Let's have a closer look at what should impact your people strategy?

First of all, your business strategy: To build a people strategy that's in line with your business strategy, you need to look at where your business is heading and what kind of employees will be required to support this growth. You can summarize your business strategy as a combination of the following categories.

You focus on customer-centricity. Of course, every business is fueled by customer needs, but this means something else when it's your primary focus. It means you tailor your value to your individual customer's needs are ready to adapt your way of working to your client's way of working if asked. It means being flexible, constant listening & dialogue.

You focus on product leadership. Your business strategy is focused on developing new products or services, constantly finding ways to improve, and being ahead of the curve in your industry. If you have this as a core value, it comes with challenges such as rapid change, constant re-evaluation & adaptation.

You focus on operational excellence. You have an excellent understanding of your operating model, and you are constantly focusing on efficiency, scale & automation. You focus on long-term profitability: meaning that you are the lowest cost producer in your industry.

When reading the above, you might already feel this impact on your people strategy.

If we look at customer-centricity, your people strategy needs to focus on attracting very flexible and adaptable individuals. They have to constantly adapt their way of working to have a client-focused mindset. Every component of your people plan should focus on creating the correct context for this sort of personality.

If you look at product leadership, this means that the people hired should be innovative, ready for rapid change, and able to see opportunities that others might not.

If you focus on operational excellence, your people strategy should focus on efficiency, scale & automation, which means you need to attract individuals who can work in a structured environment and have the drive to analyze processes and find ways to optimize them.

Now let's look at the second aspect: your unique company culture. Every organization has its own unique identity, formed by multiple factors such as leadership style, working environment & location, and how employees interact with each other.

This culture should feel & look the same as your business strategy, meaning that you shouldn't be a customer-centric organization if your employees feel like they don't have the freedom to look for customer solutions. If this is not in alignment, it will lead to an internal mismatch and misalignment, which will ultimately result in disengaged employees & high turnover. But the same goes for giving a lot of autonomy & freedom in an operational excellence environment. This will feel like chaos and create continuous friction in the way of working in your organization.

So how do you avoid this? You create a people strategy that is very much in line with both your business strategy & company culture. It would help if you looked at what makes your company unique, what personality traits are needed for success within your organization, and then focused your people strategy on attracting individuals who fit this profile.

Why? Because it will make it easier for them to be successful and satisfy their needs and the organization's needs. And not because everyone else is doing it or because you've read about this in a trend report.

Think of your people strategy like a recipe. You start by looking at your business strategy and company culture and then identify the personality traits needed for success within your organization. After that, you design and implement the optimal context for people to perform at their best in your company.