Seeking Ideas for HR Initiatives and Employee Engagement for 2009-10: What Would You Suggest?

Dear All,

Can you please help me prepare the HR scorecard for the year 2009-10? I have been asked to list down the objectives or initiatives for the new year. We have already committed to improving our SLA for routine HR functions. Can you suggest some new initiatives that we can consider during this phase?

I am planning to introduce:
1. Peer Recognition Program
2. Corporate Folklore
3. More CSR activities

Please suggest some employee engagement activities and any other initiatives.

Thank you,
Viju

HR scorecard is a progress report showing the status of your HR health. The HR scorecard essentially indicates what systems you have in place. For example, do you have a CSR system? The next step is to identify the inputs, processes, and output elements for this system. Input elements may include "To comply with CII standards, I have personnel working on these aspects." Consider what structure you have in place and what skill sets your team possesses. A measured score of all these elements will become your HR scorecard.

For example, in an organization:
- System: 3/10
- Structure: 5/10
- Style: 3/10
- Staff: 1/10
- Skill: 3/10

Once you have identified which areas need improvement, those become the objectives for the year.

Dr. P.T. Sunderam HRDC BHEL

I find this amazing! Why do you ask for someone else's scorecard? Why don't you start with your own that better suits your company's strategic, operational, and cultural needs? It is this type of "copy and paste" that is dragging HR credibility and role backward.

Be bold, go ask the top management for the company's objectives and strategic initiatives for the year. HR is there to support the business needs, particularly the business operations. If operations cannot clearly define what they want, how can HR help or provide services?

This is what Strategic HR is. Play a dominant role in checking and correcting the incompetencies of senior management before focusing on improving your HR system, practices, and results. What score are you speaking of when you don't know what is expected? People talk of HR architecture, what about Business architecture? Ask for it and then shape your HR systems and build your scorecard around it. Insist the CEO and HODs outline what they want from HR to help improve strategic business/operational efficiencies.

Don't people understand the simple rule of cause and effect? If you don't know this, then there is little hope for a scorecard to make an impact on the bottom line, which is what we ultimately measure to benchmark.

Hence, before you can talk of an HR scorecard, insist on the Business scorecard. If your top management cannot provide this, then tell them to stop running the company like a tea stall. That should be the first finding of your TNA. Send them for training on how to write a business plan and map strategies for implementation. HR should be included in the strategic brainstorming sessions to be transparent about the inter-linkages and connections.

Regards, Yuva Malaysia