ILRHR552: Aligning HR Strategy with Organizational Strategy · The organizational competency map is a tool that helps you prepare for HR strategy alignment ... Opportunities for business

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ILRHR552: Aligning HR Strategy with Organizational Strategy


This course includes

Four self-check quizzes

Two discussions

Seven tools to download or use

interactively

One scored project in five parts

One video transcript file

Completing all of the coursework should take

five to seven hours.

What you'll learn

Identify the unique value and core

competencies of your organization

Help steer your organization to

sustainable growth by taking a

strong role as a leader

Develop a plan to focus HR

strategy for maximum value for

customers and stakeholders

Align HR initiatives for best

employee performance and

business outcomes

Course Description

This course develops the skills needed to align the policies and activities of a human resources department with the

strategy of the larger organization, based on the research and expertise of Christopher Collins, Ph.D. After gaining a good

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-transcripts.pdf


understanding of the strengths of your organization, you will learn how HR leaders can assume a leadership role in

planning for sustainable growth. You will use tools such as the balanced scorecard and the horizontal alignment chart to

improve HR decision making and business outcomes. With the completion of an action plan at the end of the course, you

will be ready to apply what you learn to your own organization.

Christopher J. Collins School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University

is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and Director of CAHRS in the ILR SchoolChristopher J. Collins

at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from the Robert H. Smith

School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Collins teaches, conducts research, and does consulting in the areas of strategic human resource

management, the role of HR practices and leadership in driving employee engagement, and the role of HR in

driving firm innovation and knowledge creation. His research has been accepted for publication in the Academy of

Management Journal , Journal of Applied Psychology , Personnel Psychology , Human Resource Management Review ,

and Human Performance . In addition, Dr. Collins serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management

Journal , Journal of Applied Psychology , the Journal of Management , and Personnel Psychology .

Start Your Course


Module Introduction: Customer Value and Core Competencies

Successful human resources strategy begins with HR leaders taking their place as an integral part of the leadership of a

business or organization. Doing this requires an understanding of the value the organization delivers to customers, as well

as an understanding of the strengths and competencies that distinguish the organization from its competitors.

In this module, you will examine what customer value is and how organizations create it. You will examine why identifying

an organization's core competencies is important in developing strategy. And you will look at real-life examples of

customer value and core competencies.

You will also have an opportunity to work with two useful analysis and strategy aids-the value chain analysis tool and the

competency map-and will see how to apply them to your own company or organization.


Watch: Value and Examples

What value do your customers perceive in your products or services, and what conclusions do they reach when

comparing the benefits against the costs? Professor Collins begins the course by discussing value creation and its

importance when developing organizational and human resources strategy.


Watch: Strategies that Deliver Customer Value

Along with understanding the value you bring to customers, it's important to identify and embrace a strategy that will

continue to deliver consistent customer value. In this video, Professor Collins outlines three different approaches that

companies typically use to build strong core competencies that create products or services their customers value.


Watch: Core Competency Examples and the Competency Map

Successful organizations are built upon a strong set of core competencies, and those organizations take special care to

protect and develop the various resources on which those competencies depend.

Professor Collins discusses three well-known companies and their core competencies, and he introduces the competency

map as a valuable tool in organizational analysis and planning.


Tool: Competency Map

Download the Tool

Organizational Competency Map

The organizational competency map is a tool that helps you prepare for HR strategy alignment by sketching out the value

that customers see in your products or services, the capabilities your organization has that enables it to deliver those

products or services, and the resources that support those capabilities.

Download this tool and use it to map the customer values, capabilities, and resources of your own company or

organization. The document containing this tool includes instructions for using it to understand these important aspects of

your own organization.

Below is an example of the map as it might be drawn if you were analyzing Amazon. This is just an example of how you

draw lines or arrows to indicate the relationships among items on the map and is not meant to be a full or complete

analysis of the Amazon business.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-competency-map-tool.docx



Watch: Introducing the Value Chain Analysis Tool

How do the various parts and activities of your organization contribute to its core competencies? A clear understanding of

this is needed to develop HR strategies that advance your organization's goals. In this video, Professor Collins introduces

the value chain analysis tool and explains how defining contributory activities is the next step in developing appropriate

HR programs and interventions.


Tool: Value Chain Analysis Chart

Download the Tool

Value Chain Analysis Chart

The value chain analysis chart helps organizations map out both the primary activities and the support activities that are

critical to the organization's core competencies.

It is a simple chart that focuses attention on what it is that gives your organization competitive advantage and what the

primary and secondary activities or functions are that support those competencies.

Once you analyze your organization in this way, you can begin to develop HR strategies that support and advance the

organization's goals and competencies.

To use this tool, please download and then follow the instructions provided.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-value-chain-analysis-tool.docx


Module Wrap-up: Customer Value and Core Competencies

In this module, you established a good foundation for HR policy alignment. You gained a better understanding of the

importance of taking your place as a strategy leader within your organization. You studied how customer value is created

and how organizational core competencies distinguish an organization from its competitors.

You applied this knowledge to your own situation by analyzing customer value and core competencies associated with

your organization, or an organization with which you are familiar.


Module Introduction: Growth Strategies for Your Organization

Being a successful HR leader means helping your organization identify strategies for sustainable growth and then

developing staffing strategies that will enable and support that growth. This module examines how successful companies

use repeatable formulas for growth, as well as how they seek new markets that are similar yet different enough to

represent new opportunities.

You will explore six "big ideas" for sustainable growth and see how you can use the growth adjacency wheel to sketch out

ideas for the growth of your own organization.

You will also begin to consider what implications organizational growth strategies may have for the formation of enabling

and supportive HR strategies. As you continue to work on your course project, you will consider growth strategies for your

own organization.


Watch: Making Growth Sustainable

Successful growth is difficult, but there IS a repeatable formula that successful companies follow. In this video, Professor

Collins says the formula begins with identifying an organization's core competencies, and then looks for ways to exploit

that competency in other settings using a proven set of actions.


Watch: Ways to Grow around the Core of a Company

Continuing the discussion about sustainable growth in an organization, Professor Collins outlines six "big ideas" for

growth. He explains how these can be used to expand on the strengths found in an organization's core competencies,

enabling a move into markets adjacent to ones that have already proved successful.


Watch: Nike and Sustainable Growth

One company that has achieved great success by expanding into adjacent markets is Nike. In this video, Professor Collins

discusses Nike's core competencies and the growth strategies the company has used so successfully.

As you watch, consider whether some of these same strategies would help your organization to grow in a sustainable

way.


Tool: Growth Adjacency Wheel

Download the Tool

Growth Adjacency Wheel

Opportunities for business growth are often found in "adjacencies," products or services that are somewhat similar to

existing products or services but represent variations in product areas, geographies, channels, etc.

Now that you've seen how the growth adjacency wheel can be used to stimulate thinking about business growth,

download this tool and do some brainstorming of your own. You may wish to get together with colleagues in your

organization and use this as a way to spur discussion and planning.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-growth-adjacency-wheel.docx


Module Wrap-up: Growth Strategies for Your Organization

In this module, you explored organizational growth strategies. As an HR leader, you want to be sure that HR policies

support the sustainable growth of your organization, so a knowledge of growth strategies is important.

You considered six "big ideas" for sustainable growth and saw how the growth adjacency wheel can be useful in

identifying potential areas of growth. You looked at how successful companies use repeatable formulas for growth.

Continuing your work in the course project, you analyzed the growth strategies of your own organization and identified

potential opportunities for your organization to grow in new products, new channels, or other "adjacencies."


Module Introduction: HR Strategy and Key Talent Groups

We now turn our attention to strategies that provide a foundation for effective HR practices. Specifically, we look at the

concept of key talent groups and how focusing HR attention on key groups within your organization is often an important

element of organizational success.

In this module, you will explore how to identify an organization's key talent groups. You will see interesting examples of

major corporations that have used this kind of analysis to meet major growth and performance goals. In Part Three of the

course project, you will chart out the key talent groups within your organization and begin identifying knowledge or skill

gaps that may need to be addressed for optimal organizational performance.


Watch: A Viewpoint on HR Strategy

HR strategy must be based on the analysis of connections between organizational strategy and requirements associated

with the people of the organization. In this video, Professor Collins explains how to envision a "causal map" between

organizational strategy and competencies on the one hand and employee performance or training gaps on the other.


Watch: International Growth at Hershey's

How does a large American company gear up for growth when its CEO sets the goal of doubling its size within four years?

In this video, Professor Collins takes a look at the Hershey Company and what steps were required to undertake major

growth into three new international markets. He concludes with a summary of what HR and other leaders at Hershey's had

to do in order to obtain the required talent with knowledge of the new markets.


Watch: Identifying Key Talent Groups

When aligning HR strategy with organizational strategy, an important step is identifying the groups of people within the

organization who are most critical to the creation of customer value. In this video, Professor Collins outlines two primary

criteria that can be used to identify the key talent groups on which HR may focus its efforts.


Read: Key Talent Groups at FedEx

Key Points

A key talent group is critical to customers and may be variable in performance.

In the overnight delivery business, HR may focus more on drivers than pilots.

One example of a company that pays close attention to key talent groups and talent gaps is FedEx. Let's consider its

overnight business delivery.

The pilot role is one of a number of roles that have the potential to impact on-time delivery. There's no way to move a

package overnight from one city to another if you don't have pilots. Until drones can fly packages around the world by

themselves, we need pilots for on-time delivery. In an analysis focusing on key talent groups, we ask the question, How

much variability would we expect to see between pilots within the FedEx system?

The answer is that the difference in variability is extremely limited. All pilots must take a certain minimum amount of

cockpit training. They all must achieve a certain minimum skill level and pass certification tests on an yearly basis.

Pilot jobs are also extremely regulated, by the Federal Aviation Administration or by flight control. It's all closely controlled:

when they can go and taxi to the runway, when they can take off, how fast they can fly, what routes they can fly, how long

they can circle the airport, when they can touch down, when they

can taxi over to the FedEx facility at the airport, etc.

Pilot behavior is not affected much by motivation.

Super-motivated pilots committed to on-time delivery can't skip

ahead in a line of planes at the Philadelphia Airport, for example.

There is very little room for variability in the pilot job.

Because there is little room for variability in that role, it doesn't make sense for FedEx to spend lots of time trying to

improve pilot performance. Instead, they may focus their attention on drivers. Drivers can have a huge impact on delivery,

as well. The best drivers have deep route knowledge. If there is a traffic jam or accident, they know how to reroute

themselves around it. They have had lots of experience with thinking about different ways to get packages delivered on

time.

Most importantly, good drivers are highly motivated. If they come across an accident, they don't shrug their shoulders and

say, "Well, I tried my best." They figure out an alternate route and use their skills and experience to satisfy customers.

Because there is the potential for a lot of variability in this role, FedEx is always interested in initiatives that focus on driver

motivation and performance. How can drivers be encouraged to feel more committed to and engaged with the company's

mission? How can drivers be kept in good physical condition so they can jog up a stairs instead of waiting for a slow

elevator? What technology support systems can be put in place? What pay incentives can be implemented? How will

regular performance feedback be provided?

HR can look at all these considerations in order to reduce variability in driver motivation and performance. The goal is to

implement the policies and programs that will ensure that all drivers have a similar level of motivation, skills, knowledge,


and performance.

By evaluating the talent groups within an organization and being selective in where primary attention is focused, HR

leaders can ensure that they are having maximum impact on the organization and its success.


Tool: Talent Group Matrix

Download the Tool

Talent Group Matrix

In Part Three of the course project, you filled in a table analyzing the performance variability and customer impact of

employee groups within your organization.

Once you have performed such analysis, it is useful to represent it graphically as you discuss strategies with your

colleagues and other stakeholders.

The talent group matrix makes it easy to do this. It contains four squares in a grid. The vertical scale represents

performance variability, while the horizontal scale represents the degree to which the performance of employee groups is

critical to the value your customers or clients perceive in your products or services.

To use this tool in your own organization, place a large dot or other mark at the appropriate location for each employee

group based on your analysis of that group's performance variability and impact on customer value. Label each dot with

the name of that group. The result will be a simple graphic that will be useful as you plan and design HR strategies.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-talent-group-tool.docx


Module Wrap-up: HR Strategy and Key Talent Groups

In this module, you have taken a look at the concept of key talent groups.

You have explored how to identify such groups and why HR interventions aimed at key talent groups offer the most

potential impact on an organization's success. You have also seen examples of large corporations that have used this

approach to meet major goals.

Continuing your work in applying these concepts to your own situation, you have added to the course project by charting

key talent groups in your organization and by identifying knowledge or skill gaps that may need to be addressed for

optimal performance.


Module Introduction: Aligning HR to Drive Organizational Results

HR leaders often identify key talent groups within an organization and then devise interventions, design programs, or

develop policies aimed at maximizing the contribution of those key groups to organizational performance.

In this module, you will explore five key factors that influence employee performance. You will see how the balanced

scorecard can be used as a tool in performance management. Professor Collins will explain how the balanced scorecard

can help you to analyze the causes of performance problems within your organization and will discuss several other ways

you can use the scorecard's concepts of interconnectedness to improve organizational management and articulate the

value that HR contributes to your organization.

You have an opportunity in this module to share your experiences involving HR interventions and to learn from the

experiences of others. In the course project, you will once again apply these concepts to your own organization by

proposing HR actions to address gaps in your organization and by outlining how you will ask management for support of

those actions.


Watch: Five Key Factors that Influence Employee Outcomes

To develop effective HR strategies, you must have a clear understanding of various factors that can help or hinder

employee performance.

In this video, Professor Collins outlines five key factors that influence employee outcomes. As you watch this presentation,

think about how these factors relate to your own organization and how you might use this understanding to develop

effective HR practices and policies.


Watch: Introducing the Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a performance management framework that was first popularized by Robert Kaplan and David

Norton through a series of articles and books. Typically, organizations use the concepts of the balanced scorecard to help

determine what data they should track and analyze to improve performance, and then they use standard office software or

dedicated commercial software packages to capture and interpret that data.

In this video, Professor Collins explains how the balanced scorecard can be used as a conceptual guide for understanding

the connections between the people, processes, customers, and financial outcomes of an organization. As you watch this

presentation, think about how selecting and analyzing certain measures relating to these organizational aspects may help

you in developing HR strategy that contributes to organizational success.


Read: Exploring the Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a conceptual framework that can guide the managers of an organization as they identify

metrics that will provide a fuller and more accurate picture of performance in current market situations and the competitive

environment.

Use your mouse to explore the scorecard...

The balanced scorecard consists of four areas: financial, customer, process, and people. HR professionals have used it to

demonstrate that HR has had an impact on these outcomes. A potentially more interesting way to use the balanced

scorecard is as a diagnostic tool to determine the changes HR should make and to justify those changes and explain their

value, in business terms, to business partners.

Explore the areas of the scorecard with your mouse, and read more about each section below.

People

Most companies fail to consider carefully enough the question of people. They complete only the first three areas of the

scorecard: financial, customer, and process. They determine their financial goals and how they will achieve those goals.

They figure out how to create value for customers. And whereas most organizations think about what processes to put in

place to achieve their customer goals, they don't consider the people aspect adequately.

The biggest question for HR and for most companies is, What abilities characterize the employees we will need in order to

achieve both 100% execution of our processes and 100% execution of the behaviors that lead directly to customer value?

Process

The other way to achieve your financial goals is through processes. Processes, interestingly, affect both financial and

customer outcomes.

Relevant attributes include cost, quality, and time.

Customer

Analyze what you have to do for your customers if you are to achieve your financial goals. Are there certain customer

outcomes that you have to produce to hit those growth targets in sales and revenues? As you strive to achieve your

financial goals, your success will be dependent on pleasing your customers.

Relevant values include product attributes, service attributes, relationship, and image and reputation.

Financial

Look at what the organization is trying to achieve financially. What goals do you have and how do you measure whether

you've achieved those goals?

Relevant values include income, growth, and possibly risk.


Watch: Using the Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard isn't just a framework for diagnosing the causes of performance problems in an organization. HR

leaders can use it for other purposes, as well.

In this video, Professor Collins outlines three distinct ways that the principles behind the balanced scorecard can be used

to help an organization and its HR leaders achieve their strategic goals.


Module Wrap-up: Aligning HR to Drive Organizational Results

In this module, you began looking very directly at the development of HR interventions, programs, and policies that will

advance the goals and overall performance of your organization.

You studied five key factors influencing employee performance. You saw how the balanced scorecard can be used to

identify data to collect in order to monitor performance, as well as to examine cause-and-effect relationships in your

organization and to articulate the value that HR contributes to your organization.

Once again, you applied these course concepts by continuing work on the course project. These exercises are giving you

the practice necessary to gain important leadership skills in HR policy alignment.


Module Introduction: Balancing HR Changes Across Multiple Objectives

In this module, we focus on steps you can take to help ensure that initiatives undertaken to address one problem won't

cause problems in other areas. This is referred to as horizontal alignment, and it's an essential part of good HR planning.

Horizontal alignment involves a careful analysis of a proposed HR intervention and the various objectives for a certain

employment role to consider the expected impact of that proposed change.

We'll look at a case study involving a consumer goods company. You'll have a chance to indicate how you would address

a certain issue in this company as well as discuss this issue with other participants in this course. We'll give you a tool to

perform horizontal alignment within your own organization, and you'll have a chance to use this tool as you work on the

course project.


Watch: The Consumer Goods Company - Cause and Effect

In this video, Professor Collins describes how a consumer goods company gathered and analyzed data in order to identify

connections between staff turnover and problems with customer satisfaction and the bottom line.


Read: The Consumer Goods Company - Root Causes

Key Points

To fix a people problem, identify the root causes.

Exit interviews and focus groups may reveal

specific issues.

Once you've used the balanced scorecard approach and determined that a people problem is causing a problem for your

organization, you need to identify the root cause or causes. This will enable you to design an HR intervention that will

eliminate the negative impact the problem is having on the larger organization.

The people problem could involve a knowledge gap, a skills gap, a motivation gap, or some other issue.

In the case of the consumer goods company that we've been looking at, the company conducted exit interviews and focus

groups to figure out what was causing the high turnover of merchandiser staff.

The first issue that emerged was that the job was physically demanding. There was a lot of lifting, bending, and repetitive

physical work, putting product on the shelf.

Merchandisers were also facing expectations that often felt mutually contradictory. The company wanted the

merchandisers to make really attractive displays. They wanted them to do this at lots of stores. While a merchandiser was

at a store, trying to make a nice display and get the right mix of products on the shelves, the company wanted the

merchandiser to understand the specifics of that store so the display could be customized. In the midst of it all, the

merchandisers were expected to build strong relationships with the store managers.

This was a complex set of expectations that was difficult to meet.

At the same time, the exit interviews and focus groups also revealed a problem with boredom. Merchandisers had to do

the same stores, on the same route, day after day. They were stuck there for a long time. It got very repetitive.

Another problem was that the pay did not compare well with the same role at other companies. Until recently, the pay was

well above the market average. However, in recent months, other consumer goods companies had ratcheted up their pay

scales to attract talent, often from this company.

The final issue had to do with the supervisors. They were basically new college grads that were part of a leadership

program. They were brought in straight out of college and put in charge of front-line merchandisers who had much more

experience. The merchandisers were being supervised by people who had never done the role, who didn't understand the

role, and who tended to give bad or contradictory feedback.

By identifying the exact issues causing the high turnover, the HR department could begin to come up with a set of

solutions that would address those issues and attempt to fix the problem that was impacting the larger organization.


Activity: What Is the Best Way to Improve Employee Engagement?

The consumer goods company faced an issue with high turnover of their merchandisers.

The company could address the issue through various HR interventions. After reflecting on the options below, vote for the

one you believe will be best, and then defend your choice on the discussion page that follows. Click each option to display

or hide it.

Option 1Change job structure

Group merchandisers into

self-managed teams that share

tasks, collectively solve

problems, deepen relationships

with store managers, and

create more interesting work by

having teammates. May require

new fleet of vehicles for teams

to travel together between

stores.

Change culture or leadership

Change culture from one

focusing on individual

performance and self-reliance

to a team-based culture.

Change talent management

Hire based on team orientation

and ability to work with others,

create training programs on

team problem-solving and

planning, and development

programs to groom

merchandisers with leadership

potential for team lead roles.

Change engagement activities

Option 2Change job structure

Reduce number of stores on

routes to more manageable

level to increase time to

complete tasks (stocking,

displays, relationships with

store managers, etc.). Hire

more merchandisers.


Reduce leadership issues by

eliminating merchandiser

supervisor position as part of

new college grad leadership

rotation program. Instead

promote front-line

merchandisers with leadership

potential.


Continue to hire high school

graduates into role based on

performing physical work,

training in the short term to

focus on displays and stocking;

increase training for those with

leadership potential.


Option 3Change job holders

Change who does the job by

making merchandiser role part of

the new college graduate

rotational program. Success as a

merchandiser leads to

opportunities in marketing, sales,

and operations management.


Managers of new merchandisers

are "graduates" of the new

college rotational program with

interest in management.


Ramp up recruiting to find more

candidates for new college

graduate program, replacing

current model of hiring high

school grads as merchandisers.

Focus on hands-on skills leading

to leadership positions over a 3-4

year period of rotations.

Improve merchandising training

for new recruits. Redesign

rotational program to reduce

drop-out rate.



Create incentive pay plan

based on team performance

tied to team effectiveness,

create team-based

performance management tool

based on principles of

360-degree feedback.

Increase pay and give

incentives based on stocked

volumes to increase retention

and create leadership track.

Reduce boredom by creating

regular route rotation for

merchandisers so they are

more engaged.

Provide opportunities in

marketing and operations

leadership.

Increase pay for merchandiser

role to be competitive to attract

undergraduates.

Loading...


Watch: The Consumer Goods Company - Evaluating Results

When managers of the consumer goods company became concerned about staff turnover, they considered several

possible intervention options. The option they chose included reducing the number of stores on each route, promoting

high-performing merchandisers into supervisor roles, rotating the routes to reduce boredom, and increasing pay and

incentives. (See Option 2 in )"Activity: What Is the Best Way to Improve Employee Engagement?"

Did this intervention work? Well, yes and no. In this video, Professor Collins explains how the company used a balanced

scorecard approach to evaluate the results of its changes.


Watch: Being Strategic

Before launching an intervention aimed at solving a business problem, HR leaders must plan it carefully and consider a

number of factors. In this video, Professor Collins outlines four important points to consider before introducing an HR

initiative.


Watch: What Is Horizontal Alignment?

For effective alignment of HR strategy with organizational strategy, it's important to do another kind of alignment as well:

horizontal alignment. In this video, Professor Collins explains how horizontal alignment can help ensure that an HR

intervention aimed at improving the results of one objective of a certain job position will not negatively impact other

objectives of that same position.


Tool: Horizontal Alignment Chart

Download the Tool

Horizontal Alignment Chart

The horizontal alignment chart is designed to help you analyze HR practices and their impact on the multiple objectives of

a certain job position. The first page of the chart contains instructions to help you make effective use of this tool.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ecornell/content/ILRHR/ILRHR552/ilrhr552-horizontal-alignment-worksheet.docx


Watch: Example of Horizontal Alignment

On the previous Tool page, you were given the opportunity to download a file containing a blank horizontal alignment chart

along with instructions about how you can use this to analyze the impact of existing or proposed HR practices and

interventions.

In this video, Professor Collins explains how the consumer goods company used this chart to analyze the impact of the

new practices that were implemented to address high staff turnover.


Module Wrap-up: Balancing HR Changes across Multiple Objectives

Whether you're talking about house repair or human resources, fixing one problem only to cause another is not a happy

solution. And yet that's what can easily happen if you don't consider whether an HR intervention aimed at one objective

will have adverse effects on other objectives.

In this module, you studied horizontal alignment and its importance in good HR planning. You walked with Professor

Collins through a case study involving a consumer goods company and had a chance to participate in a discussion about

how performance at that company could be solved most effectively.

In the course project, you gained practice in the use of the horizontal alignment chart in order to identify potential

unwanted consequences from possible HR interventions. The course project has given you the opportunity to apply and

reinforce what you've learned, building alignment skills that will make you more effective as an HR professional.


Dr. Christopher J. Collins Associate Professor and Director of CAHRS

School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Cornell University

Read: Thank You and Farewell

I hope you found it to be a great experience. The skills you have been developingThank you for participating in this course!

here will enable you to play a significant role as a business leader within your organization, ensuring that your human

resource activities will advance the strategic goals of your organization.

We've covered important ground:

We have seen how an organization identifies its and how it creates .core competencies value for its customers

We have examined how organizations build on their core competencies to develop .sustainable growth strategies

We have discussed the importance of identifying within an organization and focusing HR strategykey talent groups

on such groups in order to support the organization and help it grow.

We have used tools and conceptual frameworks to identify aimed at addressingappropriate HR interventions

organizational needs.

Finally, we have explored the steps needed to ensure that HR changes have across athe best possible positive effect

range of objectives.

So, move forward with confidence as you use these tools and skills. Best wishes as you play your part as a strategic

business partner within your organization!


Supplemental Reading List

Professor Collins has identified a number of books that may be useful if you wish to delve further into the topics covered in

this course.

These additional resources are available for purchase via . (The page willa special page provided by the Cornell Store

open in a new window/tab, so just close the tab or window when you want to return to the course.)

http://www.cornellstorebooks.com/reading-list-ilrhr552

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ILRHR552: Aligning HR Strategy with Organizational Strategy · The organizational competency map is a tool that helps you prepare for HR strategy alignment ... Opportunities for business