Strategic Human Capital Management

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Human capital management (HCM) means organizing employees and their skills, knowledge, and effort to achieve business objectives. Strategic human capital management (SHCM) goes beyond administrative HR management. It looks at every aspect of the employee life cycle to maximize the return on investment a company can derive from its workforce.

To achieve this goal, SHCM strategies aim to seize opportunities in employee recruitment, retention, and performance management. In this guide, you will discover HCM strategies for bringing the best out of your employees.

What Are HCM Strategies?

HCM strategies are tactics a business uses to leverage its workforce’s potential to achieve ambitious organizational objectives. These strategies shift the emphasis from expecting employees to execute individual duties toward organizing them to contribute to a shared mission. Key components of SHCM include:

  • Defining objectives: Strategic objectives could include sales revenue targets, marketing key performance indicators (KPIs), and operational efficiency milestones. 
  • Aligning SHCM to objectives: Compare current results to the objective targets. Brainstorm and evaluate ways for SHCM to fill in the gaps. For example, recruiting more sales staff could help achieve revenue targets.
  • Managing talent: Talent management involves identifying current team strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. Based on that analysis, SHCM strategies aim to nurture strengths, transform weaknesses, and fill gaps through targeted recruitment and training.   
  • Building a culture: Beyond developing individual team members, SHCM aims to cultivate an organization-wide atmosphere of empowerment, engagement, and growth. 

SHCM Strategies for Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is an aspect of your human capital management system that entails:

  • Identifying current or anticipated gaps and shortages in the workforce.
  • Planning and implementing recruitment strategies to address those needs. 

Why Workforce Planning Matters

Strategic workforce planning can unlock several advantages for a business, including:

  • Flexibility: Workforce planning drives recruitment and training strategies that cultivate agile teams. Equipped with the right skills and a shared growth mindset, teams can respond to new challenges and tactical pivots when necessary.
  • Engagement: Communicating organizational objectives and how each employee’s contributions help achieve them drives engagement by enhancing team members’ sense of purpose at work. Employee motivation also benefits from working within a company that prioritizes their professional development.
  • Diversity: Prioritizing diversity is vital to many workforce planning strategies. Inclusive workforce planning tailors the recruitment process to enhance a team’s diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. This involves establishing diverse recruitment teams, educating them about the value of diversity, and implementing support structures to improve the retention of diverse employees.
  • Cost efficiency: Recruiting and supporting team members who align with your team’s values and objectives reduces recruitment costs by minimizing the need for replacements. 
  • Productivity: Workforce planning and ongoing talent management maximize your ROI by bringing the right skills together to accomplish more with the same number of people.

Workforce Planning Tools and Best Practices

The most effective approaches to workforce planning are based on proven best practices and data-driven insights. Here are four practices to help you get the most from workforce planning:

  • Referrals: Incentivize employee referrals to discover new hires with similar values and complementary skills. 
  • Development: Tap into your existing talent pool through mentorship programs and online learning platforms that empower employees for vertical or horizontal growth opportunities.
  • Succession: Scout and train candidates to step into key roles that will open when retirements or other anticipated vacancies approach.
  • Software: Implement an SHCM software solution to streamline functions like applications, onboarding, and performance management.

Human Capital Management Regulations and Compliance

HCM strategies must comply with all applicable regulations, including:

Consider working with an experienced compliance management partner to ensure your HCM procedures meet all regulatory requirements. SHCM software can help monitor and address any compliance gaps.  

Benefits of Human Capital Management

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Effective SHCM can enhance virtually every dimension of business success, including productivity, profitability, and employee engagement.

Organizational Performance

Optimizing talent recruitment and management sets teams up for efficient work toward shared objectives. By bringing together creative minds with complementary skills, SHCM helps build cultures where excellence and innovation thrive. In this environment, each employee has the opportunities, support, and accountability they need to maximize their contributions. As they do so, the team’s collective progress drives KPIs like gross revenue and deadlines met.

Employee Satisfaction and Retention

SHCM is not only about getting the most out of employees. It is also about improving their work experience for greater job satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

For example, HCM strategies may include introducing new employee benefits, expanding professional development opportunities, and communicating with employees about how their contributions relate to broader organizational objectives. SHCM prioritizes recruiting employees who fit the team’s culture while continually improving that culture to help employees succeed. 

Workforce Management Techniques for Success

Seasoned HCM consultants can help their partners implement several best practices for optimal results. These include building a team, implementing software, leveraging data, and prioritizing ongoing learning. 

Building a Workforce Management Team

Appoint a dedicated team to craft HCM strategies and objectives, monitor progress, and take responsibility for the results. To access the right combination of expertise and perspective, this team could include internal HR professionals and outsourced HCM consultants. This team’s functions include forecasting recruiting needs, analyzing performance data, and planning interventions to address skill gaps.  

Leveraging Workforce Management Software

An HCM software solution with workforce management capabilities reduces the time, effort, and money required for effective workforce management. Look for software solutions that streamline employee scheduling, payroll, and performance analytics. Your workforce management team can leverage insights from the software’s analytics for strategic planning.

Basing Decisions on Data

Data-driven insights, based on analysis by experienced HCM consultants and innovative software, provide a solid foundation for effective, strategic HCM decisions. For example, analytics could indicate that a hotel receives more complaints about service speed at its restaurant during summer. This could prompt the HCM team to recruit and schedule additional servers for that season. 

Prioritizing Ongoing Learning and Development

Design transparent, customizable employee progress pathways. Communicate with team members about the organization’s current priorities and ways they can drive success in those areas. Ensure all team members have the resources to expand their skills so they can seize opportunities for career growth. 

Trust EDS Service Solutions for Workforce Management Support

Effective HCM strategies can enhance an organization’s productivity, engagement, and profitability. However, they require precise data-driven decisions about recruitment, compliance, performance optimization, professional development, and other complex areas. That is why your organization should partner with EDS Service Solutions for HCM strategies that drive success. 

EDS Service Solutions is an experienced outsourcing partner for human capital management solutions, including:

  • Recruitment and staffing workforce solutions that have saved our clients tens of millions of dollars.
  • Workforce planning and management consulting with 24/7 support.
  • Compliance support from experts in navigating government and industry regulations.
  • Innovative Workforce Velocity™ (WFV) HCM software that tracks applications, automates onboarding, monitors productivity, and more.  

Contact us to streamline your human capital management processes today.   

trust EDS Service Solutions for workforce management support
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