Obstacles to Effective Implementation

Some organizations may have to overcome significant obstacles in order to develop and implement the strategic staffing process. In some cases, line managers, especially those who do not fully understand strategic staffing, impede the implementation process. In an equal number of cases, however, it is HR staff that hinder effective implementation.

Line Managers

Line managers will never fully embrace a process that they do not understand. Typically, many line managers have a short-term results orientation that seems inconsistent with the longer-term perspective of staffing strategy. Other managers are sometimes unaware of (or unconvinced of) the benefits and value of strategic staffing, especially when those benefits are not measured in specific terms. Still others resist the strategic staffing process itself, viewing it as added work that brings them little reward.

When you implement your process, make sure that managers really understand what will be done. Show them that the process will be tailored to meet their needs—that it is not the one-size-fits-all approach that they may think it is. If they have a short-term perspective, emphasize that the process can help them right now. Explain that one of the main benefits of strategic staffing is that it provides a longer-term context within which they can make better decisions in the near term. Chapter 14 describes in detail what you should do to both engage and involve line managers in the strategic staffing/workforce planning process on an ongoing basis. As for measuring the impact and benefits of the process, show them that you are indeed measuring and tracking both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the process (more on measurement is included in Chapter 23).

HR Staff

In some cases, one of the most significant obstacles to the effective implementation of the strategic staffing process is HR staff themselves. As I sometimes say in my presentations, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” One of the most difficult biases that HR staff need to overcome is the one that assumes that staffing is by its very nature reactive and tactical. HR staff that believe this find it hard to think of staffing in any strategic way. Other HR staff have an egalitarian perspective that is more consistent with organization-wide, one-size-fits-all approaches than it is with the targeted, issue-focused approach that I suggest. Some assume that in order to be fair and meet business needs, the process must be applied to all jobs in a consistent way. Still other staff lack the in-depth understanding of their business plans that is necessary to define critical HR issues. Finally, some HR professionals still think and act primarily within functional silos, where every problem can be fixed by applying processes, practices, and tools from one given function (like training or recruiting).

As a human resources professional, ensure that your strategic staffing process is implemented effectively and really brings value to your organization by making sure that you:

• Understand that staffing should be proactive. Learn that forward-looking staff planning is not only valuable but absolutely required if business strategies are to be implemented as planned. Your staffing processes will never be fully effective as long as they remain reactive.

• Understand that staffing can often be strategic in nature, and that long-term staffing strategies may be required if significant, critical staffing issues are to be addressed. Make short-term staffing decisions only within the context of long-term staffing strategies.

• Develop a full understanding of your business, including its mission, objectives, strategies, and tactics. This understanding is needed if you are to function as a business partner in general, but it is absolutely critical when developing and implementing the strategic staffing process.

• Create and support processes that are tailored to meet the needs of your managers. Don’t expect or force them to use a common process and identical planning parameters where that just isn’t necessary.

• Develop staffing strategies and plans that integrate aspects of various traditional HR functions. If the staffing issues that you have identified are truly strategic, it is unlikely that they will be fully addressed by applying processes and tools from just one HR functional area. Pull together teams that utilize staff from all those HR functions that will contribute to the solution to each issue.

Above all, position yourself with your line managers as a helpful, realistic business problem solver with a particular expertise in staffing. If you do this, you will surely be successful. Chapter 16 provides a more detailed description of what your role should be and the skills that you will probably need if you are to play that role effectively.