Visioning and Setting Strategic Direction

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Visioning and Setting Strategic Direction

• Presented by Judy Clark, SPHR
• HR Answers, Inc.

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• Human Capital is the largest
• resource organizations do not own.
• Jennifer JarrattCoates Jarratt

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• To better see the future, we need to first
  understand the present and our assumptions about
  it.

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Session Objectives

• Review the current perceptions of HR
• Discuss creativity and imagination since that is
  what is needed for us to see and do things
  differently they are the keys to visioning
• Identify actions that HR Professionals can take
  to become more creative and think in different
  ways

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These are interesting times.

• Fast Company article - August 2005
• Recent presentations on HR
• Executive surveys denigrating HR
• More HR professional development than ever
• More HR positions in more organizations

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What do executives say

• A 2005 Hay study showed that just 40 of
  employees thought their organizations did a good
  job of retaining the best employees
• Only 41 thought that performance evaluations
  were fair
• Only 58 said that they received training to
  equip them to meet their job requirements

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More Survey data

• SHRM commissioned a study (March 2005) to reveal
  the attitudes towards HR. What we learned is
• Finance and RD received most positive answers
  regarding overall impression, HR least positive -
  Sales, Marketing, IT and Operations were in the
  middle
• HR scored by far the lowest (an average of 15
  points lower than any other dept.) on Strategic
  Contribution
• HR seen as falling short in building a record of
  demonstrated results and offering useful
  suggestions

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One more source of CEO info

• Compiled by the Conference Board and Accenture
  2005
• Most important management tool to address
  critical future issues according to 76 of
  executives responding - Strategic Planning
• Percentage of those same Executives who believe
  that they can rely on HR to contribute to that
  Plan 12

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Some additional comments

• 25 of business executives cite the growing
  number of low cost competitors and the competency
  of competitors workforces as their number one
  issue
• Only 3 in 10 organizations have taken any steps
  to deal with organizational disasters, including
  their talented workforces.
• Organizations do not know what their people want,
  and that will result in some major winners and
  losers as employees make decisions based on what
  is important to them.
• McKinsey Quarterly First Quarter 2006

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CEO Survey Results Top Concerns

• Retaining talent
• Attracting skilled talent
• Improving workplace performance
• Gaining control of healthcare costs
• Using the Web effectively
• Creating People Measures for the business
• Engaging the workforce in the skill development
  needed for the next round
• of growth.
• Towers Perrin - January 2006

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Survey Summary..

• CEOs believe that HR should report to them, but
  feel it hasnt demonstrated its worth to do so
  thus far. The problem seems to be that HR has
  been unable to prove its value to the
  organizations. HR professionals are not seen as
  speaking the language of business or showing that
  they understand what drives business success.

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• Visioning and Creativity

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Fact or Fiction?

• There is a strong correlation between high I.Q.
  and Creativity.
• True
• False

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Imagination

• The act of forming mental images or concepts of
  what is not actually present to the senses (yet)
  a conception of a mental creation, often a
  baseless or fanciful one.

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An Imaginative Person...

• Someone who can regularly solve a problem, or
  can come up with something novel that becomes a
  valued product in a given domain.
• Howard Gardiner, PhD.
• Development Psychologist at Harvard

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Key Ingredients of Imagination

• Expertise
• Seeing possibilities
• Removing personal restrictions
• Passion

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Roadblocks to Being Imaginative

• Routines and Patterns
• functional fixed-ness
• psychlorosis--hardening of the attitudes

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• At the crossroads on the path that leads to the
  future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard
  the past.
• Materlink

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On Failing...

• If youre not failing every now and again, its
  a sign youre not trying anything very
  innovative.
• Woody Allen

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Studies Show

• We spend far more time imagining than most ever
  realize.
• Planning, hoping, dreaming, receiving
  impressions, perceiving, intuiting, and using
  creative intelligence are all part of our imaging
  repertoire.

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Think of it this way.

• Simply ask, What if? and then finish the
  question with some contrary-to-fact condition,
  idea, or situation.
• Then answer the What if question.

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What can you ask what if about?

• Increased investment in training and development
• Attention to succession planning
• Reducing risk of employment litigation
• Training managers and supervisors to deal with
  changing workforce and generational differences
• Assessing/revising pay programs to ensure
  competitiveness
• Recruiting in advance of openings

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So how do I get more strategic?

• Conduct an Environmental Scan Internal
  Assessment
• Competency assessment
• Corporate culture surveys
• Core values and beliefs
• Know opportunity areas

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So how do I get more strategic?

• Environmental Scan External Assessment
• SHRM journals, white papers, websites
• Local newspapers and national business newspapers
  and magazines
• Networking groups
• Competitors
• Legislative/regulatory environment
• Customers

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Questions to ask after the Environmental Scan

• Do you report to the CEO? If not, why not? If
  you dont know why, then ask, and ask how you can
  earn that reporting relationship.
• Do senior managers attend your training programs?
  If not, why not? If you dont know, ask them
  what it would take to get them there.

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After the Environmental Scan(cont.)

• Do the senior executives insist that their direct
  reports attend your programs?
• Are you responsible for recruiting executives in
  your organization?
• Are you responsible for executive compensation in
  your organization?
• Can you read and explain your organizations
  financials? Do you get them?

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Consider these changes

• Find good articles espousing your beliefs and
  route them to senior executives.
• Do a 3 year plan for HR identify what you want
  to do and why it makes business sense for the
  organization.
• Dont ask for anything cost justify it.
• Figure out how much it would cost for your
  organization to buy the services you provide and
  share the results with them.

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Consider these changes (cont.)

• Educate your staff about some aspect of business
  at each meeting. Send a note afterwards to the
  CEO describing what you covered.
• Include business information in your New Employee
  Orientation.
• Develop a productivity number with your CFO and
  report it each month.
• Measure everything worth measuring.

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Consider these changes (cont.)

• Conduct interviews with customers to learn what
  they appreciate about your employees and what
  suggestions they have for improvement.
• Interview the senior managers regarding their
  concerns. Build an HR Plan that addresses those
  issues.

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HRs Role

• HR is constantly working with individuals or
  groups who are stuck. Our role is to help them
  move forward. But to really contribute to our
  organizations, we in HR need to ensure that we
  are
• not stuck.

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• It is achieved because we first conceived it, and
  then believed it...

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• It has been said that the hardest things for us
  to change are the things that have contributed to
  our success thus far. The issues going forward
  are different, and HR must think and act
  differently for us to be successful in the
  future. It is there for us to have!

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• THANKS
• AND BEST WISHES FOR A CREATIVE AND SUCCESSFUL HR
  FUTURE!
• Judy Clark, SPHR