Hardballing Strategies

HARDBALL STRATEGIES

'Differentiation is the only route to competitive advantage in the race to attract the best people'

Ralph Tribe, HR director of Getty Images

'Ethical doesn't mean soft. We've had 10 years of year on year profits.'

Helen Sweeney, HR director, Co-operative Financial Services

It is such quotes by eminent HR specialists which makes one rethink the context HR deals with in the current day scenario. It is all very well to believe that the transition of the role of HR from administrative to a strategic role, is because of the development and application of the "soft skills" that HR people specialise in.

However, the hard reality is that this transition is not an attribute of the soft skills that they possess but the hardcore strategies that they employ today, something aptly titled as "hardballing"

Like Ralph Tribe says, in this day and age of competition it is a matter of winning the race - The race to attract the best people, to provide them with opportunities for their own development, and retaining those people to ensure that the competitive advantage stays with you. The challenge lies in ensuring that your organisation remains ever-attractive to the best of employees creating HR brand equity for your organisation. Thus, the resultant focus on the VRIO framework (value,rare, inimitable and organised).

HARD BALL STRATEGIES FOR HR TODAY:

1) Not "out sourcing"

Not "off shoring"

Not "near shoring"

Not "in sourcing"

but ...

"Best Sourcing

Is the name of the game today.

The greatest resource for a company today is its talent resource. To ensure this talent resource organizations today face the challenge of attracting the best talent in the field today. Playing hardball in such a situation would greatly benefit any organization - that is, a relentless pursuit of the best in the business and single mindedness of purpose till you have that as your employee. Thus, "Best Sourcing" is searching for the best talent available and bringing them to your own organization. This should be accomplished in a two-step process:

1) Recognising Talent:

Companies such as Microsoft, Google etc lead the way in this respect. They have a comprehensive selection procedure to be able to sift through to the best talent there is. The rigorous selection procedure ensures that they are able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now the task is to ensure that this talent becomes an employee of the organization.

2) Attracting Talent

Those who are good know that they have a worth in the market and cannot be negotiated with. It is for this reason that it becomes more of an employee choice rather than employer choice in this regard, thus the company must make efforts to attract the talent towards their own organization.

Here, the hardballing strategy comes into picture. First of all, the organization should have information and be aware of what the rival is offering and what hey are capable of offering. Once, these areas have been identified they can work on the rival's weaknesses and showcase their own strengths in this regard, their competitive advantage.

2) Developing and Retaining Talent

Once the talent resource has been established in the organisation the greater challenge is to "keep them interested". Innovation is the name of the game at this stage. You have to keep offering something unique to your resources to ensure the organisation remains attractive. It would be useful to know the aspirations of the employee in this regard so that his