Are You Driving Business Performance & Potential
HR and OD leaders have been evolving into key players at the executive table for years. However, like all business functions, HR experiences pendulum swings in focus, shifting between prioritizing culture-building and driving business impact. Today, with organizations facing rapid market shifts, economic pressures, and increasing demands for efficiency, the business-focused side of HR leadership is more critical than ever.
This doesn’t mean abandoning a people-first approach. In fact, the best way to support employees in this climate is by ensuring HR is positioned as a key driver of business success. When HR leaders build people strategy from the MOST important company goals, they create stronger, more engaged workplaces where employees don’t just feel valued, their work contributes to the company’s success and they’re empowered by it.
To fully step into this moment, HR and OD leaders must embrace a business-forward approach that doesn’t come at the expense of people, but rather elevates them. Here’s how:
1. Align People Strategy with Organizational Performance Goals
Now more than ever, for people to be at their best at work they need a deep understanding of how their work drives performance outcomes for the company (and if it doesn’t, they can redirect).
How:
✔ Make business impact the foundation of engagement – Employees can do their best when they’re clear how their work directly contributes to the company’s most critical goals—whether that’s driving margin, increasing efficiency, or fueling innovation. A well-designed people strategy ensures that every role is aligned with the most important business outcomes, creating a workplace where employees are not just satisfied or even just working on compelling and useful projects, but actively driving the most critical company goals.
✔ Reframe engagement as business alignment – In engagement surveys, prioritize how well employees understand and feel connected to company goals—and give managers tools to strongly reinforce this connection.
💡 Example: A global healthcare company found that while employees loved their workplace culture, there was a lack of connection between daily work and business success. HR leaders implemented goal alignment workshops and team-level business impact discussions, leading to a 20% increase in employee productivity and a stronger sense of purpose across the organization.
2. Make People Strategy a Business Performance Engine
HR and OD leaders have the power to shape the future of the organization by ensuring the right people, skills, and leadership are in place to drive success. This means taking a proactive, growth-oriented approach to workforce planning and talent strategy.
How:
✔ Ensure people strategy is a core business driver, not business as usual – HR and OD leaders must go beyond traditional workforce planning and design people strategies with upskilled business acumen. This means aligning talent, leadership, and culture initiatives with the company’s core objectives—whether that’s maximizing profitability, expanding product offerings without increased spend or driving sales more efficiently. To elevate impact, have your HR function be a proactive architect of competitive advantage, driven by the bottom line.
💡 Example: The HR leaders in a tech company that had grown quickly realized they had leaders who knew how to scale the business but didn’t know how to operate a lean and profitable one. Instead of defaulting to external hiring, the HR & OD team launched an internal leadership accelerator program, filling critical leadership roles faster while improving team performance by 30%.
✔ Balance accountability with care – A high-performing culture isn’t about relentless pressure—it’s about giving employees clarity, autonomy, and the opportunity to contribute to the most important company goals to care for the health of the whole. Make business alignment central and inspiring.
💡 Example: A global retail company was struggling with inconsistent leadership styles and performance management practices. HR leaders introduced a new leadership framework based on coaching, accountability, and strategic alignment, which resulted in improved employee satisfaction, and a 12% increase in company-wide performance.
🚀 Final Takeaway: 5 High-Impact Actions You Can Take Today
A business-driven people strategy is not a loss for employees—it’s the key to everyone thriving.
To start making this shift in a way that excites and energizes you and your org, here are five high-impact actions you can take right now:
1️⃣ Drive business acumen across HR and OD teams – Ensure HR and OD leaders understand financial metrics, growth strategy, and competitive positioning.
2️⃣ Tie every people initiative to the most critical business outcomes – Ensure that every HR or OD effort clearly contributes to the top 3-5 company goals.
3️⃣ Reframe engagement as alignment – Help managers ensure employees work is directly contributing to company those top 3-5 company goals.
4️⃣ Create a leadership accountability framework – Equip leaders to drive performance in a way that supports and inspires their teams.
5️⃣ Optimize HR budgets for ROI – Eliminate low-impact perks and prioritize initiatives that drive measurable business and employee success.