DayoneHR Tea Time Podcast Episode 4: HR and Business Strategy [Transcript]

Below is a transcript from Episode 4 of our Podcast. It has been generated using automated transcription technology, so please forgive any mistakes, including grammatical errors. Of course, if you’d rather listen to our Podcast, you can find this episode on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon.

Lauren: Hi everyone and welcome back to DayoneHR Tea Time. Today we are going to be talking about HR business strategy.

Now, we put a poll out on our LinkedIn page, and if you look for us, just search DayoneHR, and you'll find our company page. And on there we put a few selections for people to pick from. And the most popular was actually HR business strategy. So we're gonna be having a bit of a chat about HR business strategy today, how that links to transformation, how that links to HR technology.

But before we do that, I need to give a bit of a plug because today, at DayoneHR, we launched one of our biggest courses yet. We launched the HR tech implementation and project management course. You can find out details about this in the notes in the description. But also if you're on the LinkedIn company page, you can find out info there, or my page, or the DayoneHR website.

But definitely check it out if you wanna become a HRIS project manager. This is the course you should take. And as always, me and Yogina are there to guide you along the way as well. So just to plug there and we'll leave some details about that, if that's of interest to you. Now, back to our scheduled programming.

We are gonna talk a bit about HR business strategy and I was having a chat with Yogina before we started this podcast and I was just saying, you know, I can easily go on tangents on this topic because HR business strategy is a huge beast. And there are lots of aspects that you can talk about in terms of HR business strategy and also HR business strategy gets more and more complex in bigger or, you know, multinational organizations as well.

So we are just trying to cover some of the key pieces from our perspective, but obviously there's a lot more we can say on this piece. Now, where do we start, right? I think we need to talk about the first piece, which is the link between HR and the creation of the wider business company strategy.

Now, some companies call this OKRs, KPIs, whatever. Whatever the company you are working within call it. We have often seen the mistake of HR either not being included in the business strategy or just kind of setting their own business strategy that doesn't link with what the business growth plans are over the next kind of 12 months.

And you know, that never works out well when one department in a company is not working in harmony with everyone else on the goals and the objectives that the company is trying to achieve. So I think we need to kind of start there. Yeah. And Yogina, take us away.

Yogina: Cool. Hey everyone, this is Yogina.

So, as you are sharing about business strategy, I do completely agree that, you know, it is not about people in the business who are in different teams. It's just like a lot of times even the management team or the executive team does not see how much HR is important for the business. You know, they would be like, Okay, we will create all our strategy, just like, let's take a part, like if a company's trying to expand somewhere, they would just be like, Okay, we'll have our expansion process and plan. We will do the marketing, we'll do the branding and wherever needed, we will then pull in HR to be a part of it so that they can hire people.

But, that for me is a completely wrong approach because whenever you say business, whenever you say company, whenever you say any kind of organization, people are the core content of it. I was reading, going through my LinkedIn feed a couple of days back and saw one of the companies CEO posting a statement, which was very true, which was, which he stated, and I'm quoting it: the biggest problem that he and his co-founder found, in an organization, was to hire the right people. Because without people, your companies, it is just two people who are dreaming. There's no one else to help fulfill that dream. And, and that was like, that's such a right statement.

Which a lot of companies do not realize. It's like, you know, a lot of times like with startup CEOs, they're like, I'm putting in my investment. I'm taking the risk. Employees are just there to do what they have been asked to. They do not see the valid creation of it. And that's where I think human resource comes into play while creating that business strategy.

Because whatever your business is, that might be as simple as making coffee and selling it out, to making AI generated cars or any other product. But without people, you're not gonna be able to do it. And whenever you are doing a business or thinking of doing a business, you have to understand, would I have the right human resources in place?

Does the market give me that resource? If not, how do I wanna build it? And that's the very first step that I see is how HR can be involved as a part in business strategy. How do we get those human resources? Where do we apply them? There's a lot of things, as you mentioned, like when you say about business strategy and human resource, there's a lot of things, but that's the initial point of where HR comes into place.

Where they are able to find the right people for your teams. And it's just not about skill sets, it's also about being a part of that culture. Every individual has their own purpose of why they wanna work. It's different for different people. That's why some people even leave good jobs and go and start working in a startup.

And some people do not enjoy working in startups. They wanna work in a well established environment and they go for corporate organizations. So, understanding whether they would thrive in that environment or not. And also then helping businesses create that environment is something HR people do.

And, I see that as like the very first initial stage of HR being a part of the business strategy and helping them understand whatever the business need is and how you could fulfill it or how you could not. And then it's just also, it's just not only about showing them the problem that the market doesn't have these people. Being an HR strategist would also come in like, Okay, this is the issue. This is how we're gonna tackle it, this is how we're gonna bring the solution.

You know, it's a very holistic approach of everything we do. And the first thing definitely begins with people and people resources.

Lauren: Yeah, definitely. And in those early stages as well, even beyond the early stages where you get to kind of, you know, you're getting to 500 head count, let's say, and you're thinking about going into another country.

I've been working with clients where somebody will come in to kind of, you know, an ExCom meeting and they'll say, Yeah, we're gonna expand into Nigeria, let's say. And they've just kind of picked this country cuz they like it. And then you start having these conversations with them and you get kind of two months down the line and they're saying, Oh, we can't go into Nigeria actually, because they don't have the skillset yet that we need for this particular project to be successful.

And it's kind of like, if you had worked in harmony with HR to really plan this out from a resource perspective and also not just a resource perspective. I mean, we had challenges when I was at Amazon. Around, you know, country legislation, can you work in this way, in this pattern, in this country. Or are there legislative reasons why you can't?

And that complexity is well known in Europe because everyone looks at Europe, under the EU. But there's also a lot of national legislation that impacts business strategy as well in terms of developing businesses. And it's just kind of interesting all of the different ways that, you know, HR is a part of this and the people piece, the resource piece, is huge.

And also the forecasting piece over a long period. What are your HR metrics telling you about the maturity of your workforce? What skills do they have? What skills gaps have you got? You know, I've been to away summits with companies and they're talking about the strategy, and things that they want to do next, but they've got huge skills gaps in the organization and they have to work with HR on a strategy to try and fill those gaps in order to even begin to achieve that bigger goal, that growth objective for that year.

So I definitely am with you on that. And there's just so many examples of where the harmony just needs to be synced and there's so many case studies of where that harmony works. And I think a lot of that, and we'll kind of link on to culture shortly, but a lot of that is around trust as well.

One big piece of learning from the Covid Pandemic is around, entrusting departments to be on the same page, to work together to hit that strategy. Especially when you're not in the same room or not in the same time zone and there are external challenges at play. Just making sure you've got that right leadership in place that can really bring that strategy to life.

And ultimately that person who is managing the HR team then filters it down to the rest of the team, so they know what strategy is and can work on it as well. But yeah, I just think, there's that piece, but then there's the culture piece isn't there really?

Yogina: Yeah, the culture piece is like, it's just harder than just finding people, I would say. Because it's something that you live by, but no matter how much you have it documented or how much the leadership team is talking about it, I think it's an imminent human nature where we do as we see people do it, rather than do as people say to do it, right. That's basically human nature.

No matter how much someone goes upstairs and says about this, our company culture, this is what we live by. But if you do not see the other person radiating the same values and principles, you as a company would not. And a lot of times, business founders, leadership teams take it very easily that, you know, once we have the business set up, we have the process set up, we just gonna paint the culture in there. You know, like it's, it's not just about the color of the walls or having bean bags or having lunches. Culture is really in depth and it is everything that the company breathes in and breathes out.

And it's very difficult if you do not get it right in the early stages. It can be done at a later stage, but then the cost is going to go to twice or thrice the amount of time that you could have done in an early stage setup. So, for a starting business to an expanding business to anything that's related with business, these business people really do need to think about culture from the get go. How do you wanna have it?

And I'm not saying that you need to be a picture clear of what that culture is, what culture for your company stands for. It's something that you learn as you grow, but then some basic values and principles that you wanna have starts from the very day one of like, how you do it. I would say like, as we talked before, the simple example of involving HR in business expansion plans or business strategy plans, just shows how much the business values human resources or people in its company. Because, If you are not involving the department that looks after your people, I don't know how you can say you are a people-centric company. That does not make sense. Right? It's like, you wanna do some huge sales and you do not involve the sales team at all and just go and tell them to do this. It does not make sense, right?

You have to involve HR from day one if you are really a people person, because that's what HR do. They put themselves in the shoes of the employees, of the team members, and that's how they give feedback to the company. They work as a bridge. So, you involving them in early stages really shows whether you are a people business or not. And culture is evolving, I would say. For a lot of companies that we might have seen who have done very good work in terms of their company culture, but even for them, it has been ever evolving.

And that is something I think is being true to yourself as the business, as the individual in the business. Because you could change, your business dynamics could change, things could change a lot. And the past two to three years have been a very good example of how much the work environment can change and the companies need to mould themselves according to the need of the time.

And that could also be a culture, adapting to those changes and things. So, culture and having HR involved, or having someone represent HR in the management team, what you could also see is like there's a uniformity in culture. Both of us have worked with MNCs and multiple companies and we have seen that, you know, the culture in one part of the world versus the culture in the other part of the world is always different, as you've just mentioned.

Culturally, countries are very different, so that's an additional challenge for a company to keep its culture unique regardless of the location. And that's a pretty difficult job. And that's where people have to come in together to understand what is the core basic of the company culture, regardless of what the country culture or the location culture would be.

And that piece needs to develop from an early stage of like, this is what our company culture stands for and this is how we are going to implement it, implement it, and maintain it across the country. And the, as I mentioned before, there might be changes that's required because some of the company culture that you, that is very crucial to you might not be something that the country you are expanding to is appreciating or acceptable of that. And that's where you need to have those changes. And having HR in there, it would be a part of their strategies to make sure that the company culture stands strong across all locations. All the people feel that they are treated in the same manner.

The culture does not change as per the location and stuff. Having said that, you know, I completely understand that the religion that people follow is different. The culture that they follow is different. It's not saying that let's make one holiday universal for all the locations. It's about respecting their local culture, but still maintaining what the company stands for.

Lauren: Yeah. And I think, to follow on from that, I've had scenarios in the past where companies have had a lot of VC money and they decide that, you know, organic growth is not quick enough. And they wanna go through a lot of acquisitions. And, I've seen acquisitions done well in line with HR and business strategy, and I've seen them go terribly bad.

And one example I always think of is a startup that I worked with and they had got a lot of money. They just started acquiring all these companies that were similar to them in different countries. They hadn't established what their culture was. And bigger than that, they didn't even have HR at the core of their original business.

So HR was never a part of any of the business strategy. There wasn't a culture set up that links to the strategy of the business and the growth of the business. And when they started acquiring all these companies that had HR and already established what their kind of HR strategy was in line with business strategy, and you do that kind of nine times over for the amount of acquisitions that they went through, it was just completely muddled, you know. Didn't know what the brand was, didn't know what the growth strategy was, didn't know what the leadership principles were, and it didn't go very well.

It was very bumpy. We had a lot of exits. And really there just wasn't the seen value in HR to bring them to have a seat at the table during these kinds of strategy conversations. And on the flip side, there have been companies that have done it well. They've been so strong in their business strategy and inclusive of HR and building that culture, and, we're just focusing on the culture piece now, but other elements as well.

And it has just transported itself into the acquired company. And everyone's worked together and kind of joined the cause, joined the mission. So it's really interesting the different scenarios that we've seen that can happen through this piece.

And I think if we go on to like the impact of involving HR in business strategy planning, I think, you know, we touched on a little bit about the resource piece. But also if you think about how much time goes into strategy meetings, getting people on planes to get together, to have these summits, all of these different things. To then, sometimes come out with these blockers that are obvious to some people, in terms of the strategy.

And, time gets lost and wasted when HR aren't involved in those conversations. But I think bigger than that, the real bonus of when HR is involved in the business strategy is that, if you've got a small team, a big HR team, you've got a recruitment arm, whatever it is, the big piece is that they are prepared. Because I have worked with teams before across multiple countries going through a transformation project, a change project, whatever that may be.

And if you are saying to them, Look, this is what the business is thinking, This is where the business wants to go. They're thinking about that, they're preparing that every time they run processes, they use the HRIS, they're thinking about, okay, how do we better prepare ourselves if we're gonna hire a hundred people in the next six months, let's say.

Because if they're prepared, they're working in harmony with their HR leader, who is then working in harmony with C level senior management, whoever your decision makers are. And I think that's huge. And I have seen the value in that. When people know what's going on and they're working towards it.

They're focused. They are not wasting time on other things that they know are not high priority. They're focusing on the big piece, which is everything that is goal objective, linked to strategy. And that's when companies really win. Because you know, even at the basic level, I've seen in big companies where people do their onboarding orientation on day one, and they're already saying to the people coming in: This is the plan, this is the plan for the organisation. This is where we wanna get to and this is how we're gonna get there.

Just telling those people on day one makes them feel, right, I'm a part of this journey. This strategy is gonna take me on this journey. And I wanna be a part of it, it kind of gives them value, you know?

So I just think, the impact of HR in the business strategy, I've seen it. And it works whenever, and I mean, it's not just HR, but it's all the departments, especially the support functions working together, to be really on board with whatever the strategy plan is.

Yogina: Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I think one of the key pieces: communication. Though, that does not solely lie in the HR team or the HR function, but a lot of time the onus goes on the HR function to make sure the communication goes well.

And that's where I've seen a difference. While working in companies like if HR is involved, how is that communication portrayed versus when they are not involved, how the communication is portrayed? As you mentioned, whenever there's a change, you know, you need to make sure the team is ready. The team understands the reasoning behind why a certain change is coming or why the company is diverting into some other sectors than their originally planned sectors.

You know, and it's important. And a lot of times I've seen companies just coming bluntly, like, Okay, we are expanding to X, Y, Z location, or we are diverting our product strategy to x, y, and z. And there's no explanation to the team of like, why this is being done and how they came to that decision, or anything about it.

Just like, you know, surprise out of the box. And nothing demotivates the team more than that. Because you really believe in, like as I mentioned, like on the day one, you've being told about this is the company strategy, this is what we're gonna do, and then there's a massive change that the company's trying to bring and two seconds before the meeting you have a zero idea of like what's happening at all.

And then suddenly this comes in and like, okay, how did this happen? Where did it come from? How was the decision made? You know, people have that curiosity and it leaves, it makes them left feeling like, you know, they do not, they are not a part of the organisation. If you're understanding me? Like there's not that engagement and stuff.

And when HR comes in place, it's not necessary that during a planning phase, the company shares out everything detail to detail, but people can be given certain information about, Okay, the company is going through, such a phase, you know, a good phase or a bad phase. And because of this, we are deciding on how to take our next steps.

And this could be our potential solution, Solution A, solution B, solution C. And whenever we have an update, we'll give you an update or let us know your thoughts and things and such, you know, That would just take the whole anxiety out of the team of like, OK, Why is this happening? 

Where I do also understand while we share that information people could be anxious about it. Would that mean layoffs? Would that mean reorganisation? But as long as you're clear about the information of why and what you are doing, people would understand it and it's natural for you to have curiosity. Like you should not be doubting whether your step was right or wrong because people started asking questions because that's, I see it, as more of a healthy environment. Rather than ‘have I made a wrong step as a business’ environment.

You know, it's very important for that to happen and understand that that communication is a very key part whenever we talk about business plan strategies, or business strategies and how you wanna roll them out on how you wanna do that. And, you would definitely see an impact if HR is involved in all of those rollouts or not, just with the way the announcement is handled, how the whole project plan has been handled, how much people have information about it.

So this communication and, With that communication comes preparing the team for the next level of change. You know, it's like, they already have a lot going on their plate, making sure the regular business stuff is handled pretty well, and you're adding another part of the expansion or the business strategy on their plates.

So you have to make sure that they're ready. How do you pulse check on that? Whether they're ready, whether they're anxious or not? Or what the company can do in order to make them be ready for that next level of change. It could be a couple of sessions about how to handle change, or it could be, you know, just learning and development sessions about the new strategy.

Whatever they're trying to do, changing their product strategy or might be changing their sales strategy and things and such, making sure people are getting enough training before that actual strategy is implemented. You know, just small minor things like communication, training sessions, you know, upskilling, it looks like very minor things, but they are very crucial and important.

That's where I see, like if you involve an HR team during that business strategy implementation or planning and communication phase, you know, a lot of things are pre taken care of so that when the time comes, the teams are ready to roll on with the changes or they understand why it's happening and that's how you get the ball rolling.

Lauren: Yeah, and I think definitely on the comms piece, we've seen it before, you know, if you are implementing quite, you know, not a radical new business strategy, but something that is invoking change or a step away from what people are normally used to. The first people they will come to with questions is HR. And it will be anyone in HR.

I mean, even when I started out in my very first HR role, someone had come up to me and asked me about something and I had no clue what they were talking about. And I was just like, I'll have to check with someone and come back to you. And it's just not good because it just adds to the ‘what is going on here? There's a change afoot’.

So really that's when the whole of HR as a team needs to be brought in. And the flip side of that as well is, with the HR technology piece, I've seen it before, where people are implementing new business strategies. They're going out for funding, acquisition, whatever it is.

And you start getting the bad feedback in your NPS surveys around, we don't know what's going on. We know that changes are being made in the business. We know that the business strategy is to grow. Where does that leave us? You just see it anonymously pour out on the NPS.

And it isn't just one round. You see it for ages. Because the trust is breaking and people need reassurance. They need to know regular communication about what's going on. And this piece, this is important, bringing HR in, you know, from the business strategy piece, but also using technology to help manage that strategy.

Are the goals and objectives being hit in order to get that overall milestone? And then the ultimate business strategy solidified. There are loads of tools now where people can put in their goals, their OKRs, so that everyone in every role is working towards the business strategy.

And HR should be at the front leading that. And checking that, running reports in the system to see, you know, what are people being set? Is this, you know, in line with what we've said is a high priority in the business strategy for 2023, for instance. And just making sure that the business is grouped together and aligned, and the HR tech piece is really fundamental in that.

And I think the other bit where, you know, HR technology helps is what I mentioned before, is around analytics. You know, if you've got a really good HR tool that can start forecasting succession planning. It can look at what skills and learnings people have in the business. What certificates have they achieved based on their role?

What are the gaps? What's your diversity in the organisation? All of these different things, systems will help you to plan and forecast for. And go from there. But you know, People is huge in this. Bringing HR along for the journey is huge. But people can't do it alone.

They need the technology, they need processes, they need a foundation, otherwise it will just become too much to monitor, to track, to see what the progress is in terms of are we gonna hit that goal by January, things like that. Otherwise, you've just got a strategy and it's just there and it's kind of a pipe dream that, you know, one day we'll get there.

But there's not actually a plan, an objective and actions in order to make it happen. So, yeah, I think that the final piece around HR technology being a part of it, is huge.

Yogina: Yeah. Cannot deny that. You know, it's just like any other HR processes. It's about how you can to automate it and how you can update it on a real time basis so that the transparency that you wanna maintain with the team is available and that is not always going to be possible through spreadsheets because of the access or, you know, there's limitations even within how much you could do in a spreadsheet or an Excel sheet.

So, the use of technology, as for like any other part of HR, even in business strategies is crucially important. That may, as I mentioned, maybe about the goal management piece where we talk about OKRs or KPIs, whatever method that you use for your goal management, right?

And then also like, the technology helps in boosting the morale of the team. You know, whenever we talk about business strategy, it's not like a small feat. It's always about big, massive goals that they're trying to achieve and then breaking it down into pieces. And to keep up with employee morale and satisfaction, they would look for recognition. You know, some kind of appraisal and things and such.

And getting that from your peers and your managers is a boost to your own morale. So having and using HR technology for those bits and pieces would also allow you to create an environment where people are appreciating each other, adding value to their work, you know, And at the same time, the whole management team being able to see what's going on. They are responsible to make sure that they drive the business strategy. But without people, as we mentioned in the beginning of the podcast, it's not possible. Right?

So even having them be able to see, at a wholesome level of like, okay, what each department is doing, which one is struggling, How they can help and things and such, you know, so the use of technology, as in for any other sector within HR or business, even with business strategy it's crucially important.

Lauren: Yeah, and I think the final thing I'll say is that, if you are a HR leader and you are within a company that's gonna grow, that has got ambitious plans in the next sort of 12 to 24 months, then really look within your department to make sure that your department is ready for that plan, and work on the HR business strategy within that, that ultimately links to the business strategy.

But, is your HR tech up to scratch? You know, have you got everything you need to roll into another country and start setting up operations? From a compliance perspective, from a process perspective, from a resource perspective.

Looking at all those things to make sure you are ready to take on the next stage of growth, because you don't want to get to a point where, you know, I've seen it with startups. They have a not great recruitment suite that they use and have been using for a few years and it's worked for them fine.

And the business turns around and says, I need to hire 50 people in the next six weeks. We have to roll out to this new country or countries. And, the system cannot take it. And it ultimately means, because the system is poor, that they have to hire more people to run manual processes. You really don't wanna get in a position where things are running away from you because you can't manage the workload because you haven't got the right foundation in place.

What we do at DayoneHR, is we help businesses select and implement their HR tech platforms. We manage transformation projects to kind of get people ready for the next stage. And we are often on calls with companies who are preparing for that next stage of growth and in order to successfully do that, you need to make sure you've got the right foundation in place to hire people, retain them and look after them, but also make sure they're being developed as well.

Because it's very costly, as everyone knows, to hire people. So if you need help with the selection or implementation, or you just wanna talk about a transformation project that you would like some guidance on, then do reach out to us. And we'll put our information in the description as well.

But as I said at the beginning, there's a lot you can say about HR business strategy. You can talk about HR business strategy on its own, you can talk about its linkage with the overall business strategy, culture, hiring, HR technology.

There is just so much, but I think from our learnings, these are kind of like the key pieces that we've seen where it gets a bit tricky. And really calling out, you know, areas where you can kind of save yourself from the firefighting that may come down the line. But yeah, have you got any final bits, Yogina?

Yogina: I think we covered up a lot of things. There's still a lot to talk about, but that's just going to elongate the conversation. Just like having HR be a part of creating and implementing that business strategy is going to be helpful for the business and for the employees because HR bridges the gap between the business and the employees.

And, you know, making sure that the proper communication is done, the employee morale is maintained, and at the same time making sure that the business strategy is successfully implemented. HR should be involved. Do give it a try if you haven't yet. And always involve HR at the tail of the project.

Challenge yourself and give it a try and see how fruitful it becomes. And you just don't have to trust in our words, and you would be able to see it by yourself. The change that it's gonna bring. 

Lauren: Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

Yogina: I think with that, we come towards the end of our podcast for the month.

Lauren: Yes we have. And we've got a really good topic next time, so please make sure you've got your alerts on so that you get alerted when our podcast goes live in a couple of weeks. But we have got a really, really good topic to finish out the year.

Obviously you can find me and Yogina on LinkedIn. Just look us up. We'll put our links in the description as well. If you've got anything you want us to talk about in a podcast next year, do let us know. And that's it from us. We'll catch up soon, and thanks for listening.

Yogina: Take care guys. Bye bye.

Lauren: Bye

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