Your employees can account for up to 80% of the costs of doing business. Similarly, revenue success correlates to employees’ thriving in their roles. Evidently, how you hire, retain, and manage your people directly impacts your company. Just as you create a carefully devised financial plan, you should also be proactive and create a thoughtful Human Resources (HR) Plan.
Your organization’s HR Plan should be a living document that continues to evolve as your business changes – sometimes even daily. A well formulated HR Plan will support the achievement of organizational goals, allow you to remain competitive in your market niche, be flexible enough so that you can adapt to changes, and allow you to manage your employees effectively and efficiently so that you earn a profit.
Through human resource planning, management prepares to have the right people in the right places at the right times to fulfill both organizational and individual objectives. The HR planning function involves three steps, which flow from one to the next.
Reviewing organizational goals and aligning HR requirements to support those goals.
Determining your demand for qualified people to support HR needs.
Satisfying your supply of qualified people to support your demand.
The big question you should ask yourself to align your HR needs with your business goals should be:
An organization’s future demand for qualified people has a large impact on its HR Plan. The three principle factors that influence the demand for human resources are:
External factors such as changes in the economy or legislation
Strategic factors such as changes in sales through expansion or closure
Labor factors such as resignations, terminations, and illness
A vast array of forecasting techniques can be used to predict an organization’s future demand for employees. Unfortunately, even sophisticated formal methods are not exact. The two key sources of supply, however, do not change; you either grow your own talent internally or source it externally. If you choose to develop talent from within, you will need a plan for grooming individuals to ready them for promotion or reclassification.
Conducting a simple audit where you identify each employee’s skills, abilities and personal attributes will assist you to “map out” your internal supply of human resources. At any given time, you should have a “snapshot picture” of the competencies of individuals within your current workforce and a timeframe for promotability.
For external hiring, you need to identify which resources you have had the most success through. Have you built a relationship with a local school or college that can supply reliable human resources? Does your website include a Career Opportunities section where candidates can apply directly? Do you use social media? Have you partnered with a recruitment firm who knows your business and can work with you to readily fulfill your recruitment needs? Some firms, such as TPD, offer a full range of services for recruitment as well as workforce planning and HR strategizing.
Although HR Plans are often created annually to support the achievement of annual business plan goals, Human Resources is dynamic. Therefore, your HR Plan must be flexible and capable of evolving with your business. To help you get started, TPD has provided some guidelines to assist you in making your HR Plan support your business goals and achieve the results you are striving for.
Downlad the complete Human Resources Cycle E-Book to begin building your HR Plan!
Susan Alley, VP of HR Services
Alley is a senior executive with significant consulting experience in human resources in both unionized and non-unionized environments. Alley has provided strategic and practical solutions to internal and external client corporations in a variety of industry sectors including financial services, hospitality, real estate, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, government, professional services and high tech. Her strong leadership, communication and problem solving skills, coupled with a broad range of experience, provide a strategic and disciplined approach to customer service, business, and human resources management.