Developing Your Company’s HR Mission Statement: A Guide

Your company probably already has a mission statement.

As defined by Entrepreneur, a mission statement is “a sentence describing a company’s function, markets and competitive advantages; a short written statement of your business goals and philosophies.”

This is all well and good for the bottom line. But, human resources professionals can take this concept a step further to fuel their HR strategy.

We’re exploring how to craft a strong HR-specific mission statement, one that’s rooted in organizational values but tailored to the department-specific goals and activities of human resources.

Defining your HR mission statement

Your HR mission statement shouldn’t just be a carbon-copy of your company’s overarching mission.

Why not? Your team takes on a variety of duties that probably aren’t reflected in the company’s mission statement, such as recruiting, onboarding, compliance and benefits. But, you shouldn’t merely explain what you do. Address the why and how, too. A strong HR mission statement encapsulates:

• Your company values
• Your workplace culture
• Your employer value proposition (EVP)
• How HR supports business goals
• How success will be measured

If you’re not sure how these pieces fit together, work with leadership to understand your company’s culture, values and vision as they relate to your department.

Examples of strong HR mission statements

A sample HR mission statement from Business Management Daily shows how HR activities relate to the bottom line:

• “HR’s responsibility is to ensure that our human resources are more talented and motivated than those of our competitors. HR’s performance will, therefore, be measured by comparing the company’s sales, profits and productivity with those of our top two competitors.”

The above directly connects HR with overarching business goals and provides concrete guidance on measuring success.

The HR mission of one app development company notes that the department believes they have a responsibility to create opportunities for candidates from every community and background to build a career in tech.

This is a perfect example of how to include company values in an HR mission. It’s clear that this organization’s recruiters are dedicated to searching far and wide to find the perfect fit. The language also suggests that this team is unlikely to quickly rule out promising candidates based on certain experiential factors.

Creating your HR mission statement

A good mission statement will strike the right balance between satisfying the needs of your employees and your organization as a whole. When creating an HR-specific mission statement, remember these best practices:

• Work with top executives in understanding and articulating the company’s mission.
• Weave your culture, beliefs, contribution to business goals, success metrics and EVP into a concise HR mission statement that’s easily digestible.
• Use it as a roadmap for strategy, hiring decisions and other HR activities.

It’s not easy to develop and deploy a powerful HR mission statement if you’re bogged down by manual processes and paperwork. With automation tools at your disposal, you can win back time to focus on the bigger picture.