Human Capital Strategy: The Business of Government is Executed by Its People
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Human Capital Strategy: The Business of Government is Executed by Its People

Human Capital Strategy: The Business of Government is Executed by Its People

Even in this “there’s an app for that” age, the business of Government is executed by its people. Determining how to attract, hire, train, manage, develop, and retain an organization’s workforce are among the most challenging tasks for a Federal executive team.

Human Capital strategies typically serve as the foundations for workforce planning, management, and engagement. Ideally, the strategies lay out a vision of how an organization’s people contribute to the mission, what qualities they look for, develop, and reward, and how the Human Resources (HR) function supports the needs of the organization and its people.

At Arc Aspicio, our experience shows us that, too often, these strategies miss their mark. They tend to be: lofty pronouncements of the importance of people and values with few actionable initiatives, laundry lists of generic HR initiatives, or a thoughtful assessment of how to create an efficient HR function, but with little connection between HR activities and the unique, specific mission needs of the organization. The last case is akin to focusing on finely tuning an engine without confirming the type of vehicle you need to drive.

So, we promote a two-pronged approach to Human Capital strategy development. This approach provides tangible and actionable strategies and initiatives that promote specific mission needs by combining “top-down” and “bottom-up” analyses that include a deep dive into data. From the top, we address key strategic questions: What is the organization working to accomplish? What capabilities are needed to achieve those goals? How do human capital capabilities support those mission capabilities? What must the workforce be able and willing to achieve?

We combine this analysis with a structured assessment framework focusing on Leadership, Culture, Skills, Tools, Processes, and Structure. By applying best practice insight and capability maturity models, and by evaluating core HR processes focused on attracting, hiring, training, managing, developing, engaging, and retaining employees, we develop tangible strategies of how to enable the workforce to achieve desired goals.

Federal agencies—and their workforces—need focused, tangible, and implementable strategies to help them achieve their missions and develop their people.

About Arc Aspicio

Arc Aspicio is a management, strategy, and technology consulting firm that takes a mission-oriented approach to complex client challenges. As a rapidly growing company, Arc Aspicio has a bold strategy for 2016-2018 that drives growth through new capabilities in strategy, design, human capital, data analytics, information sharing, cybersecurity, and strategic communications. The company is known for a strong, collaborative culture that values gratitude – for its clients and its great team. And, #welovedogs! Follow us on Twitter @arcaspicio or learn more at www.arcaspicio.com.

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Contributors

Dave Stahlman |

Dave brings over 20 years of experience in helping government agencies, non-profits, and commercial organizations improve mission performance and organizational efficiency.  Dave has focused his consulting career in developing solutions related to business strategy, organizational analysis and improvement, and performance-based decision-making. He is adept at identifying the key issues facing organizations-- whether they be must-have mission capabilities or internal organizational pitfalls-- and designing holistic, integrated, and effective solutions to address them. A certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Dave links approaches for structured innovation with extensive experience in making innovative ideas practical and actionable. Before joining Arc Aspicio, Dave spent more than 18 years with Accenture’s Federal practice leading strategy and organizational improvement efforts while also guiding large transformational programs. Dave has also served as a civil servant for the Department of Defense and in uniform as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy.

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