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Walk into the reception area of any major company these days and

you will find a copy of the company’s ’vision’ or ’mission’ statement,

framed and adorning the wall.

Many of these are likely to make reference to ’having outstanding

people’, ’recruiting and retaining the best staff’ and ’reflecting

excellence in our people’.

But how much of this is an integral part of an organisation’s ethos?

Are these references merely statements of intent? And, most critically,

is there real linkage between a company’s mission statement and its

human resources strategy?

Often, sadly not.

No one doubts the value of the mission statements, which rightly

acknowledges employee value.

However, this is only as admirable as the company’s ability to translate

the principle into practice and should be measured by what the company

actually does to ensure the vision becomes reality.

Many large organisations do not have the HR function represented at

board level or even a formal HR strategy in place, which is indicative

of the hypocrisy that exists.

If your mission statement says you want to be market leader, you can

measure your performance by market share.

If you clearly state that you want to have excellent people, you need

processes to achieve that, and of course definition of what ’excellence’

looks like.

Competencies that will stretch and challenge staff to perform ahead of

industry norms and customer expectations should be introduced. Anything

less and you devalue the vision to nothing more than window

dressing.

So what are the implications to the HR manager (or even director)?

Clearly the HR department needs to be involved in the project team that

writes the company mission and must also ensure that elements of the

mission statement relating to people can be quantified and measured.

This means having a sound performance review and appraisal system.

Progress against the vision should be evaluated, quantified and

communicated throughout the organisation as should examples of excellent

or outstanding performance in order that these contributions are

recognised and other employees are encouraged to emulate them.

If your organisation has a vision or mission statement does it make

reference to its employees? If not, why? Is there a cohesive strategy to

delivering the vision?

Do you know what your company’s vision is? If not you had better nip

down to reception quickly!

Nick Short is director of Hemmingway Executive Development.