Does your organisation have the right people in the right jobs with the right skills providing the right services in the right place at the right time?

Written by Dr. Icon


"We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror." Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher, futurist and communications theorist.

Coach Jake White’s beleaguered Springbok rugby team had no sooner lost to Ireland last week when the Blue Bulls rugby union was already calling for his head on a SARU platter. So what’s the agenda? Is Jake really such a bad rugby coach as people make out, does Heyneke Meyer want Jake’s job, or do South Africans not have the patience to take the long term view, and wait to see if Jake and the SARU really can build a team in time for the next rugby world cup next year?

Only one week later, and the ‘boks have given England a drubbing (at Twickenham no less), but does this mean that Jake White’s job is safe, or will he be fired on returning to South Africa, and more importantly for us, what does Jake and SA rugby have to do with HR strategy? Now indulge me a moment, and imagine your HR department was like coaching the Springbok rugby team.

Last month our lead article was about HR and Business Strategy, and while this may not be groundbreaking news to some of you reading this, if the number of people who logged on to our website for our chat session last month is anything to go by, it would seem that what I wrote went straight over a lot of people’s heads, or is simply not considered as important or urgent. Ouch!

Granted, I know that in some instances it’s not easy (if it was, every HR practitioner and his dog would be ‘out in the midday sun’), and it’s not easy to strategise in isolation. I also know that many of you spend 90% of your time and effort “fighting fires”, doing the very necessary HR work much of which is now legislated.

But we need to remember that our HR function is to link human and business needs.

While HR Strategy may be notoriously difficult to pin down, as different organizations have to develop their own unique approach to suit different organizational contexts, to bring the necessity for strategy clearly into focus, allow me to sketch a few scenarios which will graphically show what your company would look like without the very basics of an HR strategy:
What if your company had –

1) No training and development programs?
A yawning skills gap would result.
Product, technology, innovation, change and progress would slow with the loss of a competitive edge. (That is assuming you have one.)
Ultimately you’d be losing business to your competitors, and therefore suffering job losses.
You’d have fewer multi-skilled, multi-disciplined workers available to substitute for staff on annual, maternity, or sick leave.
Overall the country might lose business overseas, the economy would decline, and poverty and crime would increase.

Ho hum, just what we all need…



2) No health, safety, environmental and wellness programs?
Just for a start, HIV/AIDS and TB would become rampant in the workplace, resulting in deaths and a loss of skills.
Industrial accidents would increase, resulting in the loss of skills and production, possible litigation, and compensation with a consequent loss of profit.
Pollution would increase with your company fined for infringements if caught, losing still more profit.
You’d lose valuable organisational credibility in the (business) community as a responsible employer.
With a bad reputation your organisation will be less able to attract quality staff.
Perhaps as a result of stress, your company may even suffer a tragic family suicide. (Here’s a gaping hole in our SA Police Service HR strategy to serve as a pertinent, up to date, almost weekly example.)

No wonder nobody wants to be a cop….



3) No formal succession and retention planning?
Senior and vital key positions would regularly be vacated, setting off new recruitment drives, and incurring hiring costs.
Teamwork would be compromised.
Overworked staff might be loaded with additional responsibilities in the interim, leading to still more resignations as they in turn become disgruntled with their new workload.
Skilled staff would be lost, and you will have to train new employees all over again.

So it’s back to square 1) above…



4) No proactive workforce planning and forecasting?
Recruitment, selection and retention of specialised talent would cease.
Staff who perform poorly and those who warrant early retirement would clog the system.
Your organisational structure would cease to represent your strategic directives or mission statement.
Long-term projections and future staffing would be out of touch with demographic shifts and economic trends, and you’d probably run foul of Employment Equity requirements to name just one resultant shortcoming.



5) No formal communication?
Employee behavior would be out of touch with organisational culture.
Labour – management relations and morale would decline.
Staff wouldn’t be aware of correct policies and procedures, and grievances would increase due to improper resolution.
Performance management systems, employee recognition and committees wouldn’t exist.
The flow of information in e-mails, newsletters, the intranet and meetings would be strangled.

Nobody would know what the hell was going on, and you might just get strangled too…

Okay, so when your company has at the very least some of the above, can you just sit back on your laurels and watch what happens, or is there still more work to do? I’m afraid so, as your plan needs to be monitored and reviewed for relevance, to react and support any changes in your organisation's direction or goals. You also need to measure the effectiveness and success of the plan. Here’s how:

• Employee surveys, staff committee feedback and activities

• Attendance rates per employee, per department, per location

• Frequency and severity of work-related illnesses or injuries, and compensation claims.

• Cost of benefits administration.

• Workplace inspection and reports.

• Number of complaints or grievances.

• Turnover rate, hiring costs, overtime, and temporary agency costs.

• Training and development costs.

• Exit interviews.

Finally, is long-term strategy and commitment possible, and does it yield results?

Here are some non HR examples which I think prove that it is, and does:

Ho Chi Min’s army of guerillas on bicycles finally freed Vietnam after 1000 years of foreign rule.

Nazism and Fascism were halted by the allied forces during World War II. (Where would the world be today if they’d withdrawn their troops from Europe after only 2 years because too many soldiers were being killed, or if the electorate back home were unsupportive of the war effort, and politicians were worried about being re-elected for another term? Winston Churchill would turn in his grave…)

NASA built the colossally powerful and complex Saturn 5 rockets which carried astronauts to the moon.

And closer to home, Madiba lead the struggle against apartheid while on a “Long Walk to Freedom”. Was there ever any talk of firing him as leader of the ANC because he was in Pollsmoor prison for so many years? Nonsense.

So who wants to fight for freedom, go to the moon, promote democracy, or even see the Springboks win the rugby world cup again? Hands up anyone who wants to be an HR winner. If your answer is yes to any of these, your organisation should be developing its own long-term HR strategy.