Question

There is always a challenge between a proposed HR strategy and implementation. A committee has been formed in your organisation to outline four (4) of the gaps that could cause a challenge in the implementation of HR strategy

Answer 1

The various gaps that could cause a challenge in the implementation of HR strategy are:

• The HR personnel may not have complete exposure to and knowledge of various other business functions such as finance, marketing, operations etc. This may hinder their ability to bring forth and communicate the new HR policies and programs to the intended audience working in these functonal areas.
• HR strategies generally deal with fuzzy areas such as emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, organisational behaviour and so on. It is difficult to quantify these in exact output terms at the beginning of the strategy implementation project. Convincing top management about the benefits of new HR strategy and getting unhindered access for implementation may be a difficult task.
• Certain HR strategies involving training and development initiatives incur an upfront cost, whereas the benefits can be seen only in the longer run. Convincing the top management to make a budget outlay for such initiatives may be difficult, especially if such budget demand is made from revenue generating departments such as marketing simultaneously.
• HR initiatives are generally seen by employees as a subsequent layoff measure. It is believed that post implementation of new HR strategy, certain restructuring of workforce may happen in which certain employees may lose their jobs. Due to this factor, employees are averse to successful implementation of any new HR initiative.