Strategic HR

Over the past decade, HR professionals have focused primarily on their functions’ operating models, policies, and systems. However, in today’s increasingly competitive and dynamic business environment, they must focus on how to manage talent strategically. HR must make the transition from being administrators or reactors to “Anticipator’s” who add value to their organisations by connecting business and people strategies. Are they up to the challenge?  

Do you face any of these challenges? 

• - Do your HR professionals struggle to align talent planning with business strategies? 
  
• - Do you lack buy-in from senior leaders and your HR team about the importance of using data and analytics to forecast talent needs?   
• - Do your HR managers fail to leverage their network and get support from their business partners to implement people solutions and initiatives? 
• - Are your HR managers seen as trusted business advisors by your company’s senior leadership team?  
• - Do your HR leaders find it difficult to read the environment, people, and others’ perceptions, which reduces their ability to build trust and achieve their full impact? 

Performance Objectives 

Helps HR Professionals: 

• - Understand recent trends in the changing role of HR and realise that increasing the value they bring to the business can have a high impact on the overall results of their organisation.  
• - Analyse the business context and understand the big picture to become a true business advisor, able to make use of people analytics and come with measurable potential solutions.  
• - Conduct impactful discussions with business leaders and use provocative questioning techniques to challenge current perspectives. 
• - Identify long-term people initiatives that support and accelerate the realisation of business plans and translate the business needs into actionable solutions for high organisational impact. 
• - Evaluate the business network, build supportive and reciprocal long-term strategic relationships, gain commitment and engage others both emotionally and rationally.  

Primary Competencies Developed 

• - Strategic Influencing  
  
• - Business Acumen 
• - Establishing Strategic Direction  Building Organisational Talent
• - Emotional Intelligence Essentials 

• - Driving Innovation
• - Courage
• - Leading Change
• - Entrepreneurship

Course Overview

• - HR Anticipator: A Business Imperative: Participants review and discuss trends regarding the evolving role of HR in the business. Facilitator introduces the HR leader Continuum, and the Anticipator profile and participants discuss the current environment and implications for HR Business Partners.   
• - HR as Business Advisor: Working with the case study participants complete a SWOT analysis, identify what people and business information they might have missed to really understand the business needs and identify people initiatives to support those. They prepare and conduct an interview with a business leader to collect more data.  
• - The Power of Data: Participants complete an engaging experience that helps them understand how having a 360° mindset and getting a big picture perspective will increase their value as business advisors.   
• - HR as Influencer: Participants discuss the importance of influence as a key element in their role and what it takes to be a strong influencer. Participants identify who they need to influence to push their potential people initiatives. Participants learn about seven influence strategies, and three packaging techniques to engage their stakeholders’ hearts and minds.  
• - Building and Sustaining Trust: Participants discuss how they can earn the right to challenge business leaders and become highly-trusted partners. Facilitator introduces the provocative inquiry techniques and reviews trust breakers and trust builders as well as the implications on the job. Participants then focus on self-awareness and control, discussing the connections between high performance and behaviour. They review emotional hijacking and how it could damage trusted relationships, before sharing examples and best practices to avoid it.  
• - Putting It All Together and Call to Action: based on the case study, participants complete their analysis and identify short/long term people initiatives that would support the achievement of the business plans. Teams prepare and conduct a presentation on their talent strategy/point of view to the rest of the group and try to influence their opinions. Participants record what they will stop, start and continue doing to become true HR Anticipators.