Creating HRM Value by Strategic Human Resources Management with an Extension Approach: Ten Steps to Strategic HR

on the past 22 years, we have worked on more than 50 research projects with HR leaders and organizations to gain a better understanding of what human-resource management leaders can and must do to create value and competitive advantage for their enterprises (Longenecker and Fink, 2011). Across these studies, we have found that HR leaders who are best at properly leveraging and maximizing the potential of their human capital and improving performance tend to engage in specific progressive activities (Fink et al. , 2009). Our previous research also makes clear that these HR leaders can frequently face a wide variety of organizational barriers that can get in the way of HR value-creation. These can include lack of top-management support, resource constraints, lack of management buy-in, no strategic voice and --old-school HR paradigms--, among others (Longenecker and Fink, 2012). HR leaders, to be effective, must know how to breach these barriers by engaging in the critical activities needed for success. Based on our findings and experience, we identify the Eight most important activities that HR leaders must practise to leverage their --human assets-- to best effect and to get past barriers to strategic HR execution.