What is strategic HR?

What is strategic human resource management?

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development states that Strategic Human Resource Management is:

“A general approach to the strategic management of human resources in accordance with the intentions of the organisation on the future direction it wants to take”*

This implies change is a core aspect of human resource management and should be encouraged and embraced as a positive and necessary element in the further development of any organisation, its workforce and management.

The CIPD website goes on to recognise that “In the majority of organisations people are now the biggest asset. Their knowledge, skills and abilities have to be deployed and used to the maximum effect if the organisation is to create value. The intangible value of an organisation which lies in the people it employs is gaining recognition by accountants and investors, and it is generally now accepted that this has implications for long term sustained performance.”

It’s all about the people.

So, we can see that people, their knowledge, skills and abilities and their ability to change, led and directed by management and facilitated and advised by HR is a reasonable definition of what makes a modern business successful. It may be a great product but if it is badly made, poorly sold and shoddily delivered by an unskilled workforce who don’t care, then the quality of product is lost on the customer.

This understanding of the value of people, and therefore the value of HR Management, has seen a rise in investment in HR departments and an increase in the responsibility and reliance on HR professionals. This can’t always be said of the investment in suitable tools for HR to use to facilitate change and manage this valuable asset.

It may be surprising how reluctant organisations have been to embrace HR technology as a mechanism for change and development within their business. However, when we examine the systems traditionally on offer the reason for the lack of investment and reluctance to introduce HR led technology is clear. Technology within the HR industry has traditionally been a glorified filing cabinet, a simple database fixed in its functionality and appearance, rigid in its recording of data and expensive to change. Technology could hardly be a catalyst for change when in fact that very change has been its Achilles heel!

“Well, thats how our system does it”

It is immensely common for policies and practices to be frozen, unchanged because “that’s how our HR system does it” and “we have to involve the supplier if we want to change how it works”. The facilitator becomes the master and the master becomes the slave. Many organisation’s confidence in HR technology has been undermined because systems in fact become the chain and ball on HR, slowing down business change, limiting growth and curbing innovation.

HR departments have suffered because of this. Whilst organisations see the need for, and value in HR, obtaining budgets for HR technology remains one of the most difficult challenges HR Managers and Directors face.

A unique approach

Cascade have realised this and have created a different kind of HR solution. Instead of trying to provide a solution that solves a perceived problem in a “supposedly” most effective way and hoping that that solution fits they have taken a step back from the end functionality and developed an additional layer between data and end solution.

This layer allows the HR Professional the ability to evolve their solution without the need to involve IT or make further investment with the supplier. These tools, which facilitate change throughout a system and therefore throughout a business, free HR to implement change and control and underpin it through technology.

Cascade’s modern, dynamic and flexible systems aren’t afraid of change, in fact unlike older systems they are designed to facilitate change, they scream out for innovation from their users and refuse to dictate to HR how things should be done.

We began by highlighting that the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development states that Strategic Human Resource Management is:

“A general approach to the strategic management of human resources in accordance with the intentions of the organisation on the future direction it wants to take”*

If your underlying HR Technology can’t adapt to the future direction of your business, within your control, at a moment’s notice without huge cost and workarounds then you either stop using the system or you don’t change direction. In either case your business advantage has been diminished.

Your competitors might have spoken to Cascade. If they did, they just changed direction more quickly, efficiently and cost effectively than you did.

Cascade .NET HR and HMRC Accredited Payroll Solutions. The new obvious choice for Strategic HR & Payroll professionals.

*Source CIPD Website.