5 elements of a minimalistic HR

Assume you are new in an HR job in a sizeable organisation. The contours of the strategic plan are there. As always the focus is on growth. By growing the existing clients. By capturing some new markets. By cleverly adding services or products to the portfolio. The digital division will have to grow. Sharing knowledge and capabilities is key. Leadership needs to be strengthened. Internal entrepreneurs are scarce. Etc.

By Tom Haak

Your assignment: divide 100 points over maximum 5 HR interventions you will start. The sheet is clean. HR services have been outsourced some time ago, no worry. What is your choice?

I will share my choice of today. 
 
 
1. Hire some new people
I would reserve 30 points to hire some new people in critical areas. The most effective HR intervention is still the recruitment of new people. Maybe I will need more than three months to determine where, but often you do not need that much time. Part of the 30 points will be needed to stimulate existing jobholders to move on. 

2.  Appoint an organisational curator
The organisational curator is a new role. A free agent in the organisation. A connector, who travels, talks and connects. Who has the freedom to start small experiments to improve the organisation. 10 points for the curator and 10 points to fuel the experiments. Pay back time will be quick.

3. Install and push a collaboration tool (Yammer, Google+)
The power of a collaboration tool cannot be underestimated. Implementation will take some time, but when the use catches on a lot of unused potential can be released. 10 points, I hope it is enough!
 
 
 
4. Design and install a rigorous selection process
An A-level employee can be 5-10 times as productive as an average employee. Investments in selection are earned back very quickly. I would use 20 points here. The question is what to look for. Making extensive job- and competency profiles does not make sense. Intelligence is still a good predictor of future success. In addition I would look for a way to measure the value fit and the collaboration capabilities.
 
5. Make an investment in People Analytics
HR or People Analytics is not a hype but here to stay. HR teams that make an investment in people analytics will be able to increase their impact. I would invest my last 20 points in people analytics. The investment can be in people (hire a data analyst with some affinity with HR), in some simple tools or systems or both. There is no need to spend a lot of money, it is more important to start and learn.
I would like to hear how you divide your 100 points.
An earlier version of this article was published on the website of the HR Trend Institute. 
About the author: Tom Haak is partner at Crunchr (crunchrapps.com). Tom Haak is also director of the HR Trend Institute (http://hrtrendinstitute.com). Prior to founding the HR Trend Institute in 2014, Tom held senior HR positions in companies as ARCADIS, Aon, KPMG and Philips.