Trends for HR’s Increased Focus on Strategic Functions Continue

Organizations that outsource administrative HR tasks tend to involve internal HR in strategic planning. That is a pattern we observe as well, and it is a successful model for business development. In a previous SHRM article Stephen Miller goes on to state various vital contributions HR can make to strategic planning: retention, work/life, health, safety and security programs and success planning.Focusing on these facets is focusing on the future; it is long-term planning and organizational vision in action. To be effective in this new paradigm, HR staff must have efficient means of accomplishing administrative tasks—whether through outsourcing or in-house technologies—and have reporting tools that save more time than they require to maintain.

Now, more than ten years later after Miller’s article, as Insight Strategic Concepts® helps clients align business strategy with talent management, they see first-hand how HR’s increased attention to strategic planning moves an organization forward. As HR continues to rise to the strategic challenges of keeping employees focused on the right roles for organizational success based on establishing specific and strategic key performance indicators, executives are realizing the necessity of effective people management as part of their competitive advantage.

“That is where a talent management system plays a pivotal role,” says Shelley Moore, President of Insight Strategic Concepts and BLOOM. In fact, Moore’s approach to strategic HR led her to develop BLOOM®, a web-based performance management system geared toward small- to mid-sized businesses.

“Miller’s article notes that large organizations are more likely than small- to mid-sized businesses to have a strategic plan,” she says. “While the results do indicate that—at least in 2006 and beyond—Insight sees that changing and smaller organizations are forced to become more long-term focused in every aspect of their businesses. That is why we created BLOOM, and that is why we price it so affordably.”

BLOOM enables executives and HR to communicate business objectives, goals, initiatives and tasks across the organization. Each employee sees how his/her role contributes to the organization’s success, and each manager and executive can monitor strategic progress and status.

“Tools like this,” says Moore, “are what move HR into a solid position to focus on strategy and ensure that human resources is about much more than overseeing payroll and benefits packages—it is about the human element of human resources.”

The facts stand the test of time. To learn more about how BLOOM can help you, click here.