The barriers to bottom line improvement have always been HR’s difficulty with the financial side of business, understanding and applying metric measures, costing programs, engaging and empowering managers with the tools and services they need to do their jobs. Senior HR leaders generally “get” this message but Director, Managerial and Functional HR professionals much less so.

Separating the tactical/compliance aspects of HR from the strategic would be the first approach. Creating an HR strategic plan based on the corporate strategic plan would be part of a good beginning. Adding a dashboard or scorecard measure shared with other executives would be another great start.

If you need more ideas we have some free resources on our website, birchtreehr.com, that may be of interest.

In most companies, large gaps still exist between HR contributions and the talent management demands of the various strategic missions designed to systematically build enterprise health and value.

The C-suite, which too often does not include HR executive representation, deserves a sizable share of the responsibility for this prevailing condition, especially if the CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, etc. have failed to take the lead in helping to make HR more strategic.

Few C-suite executives would disagree with the assertion that to manage, we must measure. Well, why not lead by helping to define a set of metrics and measurement methods that better align HR initiatives and outcomes with the enterprise’s strategic objectives?

We can measure to avoid hiring mistakes. We can measure to predict job performance. We can measure employee engagement (and it does matter). We can measure team strengths (weaknesses), balance and leadership needs. We can measure to determine learning and development opportunities. We can reliably, validly, compliantly and profitably measure these things and much, much more. We have all the necessary tools at our disposal, 24/7/365.

But most C-suites still indulge employee selection processes that start with resume screens and conclude with unstructured interviews. Most companies do not have up-to-date job analyses that properly document what it takes to perform in each position. How can those companies expect to identify talent that “has what it takes”? Such poor practices degrade the quality of hiring and promotion decisions and create compliance exposures.

When it comes to making HR more strategic, CEOs should lead, set priorities and enable. CFOs should leverage their facility with metrics. COOs should identify mission-critical positions and, with the help of their CIOs, start building a complete and current library of job analyses. Perhaps, the newly appointed Chief Talent Officer should steward the entire process.

As a former international industrial CEO, I say: “better to address the problem than to play the blame game”. If the C-suite truly leads, and really means it (i.e. no more “People are our greatest asset” lip service), significant change for the better will happen quickly.

When invited to the table, HR can inform the C-suite about the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, how compliance and selection best practices align and how to use the latest online assessment, survey and simulation solutions to manage better by measuring better.

One more thing, HR must show the C-suite that the three and four-digit ROIs routinely delivered by best-in-class online assessment solutions compare very favorably to any alternative investments.

It’s time for the C-suite to take the lead and for the whole organization to participate in change for the better.