HR STRATEGIES

The importance of human resources in organizations can not be over emphasized. The emphasis today by leaders in organizations is on using human resources to achieve the goals and objectives of the organizations. In writing this article i reviewed the work of Michael Armstrong(2006) in his book strategic human resources. We have actually migrated from human resources to strategic human resources.

Strategic HRM? is the process that results in the formulation of HR strategies. HR strategies are described as ‘internally consistent bundles of human resource practices.

HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do about its human resource management policies and practices, and how they should be integrated with the business strategy and each other.They provide a means of communicating to all concerned the intentions of the organization about how its human resources will be managed. Peter Boxall (1996) posits that they provide ‘a framework of critical ends and means’.

TYPES OF HR STRATEGIES

All HR strategies are different because organisations are different. Armstrong and Long (1994) , Armstrong and Baron (2002) posit that there are many variations.Two basic types of HR strategies that can be identified are overarching strategies and specific strategies.

Overarching HR strategies

Overarching strategies describe the general intentions of the organization about how people should be managed and developed and what steps that should be taken to ensure that the organization can attract and retain the people it needs. They are? expressed as broad statements of aims and purpose .They are concerned with overall organizational effectiveness –achieving human resource advantage.

Presented below is an example of overarching strategy.

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A manufacturing company:

The HR strategy is to stimulate changes on a broad front aimed ultimately at achieving competitive advantage through the efforts of our people. In an industry of fast followers, those who learn quickest will be the winners.

(HR Director)

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SPECIFIC HR STRATEGIES

Specific HR strategies set out what the organization is intended to do in such areas as talent management, continuous improvement, knowledge management, resourcing, learning and developing, reward ,and employee relations.

The following? HR Strategies are therefore identified;

Talent Management Strategy:Talent management strategies are essentially concerned with the processes required to ensure that the organization attracts, retains, motivates and develops the talented? employees they need.

Continuous Improvement Strategy: The aim of continuous improvement strategy is to ?improve the quality and reliability of products or services and their customer appeal, improve operational systems, enhance service levels and delivery, reliability and reduce costs and lead times.

Knowledge Management Strategy:Knowledge management strategies are used to promote the sharing of knowledge by linking people with people and by linking them to information so that they learn from documented experiences.

Resourcing Strategy:Resourcing strategy enables organisation to? obtain and retain the people it needs and employs them accordingly.

Learning and development Strategy(HRD-Strategy):Learning and development strategies will enable organisations have talented and skilled people it will need and that individuals will be given the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills and levels of competence.

Reward Strategy:Reward strategy? is associated with? a declaration of intent that usually defines ?what the organization intends to do in future to develop and implement reward policies, practices and processes that will facilitate ?the achievement of its desired business goals and satisfy the needs of its stakeholders.

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Employee Relations Strategy: Employee relations strategies show the intentions of the organization ?with respect to what needs to be done and? changed in the ways that it manages its relationships with employees and their trade union.

THE CONCEPT OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT .

Human resource management alignment means to integrate decisions about people with decisions about the results an organization is trying to obtain. U.S Office of Personnel management(1999) posits that organisation that successfully align human resources management Practices with agency mission accomplishment do so by integrating HRM into the agency planning process.This is what Strategic Human Resource Management is set out to do and that is why we need to adopt it because it impacts positively on corporate performance.

LINKING HR STRATEGIES TO COMPETITIVE BUSINESS STRATEGIES

In linking HR Strategies to competitive business strategies , the work of Armstrong(2006) where he opines that ?fit which? he also called Horizontal integration is achieved when the various HR strategies cohere and are mutually supporting .

The best fit approach is derived from contingency model and it argues that the effectiveness of HR practices depends on how closely they are aligned to the internal and external environment of organisation( Boxall? and Purcell,2014).In contrast to the best practice approach, it does not accept that there is one best way of managing people but states that such factors as the organisation’s strategy, location, sector, size and nature of work must be considered.

Schuler and Jackson(1987) on? basis of three generic strategies outlined by Porter(1985) of cost leadership, quality enhancement and innovation were able to identify the types of HR practices which are relevant in achieving the required behaviours linked to the company’s strategy. For example, a strategy of innovation will require behaviours that are focused on risk-taking, creativity and co-operation. The HR techniques that may be appropriate would comprise selecting highly skilled staff, appraisals based on individual and team performance, a high level of discretion and broad career paths.

On the other? hand ,a strategy based on cost reduction will need predictable behaviours, a short-term focus and concern for quantity instead of quality. The needed HR policies and practices would be those that focus on concern for results, flexible working(eg high use of contingent labour),low investment in training and tightly defined jobs.

This would be attained by the process of‘bundling’ ,which is carried out by, first, identifying appropriate HR practices, second, assessing how the items in the bundle can be linked together so that they become mutually reinforcing and therefore coherent.

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