Organizations today realize that, in order to maximize workforce productivity and drive greater results, they must effectively align their people with overall business strategy. Workforce alignment - the specific process of tying employee goals to the overall organizational strategy - drives many business benefits, including:
- Higher employee engagement
- Quicker execution of organizational strategy
- Effective deployment of people across the enterprise
- More focused, consistent business initiatives
- A foundation to link pay with performance
While multiple workforce alignment models exist, the organization-centric model (versus people-centric) has emerged as a best practice for leading organizations. This approach naturally extends business planning processes to employee goal management, so that individual performance is tied directly to organizational strategy. By delivering continuous “line of sight” up through the highest level of organizational objectives, workforce alignment becomes part of employees’ and managers’ day-to-day activity versus an annual event.
Workforce alignment is a priority for many organizations. However, it is particularly critical for growing mid-market enterprises in which employees are stretched in their daily responsibilities. Integrated goal management, performance management and development planning solutions deliver sophisticated yet practical tools to help organizations implement workforce alignment processes today. Careful consideration should be given to selecting technology that supports these activities without distracting employees from the work at hand.
At the end of the day, workforce alignment and goal management should be a business tool, not an HR administrative tool. In order to achieve this, workforce alignment must naturally extend the business planning process. The tool should be designed and implemented as a means to execute the business plan.
