Written by Jacqueline Kuhn
Another year completed, a new one ahead. Early in the new year is the time for predictions and resolutions. They are popping up everywhere. For anyone who follows my posts, you know that I am into practical advice and solutions that will make you and your organization more efficient, and effective. Thus, this blog post is one about practical projects and planning.
2023 is showing itself to be a difficult year financially. When that happens, budgets get tightened, and each dollar spent must make a difference to the top and bottom line.
To that end, here are the top three HR projects that will provide the greatest return/benefit for your organizations.
“Follow the money”
HR sits on a wealth of information about the people in an organization. The key is to use that data for insights in making business decisions. The best insights are those that are tied to how your organization makes its money. Do you understand how your organization makes its money? Do you understand how the people in the organization impact company profit and top-line growth?
If you do not, this is your first project with the goal being to figure this out. With the results you can then create an action plan. I recommend you take the following steps:
- Look at your HR priorities and make sure they are aligned with the rest of the organization.
- Look at the processes in place for managing talent and evaluate their effectiveness in measuring what matters when it comes to how people’s performance impacts organizational financial performance.
- Implement any changes to practices and technology so that your talent initiatives tie directly to organizational financial performance
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance, is a way to measure how your organization works and if you are doing “the right things”. While not about your finances, ESG impacts them as the associated score provides an indication of your efforts in this area. This can influence things like investors buying stock, and bank determination of creditworthiness. As ESG scores become more mainstream and as people increasingly want to be socially and environmentally responsible, it also can impact your ability to attract and retain the best talent. HR has an opportunity to not only have that permanent seat in the “C” suite but on the Board. This year is the year to look at the programs and processes that support your organization’s ESG score. The second HR project should include the following ESG review:
Time for an Operational Assessment
When was the last time you did an assessment of the operational people, processes, and technology with the goal of determining how they serve your employees and business objectives? If you are like most organizations changes were made to accommodate Covid lockdowns and some have been made to accommodate a return to the office, but there has not been a holistic assessment of HR Operations for a while. In fact, if you have not performed a full assessment of your people, processes, and applications in more than 5 years, 2023 is the time to do exactly that.
This is not an overall HR Transformation, and it may not lead to any application purchases. What this is designed to do is assess how you are supporting the business. The goals of the third project are to answer the following questions:
- Do you have the right people in place?
- Are your processes working as efficiently and effectively as they can be?
- Are you fully leveraging the HR applications that you have in place
- Are there any new applications that would benefit the organization?
I have always believed that to be “strategic” you need excellence in HR operations as it is the foundation upon which all strategic activities rely.
If you’re ready to learn more, and partner with an organization that can help you achieve your 2023 goals, contact HRchitect.
Jacqueline is the EVP, HCM Strategic Consulting Services at HRchitect, she oversees our HCM strategic consulting group which encompasses HRchitect’s HCM systems strategic planning and evaluation and selection practices. Jacqueline spends much of her time with HCM vendors being briefed on their technology offerings, ensuring that we provide the most current information to our clients who are looking for a new solution. Jacqueline enjoys working with organizations to impact their HCM strategies through the utilization of technology.
Learn more about Jacqueline here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinekuhn/