ORGANIzATIONAL
BY TONY PALLADINO
The task of organizational core skill development is a critical component of overall organization strategy and is necessary prior to calculating a comprehensive workforce planning initiative where an inventory is performed regarding current employees and their associated skills, compared to future employee headcount needs and predicted skill requirements. This activity links organizational performance with people performance and is one of the reasons HR must operate within a strategic context.
One of the weaknesses exhibited by Human Resource practitioners is a severe disconnect in linking people performance with business execution and an inability to understand “what is our business”.
All too often, HR tends to concentrate on the day-to-day tactical and operational fundamentals, ignoring their strategic responsibilities, beginning with a lack of an acute business acumen.
As an example, when teaching HR programs at the MBA level and providing pre-examination training for HR professional certification, I am amazed how many participants cannot provide a coherent explanation of what products their organization manufactures, what kind of raw materials they purchase, where they buy them from, how their operational process works, who their customers are, where they market their products, who their major competitors are, and, what core competencies their organization possesses in
contrast to those of their business rivals. In short, understanding the simple value chain of the organization as inputs (suppliers), throughputs (process) and outputs (customers), enables HR to better provide services that target core skills needed for organizational development programs.
Strategic HR partners understand the necessity of identifying their company’s “core competencies” which are simply “what do we do best.”
Workforce Development
34 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST NOV 2014
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
BY ALLAN GARDNER