Performance Benchmarking
Comparing the company’s performance against industry standards and leading practices to identify areas for improvement.
Several recent executive orders have caused many of our HR executive clients to react, rethink, and strategize how to best address them in their respective organizations. The challenge to be responsive while also being thoughtful and cognizant of your organization’s culture and brand is real. And there is every possibility that the need to be responsive to future executive orders or changes will remain.
How do you stay ahead of things? How do you prepare your HR organization, and focus your teams on the right priorities? And how do you do all this while maintaining your organization’s culture and employee esprit de corps?
Our work with current clients across industries both directly affected by the executive orders as well as indirectly affected has allowed us to highlight three critical ways we recommend HR executives move from reaction to effective action and movement.
How are HR professionals feeling towards these executive orders?
%
do not feel prepared to address implications.
Source: SHRM, 2025
How are HR professionals feeling towards these executive orders?
%
do not feel prepared to address implications.
Source: SHRM, 2025
How are HR professionals feeling towards these executive orders?
%
do not feel prepared to address implications.
Source: SHRM, 2025
Now What: Recommended Actions for HR
As HR navigates this shifting landscape, ScottMadden recommends a proactive approach tailored to your organization’s risk tolerance and readiness for change:
Compliance and Risk
Identify, audit, and adjust your organization’s exposure to compliance risk and clarify your position on core values
- Review and update all HR policies for DEI, immigration, EEO, and hybrid work conditions
- Assess existing exposures to government funding (contracts, grants, etc.) and compliance obligations
- Revisit and determine your organizational policy on AI
- Document your organization’s stance on return to work
- Audit employee records to identify areas of risk or inconsistency
- Cleanse internal documentation (e.g., knowledgebase articles) to reflect current policy
Operational Practices
Align operational practices with updated policies and evolving requirements
- Validate talent acquisition, performance management, promotion, and succession planning processes to ensure fairness, neutrality, and legal alignment
- Reassess workforce planning and retention strategies, considering potential restructuring or market shifts
- Review mentorship and development programs to ensure alignment with current compliance expectations
Strategic Position
Shift HR leadership from reactive to proactive in managing continued change
- Develop and cascade coordinated communications and manager talking points, addressing both external changes and your organization’s response
- Build scenario plans and HR playbooks for potential policy changes or future reversals
- Determine your stance on emerging talent sources
- Monitor organizational culture through pulse surveys and focus groups to assess employee engagement, motivation, and alignment with evolving expectations
- Equip leaders and managers with training and tools to lead through change, manage with sensitivity, and uphold inclusive and compliant practices
Compliance and Risk
Identify, audit, and adjust your organization’s exposure to compliance risk and clarify your position on core values
- Review and update all HR policies for DEI, immigration, EEO, and hybrid work conditions
- Assess existing exposures to government funding (contracts, grants, etc.) and compliance obligations
- Revisit and determine your organizational policy on AI
- Document your organization’s stance on return to work
- Audit employee records to identify areas of risk or inconsistency
- Cleanse internal documentation (e.g., knowledgebase articles) to reflect current policy
Operational Practices
Align operational practices with updated policies and evolving requirements
- Validate talent acquisition, performance management, promotion, and succession planning processes to ensure fairness, neutrality, and legal alignment
- Reassess workforce planning and retention strategies, considering potential restructuring or market shifts
- Review mentorship and development programs to ensure alignment with current compliance expectations
Strategic Position
Shift HR leadership from reactive to proactive in managing continued change
- Develop and cascade coordinated communications and manager talking points, addressing both external changes and your organization’s response
- Build scenario plans and HR playbooks for potential policy changes or future reversals
- Determine your stance on emerging talent sources
- Monitor organizational culture through pulse surveys and focus groups to assess employee engagement, motivation, and alignment with evolving expectations
- Equip leaders and managers with training and tools to lead through change, manage with sensitivity, and uphold inclusive and compliant practices
Compliance and Risk
Identify, audit, and adjust your organization’s exposure to compliance risk and clarify your position on core values
- Review and update all HR policies for DEI, immigration, EEO, and hybrid work conditions
- Assess existing exposures to government funding (contracts, grants, etc.) and compliance obligations
- Revisit and determine your organizational policy on AI
- Document your organization’s stance on return to work
- Audit employee records to identify areas of risk or inconsistency
- Cleanse internal documentation (e.g., knowledgebase articles) to reflect current policy
Operational Practices
Align operational practices with updated policies and evolving requirements
- Validate talent acquisition, performance management, promotion, and succession planning processes to ensure fairness, neutrality, and legal alignment
- Reassess workforce planning and retention strategies, considering potential restructuring or market shifts
- Review mentorship and development programs to ensure alignment with current compliance expectations
Strategic Position
Shift HR leadership from reactive to proactive in managing continued change
- Develop and cascade coordinated communications and manager talking points, addressing both external changes and your organization’s response
- Build scenario plans and HR playbooks for potential policy changes or future reversals
- Determine your stance on emerging talent sources
- Monitor organizational culture through pulse surveys and focus groups to assess employee engagement, motivation, and alignment with evolving expectations
- Equip leaders and managers with training and tools to lead through change, manage with sensitivity, and uphold inclusive and compliant practices
With change also comes incredible opportunity – in the tone it can set for your teams, in the talent influx that you may be able to tap into, and in the energy it can bring to key parts of your strategy.
ScottMadden's experience working across HR, and our depth in operational design, uniquely positions us to help you navigate the changes ahead.
ScottMadden's experience working across HR, and our depth in operational design, uniquely positions us to help you navigate the changes ahead.