HR’s strategic contribution depends on more than having a seat at the leadership table.
It depends on when HR is consulted, what information it can access and how well it understands the organization’s goals, operations and constraints.
A strategy can be ambitious, coherent and well thought out. But its success depends largely on the people who need to understand it, support it and put it into practice.
People considerations should therefore be part of the discussion from the start, rather than addressed only after decisions have been made.
This does not mean HR should make every decision. Its role is to help leaders better assess the people and organizational requirements of their plans.
For that to happen, several conditions need to be in place: HR must be consulted early enough, have the necessary mandate and skills, have access to relevant information and have time to analyse, plan and anticipate future needs.
Being consulted early enough
If an organization is planning to grow, HR planning should begin well before the first jobs are posted.
Does the organization have the skills it needs? Will it need to develop those skills internally or hire people who have them? Are those skills available in the labour market? Are managers ready to support larger teams? How will growth affect the organizational structure, payroll costs and workloads?
HR’s contribution extends well beyond periods of growth.
HR can anticipate staffing needs during peak periods, determine well in advance when hiring needs to begin, identify critical roles and plan for succession.
It can also assess which skills are available internally and which will need to be developed or recruited externally.
This planning becomes even more important when an organization is undergoing change. Automation, artificial intelligence, an acquisition or a shift in the business model can change roles, skill requirements and the way teams are structured.
This is where HR’s contribution becomes truly strategic: helping leaders anticipate the resources, skills, costs and leadership capabilities the organization will need to achieve its goals.
When HR is consulted only after a decision has been made, it can still play an important role. It can recruit, reorganize teams, communicate changes and support managers.
But it has less room to shape the outcome. HR must then manage the people and organizational implications of a direction it had no opportunity to help assess.
Contributing to strategy does not mean making decisions on behalf of senior leaders. It means providing a perspective early enough to help assess feasibility, risks and implications.
Having the right mandate and skills
Saying that HR can contribute to strategic decisions does not mean that everyone in an HR role should automatically have a seat at the leadership table.
Needs evolve as an organization grows in size and complexity.
In some organizations, HR starts with mainly operational responsibilities: employee records, recruitment, policies and coordination. These responsibilities are essential, but they do not always require the same experience as advising a leadership team.
Over the years, I have seen capable people given more responsibility and a new title without corresponding changes to their mandate, support or preparation.
A change in title does not automatically turn an operational role into a strategic one.
Contributing to decisions clearly requires a strong grounding in human resources. But it also requires an understanding of the organization’s operations, goals, constraints and financial realities.
HR professionals need to be able to analyse data, anticipate risks, propose solutions and connect people issues to business priorities.
The question is not simply:
“Do we have someone from HR at the table?”
It is:
“Does the person representing HR have the mandate, skills and credibility needed to contribute to decisions?”
Not every organization needs a full-time HR leader. In a smaller organization, this contribution may come from an experienced person internally or be supported by external expertise.
Having access to the right information
HR can hardly contribute to a strategic direction it knows nothing about.
To anticipate needs, HR must understand where the organization wants to go, what changes are being considered and what constraints need to be taken into account.
That requires access to the priorities, data and discussions that provide a clear understanding of the business.
Without this information, HR remains largely reactive. It gets involved when a position needs to be filled, a team needs to be reorganized or a problem needs to be resolved.
With the right information, HR can help leaders ask questions before committing to a course of action.
Do we have the skills we need? Are our managers ready? What will the costs be? Which roles will become critical? What risks should we anticipate? What changes will we need to explain and help people work through?
Access to information does not guarantee a strategic contribution on its own. But without it, expecting HR to anticipate future needs becomes very difficult.
Making time to plan ahead
Even when an organization has the right person in HR, day-to-day demands can quickly take over.
An urgent hiring need, an absence, a conflict, a complaint or a manager who needs help can be enough to push planning aside.
What is urgent ends up displacing what is important.
If the person who should be thinking about the organization’s needs over the next few years spends most of their time solving problems that need attention in the next few hours, it becomes difficult to expect a meaningful strategic contribution.
This is not necessarily a matter of personal time management. It may also point to unclear responsibilities, managers who lack the tools and support they need, or an HR function with insufficient resources.
The solution goes beyond inviting HR to the leadership table. It also means clarifying HR’s mandate, better equipping managers and giving HR time to analyse, plan and anticipate future needs.
A contribution that depends on both sides
Senior leaders need to involve HR early enough, provide access to relevant information and create the conditions that allow HR to contribute.
HR professionals, in turn, need to demonstrate the value of that contribution.
They need to know the operations, understand the numbers, bring data to the discussion, anticipate risks and propose solutions that fit the organization’s circumstances.
They must also be able to ask difficult questions and, when necessary, constructively challenge proposed directions.
The responsibility is shared.
A seat at the leadership table should be about more than status. It should be about contribution.
The real question is:
Have we built an HR function that can help us prepare for the future, or one that primarily addresses immediate needs?
A strategic HR function asks more than which problem needs to be solved today.
It seeks to understand where the organization wants to go and what people, skills, resources and leadership capabilities it will need to get there.
Your organization is evolving. Is your HR function evolving with it?
Let’s talk about your organizational structure, talent needs and organizational transformation challenges.