04th February 2020

The HR Strategy Health Check

In our work we see two types of HR Strategy, one that is all about what HR does and the other is an HR strategy based on the needs of the business. We find that this often stems from the type of HR person leading the function. Read more about “The Two Types of HR Leader” here.

At Generator Talent, we think HR Strategy is about creating an intense focus on the few things that matter most for the organisation to achieve and maintain competitive advantage.

There are many different tools and techniques we leverage in working with HR Leaders and their teams on building a powerful people performance agenda. But, more about these in the future.

So, in the first instance, how do you know if you have an effective HR Strategy?

Take the HR Strategy Health Check.

Below we’ve listed 11 people performance markers of organisations executing an effective HR Strategy.

Looking at the list below, how many times can you say “Yes”? (and “I’m not sure” equals a “No”)

  1. You are comfortably meeting the expectations of your stakeholders.
  2. You are beating the market and the competition.
  3. You are best in class in your product offering, your customer engagement and your operating efficiency.
  4. The number of employees who are ‘performing to expectations’ varies every year based on the above three items.
  5. The turnover of high performers or in people critical roles is lower than the average rate of turnover.
  6. You regularly talk about the capabilities needed in five years’ time and recruit against them.
  7. You know your people are performing better or are more capable than your competitor’s people.
  8. You are self-sustaining in people; you don’t have to recruit from outside of your organisation for more than 10% of your senior roles.
  9. You spend more money developing the performance capability of your current employees than you do on recruiter fees.
  10. You make direct appointments from your succession plan because ‘Ready Now’ means ready now!
  11. Your approach to assessing and rewarding people and teams for performance is a sophisticated, multi-dimensional process.

Put your results in perspective.

Based on our experience working with a range of organisations here’s a way of interpreting where you are.

  • Less Than Four: It is probably time to review your HR Strategy and its alignment to the business.
  • Five to Seven: You are average, no better or worse than most. Is that good enough?
  • Eight or More: You have a robust people agenda. Keep it up!

If you’d like to have an open-ended discussion or perhaps use a whiteboard to bounce ideas around, get in touch. We’re always happy to help our clients and potential clients think through options and opportunities. We’re not lawyers so we never charge for brainstorming.

Our intent is to help organisations grow and develop. Through a free-flowing discussion of ideas we’ll find out whether or not there is a good fit between what you need and what we do well. If there is, we can keep talking. If not, we’ll be the first to say so.


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