For HR leaders, supporting the organization’s business strategy and workplace culture should go hand in hand. From culture initiatives to bringing new talent on board, the HR function has the capability to shape and support the needs of the greater business through all seasons.
Lori Wall, president of 5Walls Executive Coaching & Consulting based in Chanhassen, Minnesota, shares her insights about how to best balance both and how to ensure clear communication from the executive level to the front-lines.
What role should HR play in fostering a culture that supports business strategy, and how can we measure the effectiveness of our cultural initiatives?
HR can and should play a lead role in understanding both the business strategy and current state of the culture and be responsible for crafting the plan for culture initiatives that support the short- and long-term business success.
Since HR is not solely responsible for organizational culture, part of the plan is to include a change management plan to ensure support and accountability of the executive team that delineates clear responsibility for completion of the actions.
Culture initiatives are difficult to measure because many times behavior change is required, which takes longer to see the results. Culture is based on the collective employee experience and that experience can change quickly based on factors such as their manager, the other members of the team, changes to expectations and the external environment.
However, company culture can be measured through employee surveys, completion of the culture initiatives, informal and formal feedback, turnover rates and an organizational culture assessment instrument.
How can we ensure that talent acquisition and development strategies are designed to support and drive the execution of business strategy?
Both the talent acquisition and development strategies should be driven from a talent management strategy developed by HR leadership that is developed to support the business. It should identify specific skill sets or roles needed to achieve the business results, analyze current state to identify talent strengths and gaps and the plan on how to build on strengths or address gaps, either through talent acquisition—which you buy—or development—which you build.
This is an iterative process as employees move and business changes throughout the year. This requires HR to be in partnership with leaders to discuss the needs of their team, employee performance variances and talent movement.
How do you manage change and ensure alignment during periods of organizational transformation or strategic shifts?
Transparent communication is critical to ensure there is alignment during transformation or strategic shifts. Explaining why things are happening and giving team members time to ask questions and accept the change will enable support, remove resistance and accelerate the desired outcomes.
In addition, when change happens, if there are different expectations or goals, communicating the new goals or expectations builds trust with team members as they feel part of new plan. The bottom line is to trust employees by giving them as much information as possible to help them feel part of the future.
What mechanisms can be put in place to ensure leaders are held accountable for their team’s performance and development?
I believe that accountability starts at the top of the organization, with the CEO setting clear expectations for members of the executive team and putting in place a system to report results on a frequent basis sends the message that results will be monitored.
The CEO could also set the expectation that executives cascade functional expectations throughout their teams through clear communication and reporting results, so teams and team members know if their work is achieving the right results.
When team members have access to accurate results, it removes the guessing on whether or not they are performing. It builds trust and enables employee engagement when employees believe that leadership has expectations and are willing to provide information on how well the teams are doing.
A best practice is for leaders to have ongoing conversations with their team members to offer support, remove barriers and make adjustments to goals if needed.
How can we support and manage remote and hybrid work environments to ensure productivity, collaboration and employee connection?
Setting goals, communicating results, having ongoing check-ins with employees and empowering employees to be responsible for achieving results all build trust, productivity, engagement and retention, whether working remotely, hybrid or in the office.
Collaboration can be fostered by soliciting feedback from each other and incorporating diverse viewpoints in their projects. Additionally, it is important for team members to spend time together in a more casual setting to get to know each other—to connect, build trust and provide opportunities to care for each other.
