`Strategic HR' policy envisages well thought out management of the most vital but least tangible item in the balance sheet, i.e., `Human Capital', from the angle of exploiting the HR potential to the maximum advantage of the business enterprise. Hence, it is necessary to bring about the integration of HR resources enabling coordination between HR functions and commercial activities as a means to the ultimate end of achieving the target of the enterprise. Consequently the whole HR management, in addition to its traditional functions, necessitates an active participation not only in identifying and defining the overall business goals, but also in the resultant task of formulating appropriate strategies to achieve those objectives. It may therefore be said that the HR team should function in such a manner as to attract all the attributes of a partnership `in all policies, in all plans, in all controls, in all strategies' of the business unit.
"Business is like riding a bicycle. Either you keep moving or fall down," is an anonymous quote frequently used to underline the `de rigueur' combination of mind and body for attaining balance in motion. One cannot achieve the mobility without the other. So it is with a business unit. While its physical assets constitute the body, the Human Resources constitute the mind, imparting to the body a financially balanced progress towards the unit's business target, matching and monitoring, on way, the items on either side of the balance sheet. This unique process is an example of the combined functions of the general management and HR management in strategic partnership and their closer and deeper involvement in the efforts of the business unit in achieving its target.
For any business unit to attain a gleaming bottom line in the current competitive scenario, the unit has to focus, apart from traditional internal management, on two main things, namely, the efficiency in internal management and the promptness in reacting and adapting to the changing market forces so that the unit is able to outperform its business rivals and achieve its targets. Consequently the whole HR management, in addition to its traditional functions, necessitates an active participation not only in identifying and defining the overall business goals, but also in the resultant task of formulating appropriate strategies to achieve those objectives. |
