1 Dynamic Link©

Human Resources StrategyEnsuring supply meets demand

now and in the future

Introduction

As Government cutbacks and austerity measures now directly affect the real economy, and with many organisations facing the challenge of doing similar amounts of work with less people, there has probably never been a more important time to revisit your Human Resource strat-egy.

The essence of Human Resources Man-agement is about ensuring that the right people are in the right place at the right time. Therefore, a relevant strategy has to be underpinned by a deep appreciation of the factors that drive demand and the means to identify current supply and hidden potential.

Sadly, this appreciation and the tools and methods to identify the issues are often lacking as HR departments have a tendency to look inwards at the mechanics of delivering HR services. However Human Resources is not a department! Rather it is the total capability of the people and the way that they are organised and managed.

Dynamic Link has a methodology that provides the basis to develop a compre-hensive Human Resource strategy.

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Process

The Dynamic Link strategy development process involves four elements, namely:

Demand Factors, Supply Factors, Sourcing and Management,Context.

Whilst pictorially represented above as discete elements, in reality each compo-nent has inter-dependencies. For example, what you find out about the supply side of the resource equation may lead you to question whether you are capable of deliv-ering the strategy. Then, a change of strat-egy will impact the demand side.

Assessing Demand

Demand Factors

Supply Factors

Strategic direction and business drivers

Organisational structure and capability

Job requirements

Diversity and flexibility

Employment data and trends

Talent pipeline

Dynamic Link has a structured methodol-ogy that addresses the factors that identify demand. This approach prompts you to ask important questions such as:

What assumptions are critical within the strategy?What unique competitive position do we want to achieve?What are the critical value chains that need to be made/developed?What are the key jobs that can be classed as pivotal? These are the jobs in which extra investment in management atten-tion and resources would make a big difference.What are the key jobs that can be classed as stress-points? These are the jobs that pose a high risk to the business if the role-holder suddenly leaves.What are the key jobs that can be classed as genuinely strategic? These are the jobs that move the organisation to a differ-ent place.

Assessing Supply

Dynamic Link has a structured meth-odology that addresses the factors that identify supply and hidden talent. This prompts you to ask important questions such as:

How efficient is our organisational structure?

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How effectively are we utilising the avail-able talent?How much potential do we have in the talent bank? How prepared are we for succession?

Sourcing and Managing

Sourcing and Managing

Gap analysis and risk assessment

Accelerated development

Employer brand and recruitment

Dynamic Link has a structured methodol-ogy that addresses the factors that enable you to source and manage your talent. This prompts you to ask important questions such as:

What will make our advantage difficult to replicate?What process or resource contraints do we need to resolve?What organisational boundaries are getting in the way?Where would more or better people have the greatest effect?What will make a compelling proposition for the people that we want to attract, retain and develop?How much will we invest and where will we invest it?

ContextAs with everything, context is king.

Dynamic Link has a structured methodol-ogy that enables you to sense-check your strategy against the external environment, competitiors and reference groups. This prompts you to ask important questions such as:

Have other organisations in the industry been down this road before and are there lessons to be learnt?Have other organisations from outside this industry anything to teach us?Are there measures that we can publish that show just how well we are doing and which can effect the valuation/reputation of the organisation.

OutputsA Human Resources strategy, based on the Dynamic Link integrated framework, will enable organisations to:

Target development spend that has real impact,Ensure that people are well matched to the work they are to undertake,Have the appropriate level of leadership resource now and in the future,Discover hidden talent,Ensure that the development of a strategy is an iterative process taking into account business drivers and current and future capability.

References and Acknowledgements

Dynamic Link recognises the important contribution of J Boudreau and Peter Rams-tad from their book Beyond HR ISBN number -13:978-1-4221-0415-6.

ContactsDynamic Link Ltd UK,Suite 2,16-25 Bastwick Street,London, EC1V 3PSPhone 0800 032 5096Contact: Russell Connor, Managing Director on +44 (0)7879 448634 Email - r.connor@dynamic-link.com