components could include the following factors:

1. Recruiting - attracting skilled and motivated people who care about attention to detail and take pride in their work. Recruiting looks for values and attitudes that can make a positive contribution to the work environment. It also looks for potential to be trained in specific skills. Recruiting looks for fit at three levels: the person and task fit where the person can do the job; the person and work group fit where the person will get along with his peers; and the person and organization fit where the person will fit with the culture and values of the company.
2. Training and development - developing internal training processes aligned with external certification or verifiable standards such as ISO which are recognized by your large customers.
3. Retention - developing a workplace culture and human resources policies that align people with your business strategies, reward the desired behaviours, provide opportunities for career development, provide both financial and non-financial benefits and incentives, and treat people with respect.
4. Compensation - includes base and performance pay, benefits, pensions and other costs. Compensation needs to reward the desired behaviours - in this case, quality of work, customer satisfaction, and the cost of call backs. Compensation needs to be externally competitive to attract and retain key people. It also needs to be internally consistent so that people work together as a team and do not resent other positions or pay structures which may cause them to, consciously or unconsciously, work against the system.
5. Benefits and Pensions - Although bearing a financial cost, these are separate categories because of their significant importance. Benefits such as medical, dental, disability and life insurance programs provide employees with cost effective coverage through cost-shared group plans. Pensions can be fixed or variable based on performance and can help companies retain employees. Small and medium private businesses can compete effectively against much larger employers such as fortune 500 companies or governments by offering strong benefits and pension plans.
6. Performance Management - Compensation can reward desired behaviours, but management must support the development and continuation of those behaviours so they become part of the company's core competence. Performance management helps to determine career opportunities for individuals and give them the resources and tools to pursue their career goals. This is a personalized approach to employee management. A lack of performance management results in employees not knowing how they contribute to the company's overall mission. Performance management can include coaching, mentoring, quarterly performance reviews and lateral positions to expand breadth and gain experience.
7. Succession Planning - Continuity of management is a primary concern to business owners, key customers and suppliers, lenders and investors. Developing formal policies and procedures help founders transition management duties to others. Documented systems also increase business value because a new owner can more easily acquire and run operations. The standardized systems and consistent branding are why franchises are typically more valuable than locally owned businesses.

Questionnaire:

1=very poor. 2=poor. 3=below average. 4=average. 5=good. 6=excellent.

Using the above scale, how would your rate your company on the following:

1. We have an understandable employee handbook.
2. We have documented personnel policies and procedures.
3. We deal with employee requests and situations consistently among all managers and over time.
4. We know the cost to replace a staff or management position.
5. Our human resources involuntary turnover is better than average.
6. We invest in training based on the lifetime value of our employees and our customers.
7. Our total compensation is at average or above for our industry.
8. Our benefits and pensions are as good as those for much larger companies or governments.
9. We offer flex-time and other services to attract highly skilled part-time people.
10. Our workplace culture is rated at average or above for our industry.
11. Our managers care about our employees.
12. Our employees care about our customers.

To discuss your results to this questionnaire and how our services can help you achieve both your business and personal goals, please call Phil at 866.537.9111.