HR Strategy - Looking Outside our Organizations

Most of us spend our days heads-down focusing on our immediate work - compensation, hiring, performance management, employee issues... But HR leaders need to look up - and out. To build a strong workforce strategy, we must look beyond organizational boundaries to anticipate macroeconomic, political, and technological shifts. In this episode, former Vice President of HR Jim Utley shares how to successfully transition your human resources function from purely operational to deeply strategic. Key Takeaways 1) Look Outside the Building: Operational HR is necessary, but managers and leaders must lift their heads to track external economic, social, political, technological, and environmental forces. 2) Use the five external pillars to organize your thoughts around external risk 3) Use frontline intelligence - after all they interact with our clients and products all the time 4) Read broadly. 5) Be active in industry groups OUTSIDE of HR And much more. 00:00 Intro 01:44 The external influences 04:11 The five core strategic planning categories 08:37 Gathering data from the frontline 11:07 The case for being well-read 13:07 Example 1: Technological change 15:20 Example 2: Climate change 19:21 How to do this 24:21 One tool: black swan scenarios 25:53 Connecting with Jim Utley **Find Jim or his book** Website: https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000607247171/James-Utley-People-Working **Find Andrea (me)** Website: https://thehrhub.ca/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-adams1/