Human resources professionals have long touted their skills related to people. It’s the HR department that makes sure an organization has the people it needs and then makes sure the needs of those people are met, but does truly strategic HR require more? Definitely yes, according to HR practitioner, lecturer, researcher, and author Christopher D. Lee. 
Lee recently conducted a Business and Legal Resources webinar titled “High Performance HR: A Proven Model for Planning, Delivering, and Managing Your Strategically Focused Functions” in which he outlined what it takes to make a 21st-century, strategy-focused HR department. Lee says the definition of a high-performance organization is one that consistently outperforms its peers over time. Therefore, the definition of a high-performance HR department is one that enables the organization to consistently outperform its peers over time by leveraging human potential on behalf of the organization.
“It’s about being that catalyst, that facilitator, that enabler, that element that HR brings to the table that helps the organization shine,” Lee says.
21st-century focus
Strategists are concerned with an organization’s mission, vision, strategy, and goals, so that also should be the focus of 21st-century HR professionals, Lee says.
“The HR strategist is concerned about the enterprise as a whole, not the 20th-century idea that HR is thinking about the people,” Lee says. “HR’s thinking about the enterprise because without the enterprise, there is no employment, there is no employee success. It’s the long-term health and sustainability of the enterprise that’s the focus of the high performance HR leader, department, and function.”
Lee says high-performing HR officers need to change from being advocates for employees to being advocates for the organization’s enterprise.
“We must elevate our thinking and think about how what we do every day serves the greater purpose of the organization with its mission, vision, strategy, or goals,” he says.
In his webinar, Lee told of a business owner who nearly lost his business in an economic downturn. During the struggle, the company’s HR manager was busy working on a succession plan and wellness program. While succession plans and wellness programs are worthy initiatives, those things weren’t going to save the company.
Instead, HR should have been focused on the high priorities of the organization at that particular time, Lee said. The HR manager could have used HR tools to make an important contribution to keeping the company in business.
HR tools
HR’s tools play a role in solving big-issue organizational concerns, Lee says. Tools such as pay, benefits, and training are not ends, he says. They’re means to an end. They don’t exist to make employees feel good. Instead, they exist to serve the purposes of the enterprise.
Lee says HR can be the engine driving an organization’s talent agenda, and HR can shape the organization’s culture so that it can achieve its vision and mission. But historically HR has been viewed as more of an administrative function, so HR has to “transform itself to really achieve its promise.”
During the webinar, Lee urged HR professionals to schedule meetings with their major executives, line managers, and others who deliver the organization’s mission. He said to ask them to name their three biggest challenges or goals, the things that keep them up at night. With that information, HR professionals can shift their thinking to examine how HR can help.
“The good news is that there is a holy grail, and we just happen to be captains of that ship sailing in that direction,” Lee says. HR functions matter and have “a huge effect on the bottom line.”