10 Quick Wins to Elevate Your HR Strategy
Looking to take your district’s HR from transactional to transformational?
“Whether you are leading a department or juggling multiple roles, these quick, practical tips will help you turn HR into a powerful strategic partner—aligned with your school or district’s goals,” said Ohio Human Capital Resource Center presenter Taylor Tamang.
At a recent session focused on Elevating HR: A Strategic Approach to Driving Organizational Success, Tamang highlighted these 10 quick wins with what every Ohio educator in HR needs to know:
1. Define the “Why” Before the “What”
Start with clarity. Why does your HR strategy need to evolve? Is it teacher burnout? Hiring gaps? The Great Resignation? Your “why” will shape everything else—so do not skip it.
🏆 Quick Win: Write a one-sentence problem statement for your current HR challenge.
2. Stop Flying Solo, Collaborate Early
One major reason strategies fail? Working in silos. HR cannot do it alone—loop in other departments, district leadership, and even educators to ensure alignment from the start.
🏆 Quick Win: Schedule a 30-minute strategy check-in with one key stakeholder.
3. Move from Reactive to Proactive
Strategic HR is all about anticipating needs instead of constantly putting out fires. From forecasting retirements to building talent pipelines, planning saves time and energy later.
🏆 Quick Win: Create a “known upcoming vacancies” list for the next 12 months.
4. Leverage the PESTLE analysis
To build a future-focused HR strategy, you need to look beyond the walls of your school or district. The external world—politics, tech, economics, even social movements—directly influences your ability to hire, retain, and support staff. That is where PESTLE comes in.
A PESTLE is a strategic analysis framework that helps you scan six key categories of external factors that may affect your HR strategy, including: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.
🏆 Quick Win: Brainstorm one trend from each PESTLE category.
5. Find and Flex Your Competitive Advantage
What makes your school or district a standout employer? Whether it is location, culture, or innovation — lean into it. That is your secret sauce for attracting talent. Use your competitive advantage to guide your recruitment and retention techniques.
🏆 Quick Win: Survey staff with one question: “Why did you choose to work here?”
6. Write SMART Strategic Goals
Your goals should not just sound good — they should guide action. Make sure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. This will ensure that you are able to measure progress toward your goals.
🏆 Quick Win: Rewrite one vague goal to make it SMART (e.g., “improve hiring” → “Reduce time-to-fill by 3 days by Spring 2026”).
7. Bridge the Gap Between Vision and Action
The best strategies are lived, not laminated. Align goals at all levels—organizational, HR, and individual—to make sure everyone’s rowing in the same direction.
🏆 Quick Win: Ask each HR team member to align one of their tasks to a strategic goal.
8. Support Strategy with People, Process, and Structure
A solid strategy falls flat without the right infrastructure. Review whether your current team, workflows, and systems support your vision. You can use the Strategic Framework Worksheet to help you assess and improve how your People, Structure, Processes, and Direction support your recruitment or retention goals. Use it to compare your current state with your ideal state, ensuring that every element of your infrastructure aligns with your broader vision.
🏆 Quick Win: Map your current recruitment process using the Strategic Framework Worksheet, then highlight one bottleneck to improve.
9. Make Data Your Best Friend
Data is not just for dashboards—it should guide every decision. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like time-to-fill, retention rates, or quality of hire.
🏆 Quick Win: Start tracking one KPI this month. Pick one and keep it simple.
10. Start Small, Stay Consistent
You do not need to overhaul everything overnight. Strategic HR is a journey—not a sprint. Focus on progress over perfection.
🏆 Quick Win: Choose one of these 10 tips and act this week.
In Summary
“A solid HR strategy can transform how your district recruits, retains, and supports educators. Start with what you can control, invite others into the process, and commit to doing one thing better each month,” said Tamang.
For more ideas and tools to support your efforts, explore these resources from the Elevating HR: A Strategic Approach to Driving Organizational Success session:
