HR Impact Needs More Than Strategy—It Starts with HR’s Purpose

HR leaders are facing mounting challenges as they try to demonstrate the true value of their work. Connecting HR efforts to business results takes more than dedication and measurement—it requires clarity about why HR exists, what it has been tasked to achieve, and how those goals support the bigger picture.

Without this alignment between purpose, mandate, and strategy, even the most committed HR teams can struggle to make the impact their organizations expect.

Unlike other departments, HR’s role and objectives are frequently unclear. Legacy expectations, historical compromises, and conflicting views on HR’s value can leave even strong teams without the authority or resources they need. This disconnect makes it difficult for HR to deliver meaningful impact.

This article examines why defining and aligning HR’s purpose, mandate, and strategy is essential for achieving results, explores common obstacles, and outlines the key decisions HR leaders must make to unlock their full strategic potential.

Without a clear HR purpose and mandate – strategy fails

We frequently work with HR leaders on strategic initiatives, and a common thread emerges from our initial, seemingly simple questions:

• What is the fundamental purpose of HR in your organization?
• Do you have the mandate to truly deliver on that purpose?
• How do your purpose, mandate, and strategy genuinely align?

At first glance, these questions might seem obvious. Most HR leaders believe they have a clear purpose and a well-aligned strategy to operationalize it. However, the critical missing link is often the mandate, the formal authority, and the empowerment needed to translate purpose into practical action through strategy.

A practical example of HR purpose

Working with a CHRO at a multinational insurance firm, their HR purpose was clear: they wanted to build a “workplace where people from all walks of life can belong.” The HR strategy prioritized leadership development, culture, digital transformation, and DEIB. They launched leadership programs and focused heavily on senior succession planning.

Yet, when cross-departmental succession plans had to be implemented, business units did not want to participate for fear of losing their people to other opportunities provided by other business units. As they were also controlling their budgets, they refused to enroll these leaders into the development programs across the Group, stating that the Group HR team had no authority to tell them who their talent was and how it should be developed. 

The good news is that this does not have to be the case. It does however require intentional focus on ensuring HR is mandated to deliver on the purpose through strategy and being explicit about what HR needs to deliver on its purpose and strategic promise.

Let’s start by understanding the foundations that underpin HR’s purpose, mandate, and strategy, and how these three shape HR’s impact together.

What is an HR purpose, mandate, and strategy?

Driving HR impact starts by ensuring that we differentiate between the purpose, mandate, and strategy. Even though they are related, there are distinct differences: 

HR purpose: Why we exist 

The purpose of HR articulates its fundamental reason for being within the organization. It’s the enduring contribution HR aims to make, defining its very identity. Consider it the “North Star” – constant and consistent, even as strategies evolve. For example, an HR purpose might be to “cultivate a high-performance culture that drives innovation” or “ensure a workplace where every employee feels they belong.” This statement answers the “why” of HR.

HR mandate: What we can do, and how 

The HR mandate refers to the explicit scope, authority, and expectations given to HR to fulfill its stated purpose. It defines “how” and “what” HR is empowered to do. This isn’t just about good ideas but the formal permission to make decisions, allocate resources, and implement initiatives. Without a clear mandate, HR’s purpose, however noble, can remain an unfulfilled aspiration.

HR strategy: How we get there 

The HR strategy is the actionable plan that outlines how HR will achieve its purpose within the bounds of its mandate. It defines priorities, initiatives, and resource allocation for a specific period aligned to the broader business strategy. The strategy operationalizes the purpose, using the mandate as its lever.

The table below gives a brief overview of how the HR purpose, mandate, and strategy work together.

When these three elements align, it leads to a sustainable HR impact. When they are disconnected, however, we see the following:

• Purpose + mandate with no strategy → You get: Idealistic with limited direction or tangible execution.
• Purpose + strategy with no mandate → You get: Great ideas and plans with little authority to execute.
• Strategy + mandate with no purpose → You get: Plans being executed, but no real lasting impact beyond successful execution.
• Purpose+ mandate + strategy = Impact → You get: Clear reason for existence, the authority to drive execution, and a strategic plan to guide delivery.

3 barriers that need to be overcome

1. Bridging the divide: Why HR and business aren’t always on the same page

In many organizations, a disconnect exists between HR’s purpose and the broader business’s perception of its value. This misalignment often stems from outdated ideas or past experiences that shape business leaders’ views on what HR truly contributes.

We recently saw this firsthand when interviewing business leaders about their expectations for HR. Responses ranged from “keeping people happy” to “being a proactive strategic partner.” This stark contrast highlighted an evident lack of alignment regarding HR’s core function and its definition of value. Interestingly, the CHRO in the same organization held another distinct perspective, further highlighting the disconnect.

2. The reality of investment: You get what you pay for in HR

Another significant hurdle is the often-unspoken expectation that HR can deliver ambitious strategies without adequate resources. Everyone in the boardroom agrees they want a “high-performance culture” or “future-fit talent.” However, HR often struggles to articulate the practical implications and necessary investments for achieving these goals.

You can’t expect cost-efficient services if you are unwilling to invest in HR technology. Similarly, you can’t anticipate high delivery standards if you don’t invest in building a skilled HR team.

This logic mirrors that of any other business function: You get what you pay for. HR has “made things work” with limited resources and an ever-expanding scope for too long, often without pushing back. This is one of the reasons why HR teams see a disproportionate level of burnout, often higher than other functions. Worse, when HR does push back, it’s sometimes perceived as unhelpful to the organization.

3. Beyond ambition: Aligning HR with real business needs

Finally, there’s a common mismatch between HR’s ambition and the business’s actual needs. Not every organization requires the most advanced or “bleeding-edge” HR solutions. Instead of striving for HR maturity, the focus should be on ensuring HR efforts are appropriate for the business’s needs.

We often fall into the trap of benchmarking against industry standards, which has its place in assessing best practices. However, building an HR function that is overly complex or sophisticated for the business it serves can be counterproductive.

A multinational tech company spent two years restructuring HR to reposition HR as a strategic partner to business. Yet, the business still expected a high-touch, highly operations-focused HR team because the function had never clarified whether it was meant to enable innovation or maintain operational excellence. The redesign failed not because the ideas were bad but because they were misaligned with what the business perceived to be valuable.

So, how do we address these challenges and ensure better alignment and integration into the future?

Whether you are in the middle of a strategy cycle or starting one, we recommend the following steps to ensure alignment between purpose, mandate, and strategy.

Taking the first steps

Diagnose the current perceptions

Begin by gathering insights from both business stakeholders and HR teams on their current perception of HR’s purpose, mandate, and strategy. Use interviews, surveys, and focus groups to map out current perceptions and combine them by analyzing current use cases to evaluate the authority of HR when making specific decisions or executing specific projects.

You can use the following questions to get started:

• How does the business describe our value proposition as HR?
• Which decisions can we make independently?
• How does business define the success of HR?
• How do we describe success as HR?

Use these questions to determine whether there is alignment between the current stated HR purpose, the implied mandate, and the strategy. 

 Identify the gaps between the current and desired state

Once you have collected the data, bring key business stakeholders from the business and HR together to discuss. Highlight the discrepancies in the data to facilitate a conversation regarding choices and where HR does not have the requisite mandate to deliver. It is important to remember that there is no right or wrong, but rather to ensure alignment between expectations and being pragmatic on what is required to execute effectively.

To make this conversation more tangible, we use the following image to position the different strategic choices of the type of HR function that could be present in the organization, each with its own requirements and focus.

It’s important to understand that these four choices aren’t “better” or “worse” than each other; instead, they represent different expectations and purposes for HR. For clarity, we’ve assigned each a description, examples of its priorities, and the requirements for HR to operate at this level. Use the table below to pinpoint where HR is today versus where HR should be in the future:

For the Strategic Choices of “Strategic Contributor” and “Transformation Catalyst,” having HR leadership representation at the business executive level is non-negotiable, and we would even advocate for HR to have a permanent Board seat for the Transformation Catalyst.

During this step, it is essential to have business stakeholders agree to the implications of choices. For example, if the business decides that HR is a “service provider,” then the implication is that there should be no expectation of a lot of resources being allocated to culture, analytics, and other advanced HR practices. Similarly, suppose the expectation is to be a strategic contributor. In that case, there has to be investment in an HR team with the skillset to deliver solutions related to talent management and culture.

Translate the strategic choices into priorities

Once the strategic choice is agreed upon, it can be used to identify gaps that need to be addressed. For example, if HR is currently viewed as a “Guardian of Governance,” yet the agreement is that the function needs to be a strategic contributor, what practices need to move and within which timeframe?

We use the following model as the framework to identify what needs to change:

• Strategy: What needs to change in the strategic priorities and direction of HR regarding priorities and focus?
• Structure: Given the strategic choice, is your HR Operating Model still a good fit? This includes representing HR at appropriate business levels and forums.
• Skills: Which skills do we need to build in HR to drive the strategic choice effectively?
• Systems of Work: Are our technology, data, and processes at the desired level of maturity to drive this strategic choice?
• Stakeholder Management: Which perceptions do we need to actively change in our engagement with key stakeholders as an HR team.
• Leadership: Can the current HR leadership team deliver on these expectations?

Move to action

The last step is to address the gaps identified in the previous step in an intentional manner. We usually advise drawing up a clear roadmap and planning to run these initiatives as part of the HR Strategy Implementation as one of the strategic value pillars. In other words, make it a formal priority as part of the strategy implementation and ensure that it is monitored and reported upon. 

How we can help

At AIHR, we partner with HR leadership teams like yours to bring clarity to the current state of your HR purpose, mandate, and strategy alignment. We use our specially developed diagnostic tool to audit your current HR practices, pinpointing the perception gaps between business and HR regarding value. From there, we provide you with tangible, actionable recommendations to bridge these gaps and unlock your HR team’s strategic potential.

Final words

This article has explored why clarifying and aligning HR’s purpose, mandate, and strategy is the absolute foundation for impact. We’ve highlighted common traps that lead to misalignment and the critical choices HR leaders must make to unlock strategic value.

It’s time to stop making things work on assumptions and start building HR on a foundation of shared understanding. Your journey to unlocking HR’s full strategic potential begins with this critical conversation.