Today’s HR professionals are innovative thought leaders, always looking for ways to incorporate new technology, ideas, and approaches in hopes of greater success and satisfaction within their organizations. As a result, there’s often a great deal of enthusiasm for shiny new initiatives with broad-reaching goals. When it comes down to it, however, the availability of talent to implement those plans can quickly put a damper on even the rosiest outlook.
Five Steps to Strategic Success
I recently came across this strategy template from Gartner, which offers a one-page approach to building an HR strategy in five simple steps:
- Understand your organization’s strategy and goals.
- Identify capabilities and skills for the future.
- Evaluate current capabilities and skills.
- Develop HR goals and criteria for success.
- Communicate your HR strategy.
These five steps—which Gartner explores in more depth—are critical to driving any HR initiative, whether it’s a total overhaul of your people strategy or a highly specialized initiative to address a particular need within your organization. Alignment with your overall business goals is a must, as is a thorough evaluation of your current team’s skills, any gaps, and likely needs in the future.
Looking at this planning framework, one thing struck me: the importance of having the right people in place. A strategy is only as good as the paper it’s written on unless you have transformative talent to drive things forward, make the necessary changes, evaluate (and potentially adjust course) along the way, and ensure the initiative ultimately achieves its goals.
A Consultative Approach
At Kaizen HR, we’ve seen a significant shift in recent months, where more companies are interested in how we can help them secure talent on a shorter-term, contract, interim, or consulting basis. Once they evaluate their current talent, many teams recognize that they might have people who are passionate about a given initiative – but they already have full plates with their “regular” work. Those same organizations may not have the budget or amount of work to justify creating and hiring a full-time new role.
If you don’t have the right internal people, or they’re swamped with other work and cannot take on a whole new strategic project, the question becomes: Who implements your initiative?
The flexibility of consultant or contract hiring can significantly help in situations like these. With an experienced recruiter like Kaizen in your corner, you can find a highly qualified expert with exactly what you need to boost a specific initiative, bridge a gap, or otherwise assist on a specialized project. This approach allows your organization to reap all the benefits of these exceptional professionals’ experience and knowledge to implement your new HR strategic initiative without the bureaucratic hassles and budget concerns of hiring a new full-time employee for the long term.
Kaizen HR is here to help your HR team identify and attract top talent to fit the unique parameters of your current strategic needs, from short-term consultants to full-time roles. We stay connected throughout the process, even after onboarding, to ensure everything is successful. Contact us to learn more about our turnkey recruiting solutions and how we can support you to achieve your goals.
