Your business is thriving and constantly attracts new talent. However, you’ll soon encounter issues if your staff members frequently express dissatisfaction and leave. Having a motivated and engaged team is essential for success. To do that, you need a people strategy that works.

Numerous businesses assert that they are increasing their investments in employee engagement and experience strategies. However, the fact that there still need to be people-centric policies in place may be very different. That is accurate whether they work a hybrid schedule, remotely or on-site.

Research indicated that policies with a focus on people perform better. Individuals are less likely to quit and are happier in their jobs.

Having a successful people strategy is essential to the success of a business. So, let’s look at what a people strategy is and how to build one.

What is a people strategy?

A people strategy is an organization’s approach to hiring, retaining, developing, and motivating its employees. It is known as its people strategy. Ensuring employee alignment with business goals is the aim. Companies are made of people, and successful businesses depend on people.

An HR strategy and a people strategy are different. Recruiting, assessing, compensating, and other employee logistics are all part of the HR strategy. Conversely, people strategies focus on the interaction between an organisation and its workforce. 

What is the difference between HR and people strategy?

Human Resources and People Strategy are essential in supporting organizational goals and navigating change. Still, whilst human resources is focused on building and maintaining effective systems, people strategy is focused on building and maintaining effective relationships between the organization and its employees.

Human Resources

Human resources concentrate on the practical aspects of people management and set the groundwork for an organization’s successful people performance. 

Priorities for human resources will cover things like hiring and talent management procedures, workforce planning, financial planning, benefits, pay, and legal compliance.

People Strategy

People strategy is an organization’s particular road map that gives your employees what they need to achieve their full potential, work at their highest level, and support the objectives and success of the company. 

A people strategy will cover essential aspects of an organization’s culture, including feedback, performance management, professional development, leadership, employee engagement, diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Why Do You Need a People Strategy?

A people strategy is crucial for your organisation to draw in, nurture, educate, involve, and keep a skilled workforce. It also helps place the right people in the right roles at the correct times, which benefits your enterprise’s goal attainment and general prosperity.

It is an excellent tool that gives each organisation direction and concentration going forward, which benefits both employers and employees. Additionally, it can improve the two parties’ relationship.

What are the four pillars of people strategy?

#1.  Culture and leadership 

All organisations should foster a culture that encourages innovation, engagement, and high performance and ensures that leaders live up to the culture.

#2. Talent acquisition

Companies must have the right people with the right skills to achieve goals that align with business objectives. 

#3.  Data

All organisations should prioritise measuring, monitoring, and analysing the appropriate people data.

#4. HR

HR functions should be prepared to connect people’s growth with business strategy proactively.

People strategy comprises a wide range of tactics, initiatives, and interventions to create the best conditions for people to enjoy their jobs, perform at their best, and grow. As such, it encompasses all employee-related, strategic elements of business. Here are some examples of what it covers:

• Strategic workforce planning
• Leadership development
• Vision, mission and values definition
• Strategy alignment and internal strategic communication planning
• Workplace culture
• Career pathing and succession planning
• Change management
• Learning and development
• Competency   

How to create a people strategy

Here are some ways you can create a people strategy 

Create a strong sense of leadership

A strong sense of leadership to help your staff succeed is one of the most crucial components of a great people strategy. Your team will lack the resources necessary to function as a unit if there isn’t a clear leader in place.

Your staff will be inspired and motivated by a strong leader with a distinct vision for the future, believing in their abilities and pushing themselves to reach and surpass goals. In addition to being an excellent resource for assistance, communication, and active listening, a successful leader may help you cultivate loyalty and trust inside your company.

Focus on learning & development.

Putting a thorough learning and development plan in place is crucial to creating a people strategy. It entails creating an L&D strategy for each person and providing them with the appropriate opportunity to advance their career development and continually enhance their skill set.

It must be the central tenet of your people strategy because competent workers feel more empowered and self-assured and can better carry out their jobs. They become more effective employees and are more productive as a result.

Ensure that the training and certification requirements in your L&D programme are met. Aim to provide a range of learning opportunities for your staff. You may allow students access to online and offline learning options, peer mentoring, and microlearning.

Promote diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging.

Organisations use the strategic strategy known as diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) to develop a more inclusive and varied workforce. It seeks to establish a climate at work that is advantageous to all workers, irrespective of factors such as gender, racial or ethnic background, financial status, or degree of mental or physical ability.

By pledging your support for DEIB and putting programmes in place to further your vision of diversity and inclusion, you demonstrate your appreciation and respect for every employee. Your staff will be more motivated to work to the best of their abilities if they feel valued and accepted.

Don’t only talk when you put your DEIB projects into practice. Ensure that your company is ready to walk the walk as well. Establish measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge inclusion, equity, diversity, and workplace belonging. These will encourage advancement and hold leaders accountable.

Drive employee engagement

A crucial element of your people strategy should be employee engagement. You may reinforce the idea that your employees are more than simply a job title and that you value their contributions to the firm by leading and pushing programmes that enable them to interact and connect with it. Your bottom line will increase due to their inflated sense of pride in their work, alignment with your vision and values, and the constant pursuit of performance improvement.

Putting these three guidelines into practice is the most excellent method to boost employee engagement and help them relate to the company’s vision, values, and goals:

Transparency: 

Always be frank and open with your staff members. Inform them of any impending adjustments or difficulties the company is experiencing. It will make it more straightforward to them what your objectives are and what they should aim for.

Recognition: 

Honour and commend extraordinary accomplishments while helping those who are falling short. Employees who feel appreciated by you will put in more effort and go above and beyond what is expected of them.

Accountability:

Motivate your employees to assume accountability for their tasks and duties. Give your staff the resources and tools they require to succeed, and set clear expectations for them.

Collect regular employee feedback.

Regular staff feedback is a fantastic addition to your people strategy. To provide your employees with the best working environment possible, you will be better able to comprehend the employee experience and identify areas that require improvement. It will also make your staff feel important and valued and that their performance matters if you gather feedback regularly.

At each stage of the employee lifecycle, you can gather feedback through regular meetings and appraisals or, if you’d rather, anonymous online surveys. However, keep these sessions apart from your standard performance reviews to emphasise the working environment rather than output.

Support employee wellness

Lastly, ensure that you implement measures that support your employees’ physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Employee wellness programmes can involve helping them kick bad habits like smoking or overeating, as well as initiatives to promote stress reduction, emotional support, and therapy. Since physical and mental wellness are linked to employee performance, you should ensure that your people strategy addresses all facets of employee wellness. After all, the more you show a more significant commitment to their health and well-being, the more loyalty you ultimately get from your staff. And the more devoted they are, the more they will invest in your business’s success.

How do you implement a people strategy?

Simply having a people strategy won’t cut it. You need an influential people strategy that fuels your organization’s growth and propels it to new heights. But how do you build one that truly resonates with your employees and aligns with your business goals?

That’s where the collective expertise of People leaders comes into play. By working hand-in-hand with your C-suite, managers, and Finance team, you can develop a people strategy that keeps everyone on the same page and helps drive your organisation’s overall success.

Below are four ways to build a successful people strategy that drives business success.

#1. Prioritize the Employee Experience: Elevate Your Workforce

#2. Build a Strong Employer Brand: Shine Bright, Attract Talent

#3. Develop a Purpose-Driven Organization

#4. Promote Skills Development to Ignite Potential

Example of people strategy

There are many components of a people strategy. To guarantee that your staff members feel appreciated every day, for instance, it may involve preparations to implement a recognition programme. Strategies for raising important people analytics metrics, such as employee engagement, may be included.

Benefits of a well-developed people strategy

The following are some advantages of having a solid people strategy. 

1. Influential people strategies fuel engagement among employees.
2. It raises employee retention and satisfaction. 
3. Enhancing professional growth and performance benefits your organization’s business strategy and expansion.
4. It makes your company more proactive and raises engagement.
5. Developing a people strategy can give you a competitive edge in luring top talent and maintaining peak performance. 
6. It fosters a sense of collective accountability.
7. It improves leadership’s operational efficiency.
8. It strengthens trust and controls expectations.

FAQ

What should a people strategy include?

A people strategy will focus on diversity, equality, inclusion, growth, development, and feedback. 

What is the role of people in strategy implementation?

Effective strategy formulation necessitates employee participation in strategy execution. All managers and employees must be involved and committed to strategy formulation and implementation to succeed.

Conclusion

You must have a strong people strategy if you want to draw in and keep workers who share your values. Employee retention is higher in organisations where employees feel appreciated and have room to grow. 

It is essential to your organization’s capacity to draw in, nurture, educate, involve, and keep a skilled workforce and place the right people in the right roles at the correct times, all of which have an impact on the accomplishment of objectives and the general prosperity of your enterprise. Employers and employees can benefit significantly from a people strategy, which gives both parties direction and focus going forward. The two parties’ relationship may also get more potent as a result. To get a complete picture of the workforce, start by talking with the leadership and staff. Afterwards, utilise the information gathered to develop a strategy and schedule the following steps. 

Related Articles

• 15 Examples of People Skills and How to Develop Them
• 7 Must-Have Coaching Skills for Strong Leadership

References

• Factorial HR
• Lattice