Aligning Business Strategy and HR Policies

HR plays a critical role in ensuring that policies and strategies align with the organization’s business strategy. As HR ensures alignment of policies with the business strategy, it plays the role of ensuring that every stakeholder group is involved to allow for maximum cooperation while working towards achieving set goals and the organization’s strategic direction. Therefore, HR should create effective communication channels such as newsletters, memos, social media platforms and meetings to ensure that every stakeholder group is aware of the organization’s business strategy and how the policies and strategies therein support it (Gratton and Truss, 2003). Through the communication channels, HR can also get feedback regarding the already adopted policies and identify those that may be hindering the business strategy and take corrective action as necessary (Gratton and Truss, 2003). Effective communication that allows for two-way communication helps to deal with the challenge of lack of cooperation amongst departments. Through the communication channels, employees provide their feedback which influences the changes to be adopted. As the opinions of the employees are considered, they feel that they are valued in their organization which helps them to develop a sense of commitment towards achieving the business strategy hence fostering teamwork amongst the various departments. Moreover, through the communication channels, HR gets the opportunity to explain the role of the policies and how it can help the organization to achieve its strategy which helps to eliminate the perception of being a threat amongst the employees. 

           The technique of analyzing the performance of organizational policies to identify whether they support or hinder business strategy is one that is applied in aligning policies with business strategy. Employee surveys to determine satisfaction rates are one of the tools which can be used although different satisfaction levels amongst the employees may pose a challenge in applying the findings of the surveys. As such, HR leaders should embrace the use of collective decision making as a tool to pursue employee involvement (Bondarouk and Looise, 2009). Bamberger, et al., (2014) suggests that employees are one of the key stakeholder groups whose dedication and commitment largely influence business strategy. Therefore, through collective decision making, the employees are involved in creating and implementing policies, aligning them with business strategy and making corrections where necessary (Guest and Woodrow, 2012). As the employees become part of the policies and business strategy, their sense of being valuable to the organization is fostered which consequently leads to boosted morale hence dealing with the challenge of low satisfaction levels. High employee morale translates to increased productivity and hence achievement of the business strategy.