1. SAMPLE Strengthen Tribal HR’s Stakeholder Management Capabilities
Empower HR professionals to effectively influence and build strong relationships with stakeholders to drive organizational results.
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2. Our understanding of the problem
The Head of HR (CHRO)
HR strategic business partners
Build strong relationships with executive and tribal stakeholders in order to gain their support, trust, and buy-in to the role of HR.
Build skills to effectively influence stakeholders across the organization, and gain their input on strategic initiatives.
Get early and consistent buy-in from key stakeholders so that rather than coming to HR any time an employee questions HR practices that do not serve their personal interests, these stakeholders act as advocates for HR.
HR professionals who are new to a tribal context
Tribal council and administration
Learn skills to effectively include and work with all stakeholders, including tribal members.
Develop strong collaborative relationships between the tribal community and organization.
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3. Strong stakeholder relationships give HR the influence it needs to drive organizational success
Strong stakeholder relationships are crucial to HR’s credibility and success.
Tribal HR plays an important role in facilitating strong relationships among all stakeholders, in particular by ensuring that organizational practices align with tribal values and culture.
Strong stakeholder relationships in a Native Nations context often require communicating effectively with tribal stakeholders. HR must take the time to establish relationships with these stakeholders.
Building strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization gives HR the influence it needs to succeed in its initiatives and drive business results.
Stakeholder relationships in tribal contexts are sometimes more complex due to the overlap of tribal and business governance.
Tribal HR may face the challenge of addressing nepotism that is higher than in other industries, employee conflict over preferential hiring policies, and supporting different policies and practices for government and enterprise employees within one HR department.
HR must regularly influence stakeholders across a broad spectrum of issues, and this can be especially challenging if HR is brought in from outside the tribal community and must build trust in order to function effectively.
Strong stakeholder relationships begin with open communication. Use McLean & Company’s HR Stakeholder Management Survey to encourage communication between HR and stakeholders across the organization, including tribal stakeholders.
Gain a clear understanding of stakeholder needs and priorities, as well as where HR needs to focus improvements.
Invite stakeholders to give input on changes, to increase trust and buy-in.
Train HR to communicate with and effectively influence stakeholders at all levels.
Identify key stakeholders within the organization and develop a strategy for communicating with them.
Train HR in six influence tactics, and adapt these to suit tribal culture and values.
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4. Guided Implementation
McLean & Company offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
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5. Use McLean & Company’s process to strengthen tribal HR’s stakeholder management and influencing capabilities
Pillars of Stakeholder
Management Excellence
Assess Current Stakeholder Relationships
3. Build Strong Stakeholder Relationships
4. Develop a Stakeholder Management Strategy
2. Prioritize Stakeholders and Prepare to Influence
Follow this four-step approach to build constructive relationships and effectively influence stakeholders for organizational success.
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6. Sample slides
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7. Strong stakeholder relationships enable HR to be a strategic business partner and provide stability to the organization
Strong stakeholder relationships enable HR to be a strategic business partner.
Regular communication with stakeholders enables HR to understand and address stakeholder needs effectively, building trust in HR and buy-in for further projects (Andersen, Bock).
Strategic partnerships and trust in HR are highly correlated to HR alignment with organizational strategy (McLean & Company HRSM 2016, N=1,586).
Strategic HR departments are correlated to high- performance human resources practices, which are linked to increased financial performance (Mitchell, Obeidat & Bray, 2013).
Stakeholder management provides stability to the organization.
In Native Nations contexts, HR plays an important stabilizing role by maintaining strong stakeholder relationships through changes in leadership that may happen as a result of tribal elections (Michael Day, CIO/VP, Cannery Casino Resorts).
In tribal settings, strong stakeholder relationships often require HR to transcend tribal politics and provide support to all stakeholders (Pember).
Tribal HR professionals have to stay out of politics, and be consistent and fair, so that you’re not perceived as playing favorites. You have to pass this down to every leader in the organization, set the expectation, so that every leader has the same approach.
– Jim Dybevik, Director of HR, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, McLean & Company Interview
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8. A stakeholder management strategy helps HR to ensure strong relationships across the organization and tribal community
When organizations operate in a Native Nations context, tribal leadership often has some influence on organizational leadership positions.
Regular tribal elections and turnover in tribal leadership may lead to turnover in organization leadership.
New tribal leaders may want people they know (family members, close friends, or allies) to take leadership positions in businesses. In turn, these organizational leaders may also want to bring in new employees.
The speed of tribal council is the speed of the organization, so we have to stay aligned with them.
– Jim Dybevik,
Director of HR, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi,
McLean & Company Interview
Tribal
Leaders
C-Suite
Executives
HR Department Leaders
Department Leaders
Managers
All Other Employees
With each new stakeholder, HR needs to understand and manage expectations and establish stakeholder relationships.
HR may also be new, brought in with new leadership, and they may not have credibility in eyes of employees yet; or they may come from outside a tribal context and not understand the subtlety and influence of tribal culture and politics.
There may not be processes in place to effectively include tribal stakeholders.
McLean & Company Insight
Even if tribal leaders do not have an official role in the organization, they often have tremendous influence. It is therefore important for HR in Native Nations contexts to consider tribal leaders as stakeholders and take the time to establish relationships with them.
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9. Strong stakeholder relationships give HR the influence it needs to function effectively
HR cannot rely on the power of its position to influence stakeholders:
Influence training gives HR leaders the skills to:
Many organizations have moved away from a traditional hierarchical structure that grants authority based on positions.
In many Native Nations contexts, organizations tend to be less hierarchical and more consensus-focused, where power is shared among organizational stakeholders and the broader tribal community rather than held by leaders alone.
Yet HR requires stakeholder support to function effectively.
Without buy-in from stakeholders, HR policies and practices that promote organizational success and protect employees are less likely to succeed.
HR must become skilled at influencing in order to impact stakeholder’s thinking, decisions, and behavior, and ultimately, drive positive business results.
Negotiate for resources.
Clarify the people implications of stakeholder decisions in a non-confrontational way.
Gain traction for initiatives, projects, and change.
Garner buy-in and agreement.
Coach and mentor to high performance.
Build stronger work relationships, leading to higher employee engagement and lower turnover.
Gain the “social license” needed to work effectively with tribal stakeholders and avoid having projects derailed by community opposition (National Congress of American Indians).
Motivate their HR teams for high performance.
Influence is far easier when you have taken the time to develop positive relationships with your organizational stakeholders. Spending time with your broader tribal community, leadership, and employees creates strong stakeholder relationships – a solid foundation for influence.
McLean & Company Insight
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10. McLean & Company Helps HR Professionals To:
Empower management to apply HR best practices
Develop effective talent acquisition & retention strategies
Build a high performance culture
Maintain a progressive set of HR policies & procedures
Demonstrate the business impact of HR
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