HR Management & Compliance

Hey, C-Suite, Here I Am

Yesterday’s Advisor featured Expert Jennifer McClure’s first three steps in becoming an HR strategist whose work is valued by the C-suite. Today, we offer the rest of her tips.

McClure, president of Unbridled Talent LLC in West Chester, Ohio, offered her tips at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exposition, held recently in Las Vegas.

[Go here for tips 1 to 3]

4. Develop Future Leaders

65% of organizations don’t have a formal process to identify and to grow the talent that they need, says McClure.
According to the Corporate Executive Board, 6% to 9% of employees fall into the high potential category.
“People often describe certain individuals as ‘natural-born leaders,’ but the truth is that business leaders are made, not born—shaped through the assignments they receive and the experiences they have.” (Source: Fast Company magazine 2012)

McClure suggests the following elements for a leadership development program.


Want to make your hiring process simpler? Start on Wednesday, October 28, 2015, with a new interactive webinar—Supervisors and Managers as Recruiting Partners: Practical Strategies for Collaborating to Achieve Hiring Success. Learn More


5. Improve Engagement

How engaged are your employees?

(Source: Aon Hewitt Engagement Trends)

The single highest driver of engagement is whether or not workers feel their managers are genuinely interested in their well-being, according to a Towers Watson Global Study, McClure says.

6. Create a Great Place to Work

A great place to work is one in which you trust in the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with. (Source: Robert Levering Great Place to Work® Institute)

In fact, 73% of employees looking to leave their current employers do not have trust in their corporate leadership. (Source: Deloitte Talent Edge 2020)
There are three important things to do, McClure says:

  • Act in alignment with your core values.
  • Communicate honestly.
  • Link work to a larger purpose.

7. Communicate Like an Executive

For communication, think of these suggestions, says McClure:

  • Make decisions.
  • Sell it, baby. Don’t go with “it’s the right thing to do,” says McClure. Instead aim for customer satisfaction.
  • Speak the language. That’s dollars.
  • Learn how to negotiate. Don’t say “no,” say, “If we do, here are my concerns, AND here’s my suggestion.”
  • Always bring data.

“Remember, you are a business leader who happens to work in HR,” says McClure.

As an HR Manager, it’s not just C-Suite that you have to get on board. In fact, the best chance for success for a strategic, targeted search is when hiring managers and recruiters function not as disjointed or opposing forces, but as a synchronized team with a defined common goal. How to get there? Fortunately there’s timely help in the form of BLR’s new webinar—Supervisors and Managers as Recruiting Partners: Practical Strategies for Collaborating to Achieve Hiring Success. In just 60 minutes, on Wednesday, October 28, you’ll learn everything you need to know about practical hiring strategies.

Register today for this interactive webinar.


Recruit faster and better. Join us Wednesday, October 28, 2015, for a new interactive webinar, Supervisors and Managers as Recruiting Partners: Practical Strategies for Collaborating to Achieve Hiring Success. Earn 1 hour in HRCI Recertification Credit and 1 hour in SHRM Professional Development Credit. Register Now


By participating in this interactive webinar, you’ll learn:

  • How to define the roles of the hiring manager and the recruiter—and understand where they intersect
  • How hiring managers can better communicate the business case behind an open position and how to better enable those managers to align candidates’ skills with company goals
  • How to define a “dream” candidate, and how recruiters and managers can collaborate to come up with a priority list that makes sense
    – What kinds of hard and soft skills are you looking for?
  • How communication style, processes, technology and general culture work in the hiring process—and how recruiters can better understand that ahead of time
  • Relationship-building strategies for recruiters and managers—how to interact during the recruiting “off season” when you’re not actively hiring  
  • Tips for managing external communication, including how to ensure your recruiter and your staff are aligned when it comes to communicating with potential hires outside of the hiring process
  • And much more!

Register now for this event risk-free.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Central)
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Mountain)
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)

Approved for Recertification Credit and Professional Development Credit

This program has been approved for 1 credit hour toward recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) and 1 credit hour towards SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM.

Join us on Wednesday, October 28, 2015—you’ll get the in-depth Supervisors and Managers as Recruiting Partners: Practical Strategies for Collaborating to Achieve Hiring Success webinar AND you’ll get all of your particular questions answered by our experts.

Find out more

Train Your Entire Staff

As with all BLR®/HR Hero® webinars:

  • Train all the staff you can fit around a conference phone.
  • Get your (and their) specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions answered in Q&A sessions that follow the presentation.

Find out more

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