5 ways HR can supercharge a people strategy in 2021

The pandemic has transformed HR's role in the workplace — but many leaders still think HR needs to have more influence across the organization.

Some 24% of HR decision makers say there has been a greater shift towards HR becoming a more strategic and advisory level partner to the organization.

That's according to Personio's 'Counting the Cost: How Businesses Risk a Post Pandemic Talent Drain,' report.

While the findings of the report are seemingly positive, 50% of HR decision-makers surveyed said they wished HR had a bigger reach and influence within the business.

The report went on to identify several barriers hindering the rise of people strategy to the top of the agenda.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some 46% of HR leaders said the function lacked the necessary data and insights to support the business in the best way possible.

21% of respondents said they were burdened with too much admin or process-driven work. The same number said they were constrained by costs and budgets.

On another note, 19% of respondents highlighted the fact that HR lacked influence within the business and 18% said they lacked the time and resources to focus on strategic work.

Supercharging HR's people strategy

As part of the report, Personio offers some advice to help HR leaders supercharge their people strategy.

The advice is as follows:

• Vision and data: Even if you have a plan in mind, it's always better to gather data to help inform your strategy.
• Identify the problems and outcomes: Your people strategy must be reflexive — it must identify problems before they arise so as to enable you to solve them in a proactive manner. You can achieve this by running some workshops to hypothesize some of the potential problems that may occur. This will enable you to decide on outcomes, work, or activities that will ultimately help you measure success.
• Gather feedback and excitement: Your people strategy needs to be informed by, well, people. Don't forget: feedback is essential — but it must come from a diverse range of people working across different roles and disciplines. If you do this, you'll guarantee that your strategy works for everyone across the entire organization. This will also help you get buy-in from employees and stakeholders.
• Visualize and communicate: The HR team may be clear on a people strategy but you have to ensure it's shared with the wider business. Give people a virtual representation of what your plans are — create a simple resource that outlines your plans and measures.
• Track and adjust: Remember to keep iterating based on continuous feedback and data-driven insights. Your people strategy should not be static.