Developing and Implementing HR Strategies

There is an ever-present risk that the concept of strategic HRM can become somewhat nebulous – nice to have but hard to realize. The danger of creating a rhetoric/reality gap is acute. Broad and often bland statements of strategic intent can be readily produced. What is much more difficult is to turn them into realistic plans that are then implemented effectively. Strategic HRM is more about getting things done than thinking about them. It leads to the formulation of HR strategies that first define what an organization intends to do in order to attain defined goals in overall human resource management policy and in particular areas of HR process and practice, and secondly set out how they will be implemented.

Difficult though it may be, a strategic approach is desirable in order to give a sense of direction and purpose and as a basis for the development of relevant and coherent HR policies and practices



This chapter starts by giving general consideration to the development process, setting out various propositions and describing the levels of strategic decisionmaking. Reference is also made to the existence of strategic options and choices. This provides the background against which the approaches to formulating and implementing HR strategies are described.