Why is People’s Strategy Important?
There is so much that goes into the people’s strategy, and it takes time. People’s strategy requires the infrastructure to identify the direction of the company and the processes to get there. Strategy should be the perfect balance between prioritizing the business and the people. In other words, it should be a people-first and purpose-driven approach.
Aligning People’s Strategy with Values and Mission
To take this step further, your People’s strategy should be anchored in the company values, mission, and overall brand. Values should reflect your people’s motivations and reflect the true behaviors of the company brand.
The bottom line is that when people come together with an aligned purpose and shared vision; it allows all employees to understand their contribution and how they can impact. The combination of these two elements is what creates the perfect balance of adding value to the business, while also being people-focused.
Once the company has these foundational layers embedded in the culture, you can then start to pinpoint the People’s strategy.
3 Core People’s Strategy for a Hyper-growth Organization
Let’s take a deeper dive and apply this to practice. When an organization is going through hyper-growth; there are three things that we look at with our clients:
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging: Collect and analyze data to have a deeper understanding of your people. It is crucial to know the representation of your workplace, assess the findings to identify if there are any existing biases or gaps. You can then develop an actionable plan. Ensure that you have a culture that celebrates everyone’s individuality and allows your employees to bring their highest authentic self. Your employees’ best selves emerge when they connect with your culture and have a sense of belonging, meaning they feel purposeful, inspired and alive. These engaged employees are more productive which means the organization performs at its best.
Talent Attraction: Many hyper-growth organizations tend to be quick in their hiring process and slow in terminating underperforming employees. The ongoing pressure for speed and growth of the organization usually drives this. Our approach when we work with clients that want to scale is to adopt the principle of “hire slow, fire fast”. To start with this principle, you must be selective in who you want to hire. There is no one size fits all approach – set the requirements driven by your culture and business strategy. Use that as your compass and do not let it go. Look for people that align with your values and can be a cultural add not just a fit. This can reduce employee turnover, which can significantly add costs to an organization.
Growth Strategy: Look for thought leadership programs that are rooted in a growth mindset to cultivate a culture where everyone has the desire to learn and has a natural curiosity. This should also manifest itself in all programs, such as performance development instead of performance appraisal, for example. You can then build a competency framework focusing on employees’ contributions to help them grow and continuously create new skills. This is why the continuous process of upskilling, reskilling, and the transfer of skills are key to any organization’s growth and sustainability.
Lastly, business evolves, and the world changes, so should your People’s strategy. It is important to remain agile and flexible so you continue to tweak and reiterate your strategy.