Transitioning From Operational to Strategic HR

Talent Report+THRIVE

Description:

Join us in this thought-provoking episode as we delve into the world of HR and explore the transformative journey from an operational HR role to a strategic HR function. Discover the pivotal shift from transactional tasks to forward-thinking initiatives that drive organizational success. Our expert guests share their valuable insights on building strategic HR capabilities, fostering leadership buy-in, leveraging data analytics for informed decision-making, and cultivating a culture of continuous improvement. Whether you're an HR professional or a business leader seeking to unlock the full potential of your HR team, this episode offers practical guidance for navigating this critical transformation.

Resources:

Strategic Workforce Planning Guide

MRA Membership

About MRA

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Rebecca Jacobs

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Rebecca Jacobs

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Katie Coulson

Host Bio - Sophie Boler

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:04 - 00:00:51:03
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of 30 minute Thrive. Kind of got a special episode today because we're joined with two awesome HR Professionals from our Ohio division. Katie Coulson is our HR director at MRA company. Kwest group has been there for a little over seven years, but she has over 17 years of overall HR experience and is really passionate about the work she does and is coming with a lot of great advice and knowledge today.

00:00:51:05 - 00:01:23:18
Unknown
In our second guest is Rebecca Jacobs. She's general counsel and director at MRA, Ohio. And with 25 plus years of employment law experience, she really ensures that our members are well supported in their HR and talent development needs. So I'm really excited to talk about the shift from operational to strategic HR With you both today. But before we get into that, rebecca, i don't know if you want to talk a little bit about why we brought katie onto the podcast today and maybe a little bit about how you two have worked together in the past.

00:01:23:20 - 00:01:48:02
Unknown
Sure, sure. In Columbus, I am also the facilitator for our in-person Columbus roundtable, and Katie has been a very active member of our roundtables for quite some time. And I realized as we meeting every month and people are getting to know each other and talking through issues and questions, just the wealth of knowledge and experience that she has.

00:01:48:04 - 00:02:15:15
Unknown
And then just getting a chance to talk to her and see what what she has offered with all of our roundtable attendees. Absolutely. Well, thank you again for joining us. Well, let's dive right into the first question, and that's really talk about what is the benefit of transitioning from operational HR to strategic. And Katie, you can kind of start us off with this one.

00:02:15:17 - 00:02:44:09
Unknown
Yeah. So I really think that this happened for me during COVID with Kwest Group, and it really was taking the organization and leading them in a time of uncertainty through that time. And making sure that they were successful throughout it. So that would be like the number one benefit for me. And I think that for all organizations, this is a huge benefit because it really puts HR at the forefront and it doesn't leave people questioning, well, what do we have an HR department for?

00:02:44:11 - 00:03:14:02
Unknown
Absolutely. Rebecca, do you have anything? Oh, absolutely. The probably the best benefit is the fact that the senior leaders do see HR as being that strategic business partner. The the thing that we would like to avoid in HR is for the business leaders to be off making strategy, thinking that payroll is just there. I'm sorry. That is there just to run payroll and make sure people get their their health insurance and land company parties once in a while.

00:03:14:02 - 00:03:37:08
Unknown
But to actually have HR involved in there so that they're not making decisions that then are difficult for HR to provision and support. Absolutely. Well, kind of moving on to some of the key challenges, what are some of the key challenges that HR departments face when trying to shift from operational to strategic roles? And how do you overcome that?

00:03:37:10 - 00:04:00:05
Unknown
I think one of the biggest things, honestly, is getting stuck in the day to day. You're sorting through all of these weeds and you're just down at that level where you're so embedded into what is going on day to day, just so that the business is operating, rather than focusing on that long term planning and that climate for the, you know, on the business for the strategies to be successful.

00:04:00:05 - 00:04:25:19
Unknown
So that's I think that's a key challenge on my end. Another challenge that i've heard from talking to multiple HR Professionals, especially in the ohio region is is getting their senior leadership to accept that they need to be involved in strategic decisions and moving them past that mindset of oh is in this box and this these are the things they're going to take care of.

00:04:25:19 - 00:04:56:00
Unknown
So that is another huge challenge is the mindset of the other leaders. Yeah, absolutely. Everybody's got to be on board. I'm part. So how can the HR professionals and the HR leaders align their goals and objectives with the overall strategic direction of the organization? Either one of you can jump in on this one. I think Rebecca was saying it really well earlier, you know, making sure HR has that seat at the table for those strategic initiatives, because it's not about the party planning.

00:04:56:00 - 00:05:17:06
Unknown
It's not just about the payroll. It's not just about sorting through those weeds and being able to have that seat at the table to make sure that the goals that they are focused on, again, not just the day to day, but those long team, long term aligned with the mission and the values and the overall company vision going forward.

00:05:17:08 - 00:05:36:14
Unknown
And a key aspect of this, too, is just making sure that you're taking the time. And I know Katie is a great example of this, too, just taking the time to talk to all of the business leaders and one on one talking to them. What are your challenges? What are your opportunities? Where do you want to go? What are some things that you're thinking about doing in the future?

00:05:36:16 - 00:06:03:22
Unknown
And really not only demonstrating that you're that good business partner, but also getting to know them well enough so that you can see, okay, I see that they have this strategy where they want to enter in this particular geographic region. Let's talk about how HR can help them with recruiting in that area of thinking about who can who is here, who can work remote in that area, and really coming alongside them and understanding what they need.

00:06:04:00 - 00:06:29:12
Unknown
And, Katie, you've had firsthand experience with this, but what are some of the best practices that you would recommend for HR professionals to develop and implement strategic initiatives that really drive that organizational success? Yeah. So I've found that throughout the years in the different organizations I've worked for, that there's like a six step process for me that really works well.

00:06:29:14 - 00:06:53:06
Unknown
So the first thing obviously is going through that planning phase, determining who is going to own what in that organization's success in those strategic initiatives. And then obviously setting and writing down that long term clear strategy or strategies. Obviously, if we don't write it down, it's not it's not going to be enforced. And then delegating some of that work, remember, you've got to get out of the weeds.

00:06:53:06 - 00:07:19:23
Unknown
So who is And if you're on each our department of one, get a buddy in some other functional area to help you out, to delegate some of that work. And then obviously executing the strategies, monitoring the progress and performance scorecards are amazing, which we can talk about in a few minutes. But I absolutely love scorecards and then make changes to those plans where necessary and then obviously rinse and repeat.

00:07:20:01 - 00:07:46:10
Unknown
Best practices can list or do anything to add, and I cannot add anything to the list of numbered lists. Love it. Well, awesome. Katie, I know you said you can talk a little bit more about this, but how can the HR professionals effectively leverage that data and analytics to make informed decisions and contribute strategically to the organization? Yes.

00:07:46:10 - 00:08:17:14
Unknown
So I briefly talked about scorecards, and I like to joke with my team personally. And they, you know, we have good fun with this, but I am a people person, not a numbers person. So data and analytics is not my favorite thing, but having a scorecard and, you know, an HR Scorecard can be something as simple as, you know, if you're training, trying to build up your workforce and train them, you know, having that metric to say, okay, this is the percentage of workforce that is going to be trained in 2023 and then we want to see an improvement to that in 2024.

00:08:17:14 - 00:08:42:19
Unknown
Again, getting with the strategic other functional areas is what's going to help drive that scorecard and what you put on it. But training is definitely at the forefront for us now. So that's why I mentioned that one. And then another one is obviously understanding that the people within your functional area and then obviously the other functional area leaders that those people match with the values and the vision of the organization.

00:08:42:19 - 00:09:14:14
Unknown
So having that data into a scorecard is what I call it, is extremely helpful and helps make the decisions so that the the organization continues to strategically move forward. Rebecca, any other advice on this one? No, but can I ask you a question, follow up question on that? Oh, absolutely. Okay. So can you talk a little bit about how you're able to influence those hiring decisions to make sure that you're bringing in those people who are going to be supporting the mission and values of the organization?

00:09:14:16 - 00:09:46:03
Unknown
So I have an amazing HR generalist. She actually started as an intern. She's been with our company for three years now, and I kind of trained her on the processes that I used and she tweaked them a little bit. But the entire time we have focused on a pre interview process. So this is where someone in HR makes that connection with the resumé, looks it over and says, okay, this looks good, or maybe they're a referral from someone which we require like a statement from the person referring them saying why they would be a good fit at the organization.

00:09:46:05 - 00:10:11:05
Unknown
But in the Prescreen interview, if they're not a referral, that's one of the questions we focus on. Like why do you feel you would be a good fit for our company? Because that's that's the most important question that we can ask and then we can get into the skills. Again, skills can be taught. There are there are some personal values that aren't able to be taught as easily as a skill could be taught.

00:10:11:05 - 00:10:37:07
Unknown
So we we really like to focus on that pre interview to make sure that we're bringing the right talent in the organization and then putting them in front of the hiring manager. Great, great follow up question. Rebecca, thank you. Do either of you have any innovative approaches or tools that HR Departments can really adopt to transform that operational strategic functions?

00:10:37:09 - 00:11:01:00
Unknown
Well, something that comes up a lot in our roundtable is talking about relying on the different features of your system to be able to automate as much as you can and kind of pull some things out of the out of the pull yourself out of the weeds a little bit. Like how much of your documentation completion and storage and retention can you do on your areas?

00:11:01:02 - 00:11:22:14
Unknown
Can you leverage the performance management program that you have in there as well? So we talk a lot about the, you know, what we can do with our systems to to get ourselves kind of out of the weeds. I don't know how innovative that is to to rely heavily on interest because it seems like it's something that people have been doing for a really, really long time.

00:11:22:14 - 00:11:40:03
Unknown
But I think that a lot of times we end up with these systems where we've only scratched the surface of the functionality that we have there. And every so often it's good to take a step back and say, Well, what are we missing? What what additional functionality that can save time for us. Are we not digging into them?

00:11:40:05 - 00:12:06:07
Unknown
I would agree with Rebecca on that, and I think that technology can be innovative. So I think that that's a good point. I know this is a slippery slope, but kind of talking about like AI and chat, there are certain things that you can use, for example, job descriptions like getting help in writing your job descriptions, and then obviously having them reviewed by legal counsel to make sure that there's nothing funny in there.

00:12:06:09 - 00:12:30:21
Unknown
I think Rebecca would agree with you on that one. And then the other thing which I I'm part of another round table because we're an employee owned company, actually, thanks to Rebecca. I help co champion this other one. But one of the things that came up was four benefits. Like people spend a lot of time, like just filling out papers, entering stuff into systems.

00:12:30:23 - 00:12:55:10
Unknown
So again, going back to that technology piece, we have a a great broker that has a great system that automates about 80% of the work for us. So being able to have that even offloaded, that can help you go from operational to strategic. You're not spending as much time again in the weeds filling out the paperwork and you can focus on other important areas of the business.

00:12:55:12 - 00:13:16:19
Unknown
And you've also just talked about kind of the skills and the transformation is skills you need from operational to succeed. So how can the HR Professionals really enhance their business acumen and understanding of the industry to provide that strategic insight and value to the company? Well, i'm going to say this first and foremost, getting involved in those HR groups.

00:13:16:19 - 00:13:45:19
Unknown
Mra. Any human resources group that you can find and there's a lot of them out there, you just got to find the ones that fit. You. Obviously very involved with this group and some others that are industry relative for us. Another big thing is attending employment law updates. Whoever your legal counsel is, they often provide free webinars, free in-person seminars so that you can get those law updates that you need to again push you forward and getting that strategic insight.

00:13:45:19 - 00:14:15:23
Unknown
So maybe there's something that's pending legally on the federal level or state level. You can be prepared for that before it even actually goes into effect. And then the last one that I absolutely love is making those colleague friends on LinkedIn to expand your knowledge network. None of us know everything but having more resources and people in your network helps expand that knowledge within the group and you can reach out and ask people, Hey, has anyone experienced this again?

00:14:16:01 - 00:14:44:21
Unknown
Saving time and helping provide some insights as to how well it went or what they might have done differently and just helping again, push more into the strategic rather than the operational have screwed advice for anything that on their own. Yeah. Yeah. I would also suggest looking through the catalog of the MRA training opportunities and seeing what's out there in terms of business acumen, financial training for HR

00:14:44:21 - 00:15:10:07
Unknown
Professionals. Yeah. When I was when i was was where I'm looking for kind of drafting and dreaming up like a strategic track for it for in our class. That was a big piece of it was the financial understanding, the business acumen, and in addition to other things like how how do you select your third party vendors and things like that.

00:15:10:07 - 00:15:36:21
Unknown
So definitely take advantage of the training that's out there. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up training. So I was going to ask how HR Professionals could develop the necessary skills to not only that acumen. So good advice. So what are the potential risks and pitfalls that HR Departments should be aware of when they're undergoing the transformation to operational two strategic roles.

00:15:36:23 - 00:16:00:13
Unknown
I think one of the things is making sure that we're analyzing the right data. You know, what really is impacting our organization long term and having that seat at the table is going to help them be aware of that. You know what the strategic focus is and not, you know, analyzing the wrong data. And then again, the other big thing that we've talked a lot about is, you know, not delegating and getting stuck in that day to day.

00:16:00:13 - 00:16:22:19
Unknown
There are is sometimes that's one of the biggest struggles that we face when we move from operational to strategic, is saying, okay, well, I don't know if this person is doing this right or I don't know or I want to still have my hand in this. And, you know, I it's it's those types of things. And not being able to delegate in your right back in the weeds and back in the operational.

00:16:22:21 - 00:16:41:16
Unknown
And I would add to that that communication is absolutely key. We never want to be in a situation where we're in scope creep with our strategy or someone's making an assumption that this is why we're going after this, this goal and they're moving in that direction. But we're not continually talking with each other to make sure we're on the same page.

00:16:41:16 - 00:17:05:11
Unknown
And then also from the aspect of who's handling the operational tasks, just making sure that you're communicating with those individuals who have been delegating that to make sure that they feel supported and that they're able to accomplish the things they need to for sure. Okay. When we were kind of chatting before, you mentioned, you know, was kind of build up your HR from the ground up and within your department of one.

00:17:05:11 - 00:17:32:12
Unknown
So that kind of poses the question for those who also operate as an HR department of one, what can that single person do to think and act more strategically, not just operationally? No. That might be kind of difficult to balance. Both. Yeah. So we're all HR Superheroes, right? And starting in a role. The company i'm with now, they had 86 employees when i started, so it wasn't HR

00:17:32:12 - 00:17:59:07
Unknown
Department of one, but it was also building up the HR Department and the function and what HR Really look like. So it was kind of really neat to start out in a role like that, helping develop a really nice handbook. Policies, procedures, trainings and kind of moving from there. So laying that foundation like rebecca had asked about earlier, you know, getting people in the door, hiring the right people.

00:17:59:09 - 00:18:26:08
Unknown
It was putting a foundation of the right interviewing process. And that whole onboarding experience in place to make sure as we were growing the company that we were doing the right things from the start to build it up with a firm foundation. So as an HR Professional one, when I was doing that, I won't lie. I mean, I felt like some days I was I was working a lot more hours than other days, but I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

00:18:26:08 - 00:18:49:10
Unknown
Like as we were growing, I knew the expectation. I knew what the strategic development and growth, what was expected and what they wanted to see happen. So I knew when I put these foundations in place where I was going to be a few years from now with that growth in mind. So making sure that whatever those tools were that were developed in the foundation that was developed could be passed on to the HR

00:18:49:10 - 00:19:15:11
Unknown
Generalist, the Workplace Wellness Coordinator. But in the meantime, when I didn't have those really leveraging like our brokers and the payroll team, the other functional areas of the business to make sure that there was still that balance where I could handle some of the day to day, but also have the time to focus on strategic and then finding time in between there to pop out webinars, to learn a few things.

00:19:15:13 - 00:19:38:05
Unknown
Yeah, I'm glad you gave advice on balancing both operational and strategic, because even though we're talking about the transformation to strategic, it doesn't mean those operational tasks ever go away. So, Rebecca, anything to add on this one before we're down here? All right. Well, as we kind of wrap up here and run out of time, how can the HR

00:19:38:05 - 00:20:03:03
Unknown
Professionals collaborate with other departments in the organization and cross-functional teams to align those HR Strategies with the broader organizational objectives. So for me, i think one of the things that I thought about with this was, you know, having that strategic seat at the table and understanding, know, revenue goals, you know, the things that make the business successful and the role that HR

00:20:03:03 - 00:20:26:00
Unknown
Plays in helping achieve those those big goals. And it can't be just HR Working in a silo. You have to work with the other functional departments to make sure that you're able to meet that that big goal. So, i mean, for me personally, it's working with our operations team to ensure that we have the right people in the right seats.

00:20:26:05 - 00:20:51:20
Unknown
It's working with our accounting team to make sure that we're staying on budget and focusing on the right numbers, analyzing the right data. It's working with the president and the CEO to to ensure that we're still on track for these big goals. And if we're not where we need to be having the conversations to to shift that focus back.

00:20:51:20 - 00:21:12:02
Unknown
I need Mike drop moments here. No, I just I just think that, you know, Katie is a wealth of knowledge and heard her story and not only how she got there, but also the things she's been able to achieve in that strategic role. I mean, you have a whole nother podcast is talking about the amazing initiatives that she has spearheaded.

00:21:12:02 - 00:21:36:23
Unknown
And every time we get together for roundtable, we're like, Well, tell us more. What's new? Absolutely. Well, I want to thank you both for being on 30 Minute Thrive podcast today and sharing your expertise on transforming HR from operational to strategic and to our listeners. If you like the track today, comment your favorite tip you learn from today and make sure to share the episode.

00:21:37:01 - 00:21:58:15
Unknown
And don't forget, consider joining MRA if you are not a member already. We have all the resources you need in the show Notes below, including Katie and Rebecca's bio and LinkedIn profile. If you'd like to get in touch with them and expand your network. Otherwise, thank you for tuning in today and thank you both again for the great info and we'll see you next week.

00:21:58:17 - 00:22:19:19
Unknown
And that wraps up our content for this episode. Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign up to connect for more podcast updates. Check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA’s 30 minutes Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the HR conversation.