We Couldn’t Have Said it Better Ourselves: “Organizations need to mesh performance targets with Human Resources strategy”

June 11th, 2014
Written by: Elizabeth Richards

I came across an article this week in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, titled, The new business normal: constant reinvention, by Rose Patten and Hugh Arnold, co-directors of the Rotman School of Management’s Strategic Human Resource Management Program at the University of Toronto. In it, the authors say:

Organizations need to mesh their strategy and performance targets with their Human Resources strategy, with a clear, two-way street between them. This is not the norm at many companies (at least not yet)….C-suite executives…need to come together to create and endorse a “people” strategy that is aligned with organizational needs and reinforced into the warp and weft (meaning fabric) of daily management.

Anyone who has seen the Why TPO page on our web site knows that this thinking resonates with us:

HR doesn’t start with processes and paperwork—and neither do we. We begin every discussion with a thorough review of your business priorities. In addition to taking the tactical aspects of HR off your hands, TPO helps you align your people-related priorities with your overall strategy so that HR is constantly driving tangible business results.

And we take the “fabric” analogy to heart as well, as evidenced by this image on our home page–although we used it to communicate a different point.

The Globe and Mail piece goes on to say that:

For all leaders, we see a big shift in the degree of ownership, engagement with, and commitment to what have traditionally been considered “HR activities.” C-suite executives must now have a firmer handle on how their organization builds and develops talent, in the same way that they understand finance or how to raise capital.

We at TPO see real progress in this area–the “shift” is happening. As one of our clients, the CEO of an automotive service chain, recently put it, “Today, the people aspect is the most important part of our business—every decision I make is an HR decision.”

We look forward to continuing to contribute to this shift in the perception of HR’s role in the C-Suite and the “two-way street” between HR and organizations’ strategy and performance targets.