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According to Your HR Department survey, HR is viewed as a strategic partner by management teams for 33.3% of survey participants and as a credible business partner for 25.6%. It’s still viewed as a provider of administrative functions, though, for 35.9% and just not needed for 1.9%.
A total of 920 individuals participated in this survey, conducted in October 2015. Of those who identified themselves, 54.3% are privately owned for-profit organizations, 9.1% are public corporations, 15% are governments, and 21.6% are not for-profit entities.
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Strategic Planning
Over 3 quarters of our survey participants play a role in strategic business planning at their organizations with 36.9% holding a position of influence within the inner circle. HR plays a major role, though outside the inner circle for 25.7%; and at least 27.9% of HR departments play a minor role. HR has no role in strategic business planning for 7.7% (down from 12.4% in 2013) of survey respondents.
Less than half (40.4%) have a formal strategic plan for HR that aligns with the organization’s business plan. Meanwhile, 11.7% have not developed a strategy for complying with proposed overtime regulations, though 51.8% indicate it will have some impact on their organization.
Other areas where HR is involved include performance management design and implementation (71.4%), coaching management (61.3%), employee engagement initiatives (59.6%), and driving culture (53%).
Some, however, are involved in other activities not as common for HR, such as workspace design (20.9%), organization knowledge retention (30.3%), leading growth and innovation (16.1%), and social media updates (11.1%).
Plans and Priorities for HR
According to the survey, HR plans and programs include company culture and next generation recruitment. Management drives culture for 88%, and HR occupies the driver’s seat for 45.8%. Interestingly, employees drive culture for a higher percentage (47.3%) than HR.
Recruiting tops the list of high priorities for 59.4%, and retention of valued employees comes in next at 49.9%. At 45.3%, improving employee productivity leads the list of moderate priorities with improving employee satisfaction next in line at 43%. Topping the list of low priorities is lowering the administrative burden and supporting employee financial well-being at 33.7% and 31.3%, respectively.
Strategic business planning is just part of the world of HR. Additionally, you need a go-to resource, and our editors recommend the “everything-HR-in-one” website, HR.BLR.com®. As an example of what you will find, here are some policy recommendations concerning e-mail, excerpted from a sample policy on the website:
- Privacy. The director of information services can override any individual password and, therefore, has access to all e-mail messages in order to ensure compliance with company policy. This means that employees do not have an expectation of privacy in their company e-mail or any other information stored or accessed on company computers.
- E-mail review. All e-mail is subject to review by management. Your use of the e-mail system grants consent to the review of any of the messages to or from you in the system in printed form or in any other medium.
- Solicitation. In line with our general policy, e-mail must not be used to solicit for outside business ventures, personal parties, social meetings, charities, membership in any organization, political causes, religious causes, or other matters not connected to the company’s business.
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We should point out that this is just one of hundreds of sample policies on the site. (You’ll also find analyses of all the HR-related laws and the current critical issues, plus downloadable job descriptions, and complete training materials for hundreds of HR topics.)
You can examine the entire HR.BLR.com program free of any cost or commitment. It’s quite remarkable—30 years of accumulated HR knowledge, tools, and skills gathered in one place and accessible at the click of a mouse.
What’s more, we’ll supply a free, downloadable copy of our special report, Critical HR Recordkeeping—From Hiring to Termination, just for looking at HR.BLR.com. If you’d like to try it at absolutely no cost or obligation to continue (and get the special report, no matter what you decide), go here.