Define and Understand the Business Strategy

The first factor cited is a shared and well developed understanding of an organization’s strategy among business and human resource managers. It is still commonplace to find organizations that have not yet articulated and/or shared a clear mission and objectives with their workforce. In fact, a study by Mankins & Steele (2005), which surveyed senior executives in more than 197 companies worldwide, found a poorly communicated strategy as the second highest reason cited by executives as the reason for why their companies underperform. And part of the poor communication is because in many organizations the discussion still focuses on what the strategy and objectives consist of rather than how to implement them, ending up with vague and generic business objectives. Human Resource leaders can serve an important role here and establish it as a key strategic partner by facilitating how the business strategy and subsequent objectives will be implemented in their organizations.