I have been asked by management to develop a five-year recruitment plan that supports the companys business plan. What should the proposal cover?
— Starting from Scratch, services, Singapore
Consider yourself fortunate. Your management team understands the importance of human resources in driving business strategy. Producing a great strategic staffing plan for human resources further supports your departments credibility.
Human resources uses the same process to create its strategic plan as do other key departments–from marketing or finance to technology and operations. The human resources plan outlines the companys people strategy, ensuring that you have the right people with the right competencies in the right jobs at the right time.
Start your plan with a big-picture overview. Then drill down into the tactical-action steps needed to achieve company objectives. Customize and personalize your plan, but remember to include the following main sections:
Environmental scan
Vision, mission and values
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis
You conduct an environmental scan by highlighting relevant data and trends affecting the department. Demonstrate challenges to your company from four key factors: government influence, economic conditions, competition for talent and workforce demographics.
Its also important to address your departments vision, mission and values–key elements that provide directional guidance for the human resources department. A clearly stated mission and vision help support human resources credibility. A set of well-defined values affirms what is important in an organizations culture and helps shape employee behavior.
To gain strategic insights, conduct a SWOT analysis. Seek answers to four basic questions, focusing on people implications:
What are your organizations strengths?
What are your organizations weaknesses?
What opportunities could you seize to move the organization forward?
What threats do you see that could hold the organization back?
Include in your SWOT analysis coverage of staff capabilities, benefit programs, employee services, facilities and technology, as well as the reputation of human resources within the organization. A SWOT analysis may identify critical needs to be addressed, or it may pinpoint unknown capabilities to leverage. Customize your plan to focus on any of the following human resources processes that will be critical to the companys future success:
Organization structure
Competencies
Staffing
Retention
Succession
Diversity
Development
Rewards
Recognition
Quality of work/life
Once youve completed the SWOT analysis, establish long-term goals as well as short-term objectives, with milestones that can be accomplished within six months to a year. Each short-term objective will need an action plan and a budget.
Set up regular reviews of the human resources plan so you can stay at the front end of emerging trends and address unforeseen issues as they occur. Communicate results of the plan in measurable terms–such as budget and time–to keep your management team in the loop and engaged in people strategy, and to show a return on the companys investment.
SOURCE: Patsy Svare, managing director, The Chatfield Group, Glenview, Illinois, May 20, 2004.