Workforce Management Study - Making HR More Strategic Stan Lepeak, Managing Director, EquaTerra Global Research Lowell Williams, Executive Director, Human Resource Services Brad Everett, Managing Director, Human Resource Services Human resource (HR) groups, perhaps more so than any other business unit, are constantly challenged to play a more strategic role in the organization, but only in a cost-effective manner, while simultaneously continuing to perform a broad range of transactional activities. While human resources as manifested in finding, attracting and keeping key talent, for example, is certainly strategic, the bulk of a typical HR group’s centers on more mundane activities like processing payroll and administering benefit plans. These tasks are necessary and important but in themselves not strategic. Balancing strategic ambitions with the need and desire to achieve operational excellence is a perpetual HR challenge. Several unassailable factors are contributing to the need for western organizations to improve their strategic HR capabilities. These include aging workforces and shifting demographics in many western countries (i.e., less workers), subpar and in some cases broken educational systems (i.e., less capable workers), and the rise of global competition, which means western firms are no longer always the leaders in their markets. Current economic conditions make this situation more acute. Against this backdrop, EquaTerra launched a new market study examining how HR organizations balance the desire to deliver more strategic HR services with the need to ensure cost-effective operational excellence. The market study was conducted with the support of Workforce Management. Click on a title to view a document. Part 1 - The Issue: Striking a Balance Between Strategy and Tactics in Today’s Human Resource Organization Current recessionary global economic conditions are having a major negative impact on many western businesses and organizations. While markets and the economy eventually will recover, no shortage of human resource related challenges face western organizations. These include aging workforces, under-skilled workers from poorly performing educational systems, and the ongoing rise of stronger global competition. Human resources, both as business unit and a set of principles and practices, is a critical tool for organizations to utilize in addressing and overcoming these challenges. HR groups must strike a balance in meeting these strategic corporate challenges while simultaneously fighting corporate fires and doing their part to manage costs. New EquaTerra research sheds light on how human resource groups are addressing these issues and to what degree they are successful doing so. Part 2 - The Issue: Re-examining Conventional Wisdom on Enabling Human Resources Excellence The call to make human resources organizations more strategic is not new. The need to do so is made more imperative, however, by a combination of difficult economic times, changing workforce demographics and increased global competitiveness. Realigning HR organizations and operations to better support key business needs and issues while still striving for excellence in operational HR tasks is a laudable goal, but what can and should today’s HR organizations do to achieve it? New EquaTerra research examines what changes HR professionals feel are needed to enable a more strategic to approach to HR, as well as the degree to which the HR profession is adequately preparing next generation leadership to drive these changes.