How do I develop an HR strategy?

Question:

Hi, I work for a company that is a training resource provider with an employee count of about 30. My manager has asked me to draw up the HR strategy for our company for the coming year. Since this is the first time for me in this position, I am not sure how to go about with this. Do you have any advice on how I can start on it?

Answer:

Developing a comprehensive yearly (or 5-year) HR strategy is necessary for every organization. Since you are new in this position, you can start of by understanding why it is important. Your HR strategy is based on the needs analysis of your workplace and is directed towards achieving the defined strategic goals of your organization. The HR strategy is important because it helps communicate the strategic goals of your organization for the coming year.

Developing your department’s strategy plan will allow you to communicate the HR function’s contributions to the organization, or in other words, will help you answer your boss’s question –‘How can the HR department help achieve the company’s yearly strategic goals?’. Since each organization is different, this is a difficult question to give a generalized answer to. However, the below steps can be suited for most companies for HR strategy development:

1. Start by clarifying exactly what your boss needs and wants from you as well as level of detail required. You don’t want to be spending hours developing a detailed plan that the boss doesn’t need or want.
2. It would be worthwhile to conduct a SWOT analysis of your organization before you start. Find out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks that affect your business. The SWOT analysis will help you identify gaps that your department can help fill in.
3. After the SWOT analysis, take a look at your organization’s overall performance vis-à-vis the target for the past year. Find out what the problems were faced. For example if you notice that the turnover is very, you might have to go back further to 2010 and see if it was any different, then single-out factors that you think could have been responsible for the change this year.
4. Once you have identified the issues and challenges, it’s time to address them by drawing up SMART objectives for 2012. SMART objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
5. Develop an action plan for implementing your HR strategy. Create a timeline for the successful completion of your key objectives. If your HR strategy is detailed, you can also highlight options for the department heads in your organization, so that they may choose how to best tackle issues at a departmental level.
6. With your SMART objectives and action plan in place, its time to introduce your action plan to your organization. Organize training and discussion sessions for senior management in order to raise awareness and reinforce the importance of their acceptance of the HR strategy plan.
7. The success of your HR strategy lies in proper implementation, and good implementation requires that you communicate your plan to the rest of the workforce. It is important to get employees at all levels on-board with your strategic initiative. You must communicate with employees to let them know how they fit in the overall plan and how they will benefit from the plan on a personal level. This will also help you gain acceptance and ensure compliance with the program.