Aligning skills with objectives – an HR challenge

 

Large Canadian organizations are seeking more and more to adjust management of their human resources according to their business objectives. However, they face difficulties in clearly defining their HR strategy, according to a survey conducted by Right Management among 94 companies across the country.

 

Although 43% of companies have difficulty aligning their employees’ skills with their business objectives, 40% of them do manage to and only 18% believe that no adjustment was made. The main gaps cited concerning human resource management are: a strategy that is not clearly defined (32%), difficulty in measuring the impact on the organization (17%), poor communication within the company (15%), a non-functional strategy (9%), lack of alignment between the head office and operational units (6%) and failure to define success in the company (6%). The three main HR objectives are, for the companies surveyed, providing for future leadership (21%), succession planning and management (20%) and retaining highly qualified employees (18%).

 

Defining a clear HR strategy for the company’s success

 

According to Bram Lowsky, Senior Vice President Americas for Right Management, a genuine human resources management strategy must include a wide range of policies and processes such as recruitment, assessment, training and development, retention and management programs. These are aspects which can vary from one company to another but which are ideally the key elements to be aligned with business objectives. If a difficulty should hinder the efforts made it would mean that skills management is not sufficiently explicit. As such, respondents mainly referred to a lack of clarity in defining talent management. This is where companies must begin, according to Bram Lowsky, by putting in place a reference strategy supported by a communication plan so that all stakeholders in the company are informed.

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