During Our Talks With Fellow HR Folks, We Often Come Across The Term
“Organizational Development” but we had difficulties understanding what Organizational Development was and to what extent does it relate to HR responsibilities.
What Is Organizational Development?
To start off, Organizational development (OD) is the process through which an organization improves its internal capacity to meet its current and possible future requirements. This would mean HR activities and OD activities overlap in a lot of aspects. However, there are a few areas where HR need not necessarily be involved.
For e.g., If there is a new project, OD folks should access if the current infrastructure and resources would be adequate to handle the project. Which is later on taken by the HR folks. So, even though the operations seem to overlap, the approach is different.
What Does Organizational Development In HR Mean?
OD includes various areas pertaining to growth in terms of physical assets and talent management. Job designing, Organizational/hierarchy structures, performance & productivity analysis, and developing a collaborative learning environment comes under Organizational development.
Apart from regular HR activities, HR managers contribute to an organization most through these functions of Organizational Development. The most impactful and successful organizations are deliberate about how they are organized, how their work is carried out, and how they use and develop their talent to achieve effectiveness. The most successful HR leaders are also deliberate about driving forward organizational effectiveness for the benefit of the staff, leadership, and the community.
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Talent Management: HR Functions To Enable Organizational Development
- Recruiting highly skilled resources apt for current and future needs with diversified talents.
- Develop a system or a process to analyze and improve existing talents to comprehend their current weakness and sharpen strengths.
- Educate employees about organizational goals and drive them with a passion for aligning accordingly.
- Address workplace issues and resolve them without procrastinating.
Performance Management: HR Functions To Enable Organizational Development
- Make sure to Treat performance goals like fundraising goals! Create an environment of accountability where success is measured
- Measure what matters.
- Develop and implement a plan to close performance gaps at the Individual, Team, Department, and Organizational levels
- Stop ignoring low performers. Demand improvement or design an exit plan to make way for like-minded.
Development Management: HR Functions To Enable Organizational Development
- Find resources for training and professional development.
- Focus on learning that is directly connected to mission delivery.
- Train staff to be experts in their areas of focus. Leverage internal resources (i.e. other staff), Board, community partners, business professionals to augment learning.
- Regularly educate staff on the business of your organization including financial metrics and industry trends and/or best HR practices.
7 Quick Ways To Align Organizational Development In HR
Considering the above factors it is important to understand and align organizational development with Organizational goals and we could achieve this by prioritizing HR roles. Here is a list of ways we could make it happen.
- Recognize the strategic value that HR brings to organizational effectiveness.
- Making HR activities as important as funding and investment rounds.
- Involving HR personnel in Strategic planning and Future goals discussions.
- Set metrics to evaluate HR and enable rewards on successful completion of tasks.
- Accountability on the results achieved and leveraging them to establish a place in the board rooms.
- Give them the authority to make important decisions impacting organizational behavior and growth.
- Hire qualified staff to handle HR activities when the above are enabled and restrict usage of external elements to delay or impact the growth/results.
