Originally posted to the TribeHR Blog at Human Resources: The importance of strategic alignment and employee engagement

From my experience, there is potential for a problematic relationship between the HR department and the employees of an organization. The problem stems from HR’s reputation for being the “police” of the organization. For example, HR is typically responsible for implementing policies and procedures that may feel (and certainly can be) restricting. But, like any society, an organization requires policies to contain the chaos that would potentially arise; imagine an organization where the Michael Scotts from the fictitious world of The Office could roam free! So how can HR continue to do their jobs without the negative backlash from employees? Market themselves!

HR’s underlying function is to align its policies with organizational strategies and this includes the strategic management of people (the employees). By aligning these strategies, an organization can expect increases in profitability, customer satisfaction levels, and employee performance.

Step 1: Ensure employees understand that how they are strategically managed is a key component to how their organization realizes success.

Once employees realize they are an important component to the success of their organization, how does HR get employees to remain satisfied with their work environment amongst all the policies? Engage them. There are a number of ways in which HR can engage their employees but the bottom line is they need to be engaged with in a way where they feel valued.

Step 2: Ensure employees are engaged in their work in a way that makes them feel valued by the organization.

The organization can highly benefit from employee engagement. According to brainmaven Research (2010), “companies with highly engaged employees experienced 26% higher employee productivity, lower turnover risk, greater ability to attract top talent, and 13% higher total returns to shareholders over [a five year period].”

I recently experienced my first scrum day with TribeHR and I am excited to report that they understand how to market HR as the valuable tool it is to an organization through employee engagement. They give the the power to employees by allowing them to handle their own HR needs, for example, managing their vacation days. TribeHR’s platform allows for two-way conversation between the employee and manager, which is important when insuring all parties involved feel like they are valued.

So, how should HR market itself? Be how TribeHR strives to be: friendly, open, and easy to use. Be transparent with employees and allow them to understand that how they are strategically managed is a key component to how their organization realizes success. Engage employees: give them certain control over their job maintenance. Make them feel valued.