Using Foundational Human Resources to Develop a Strategic Human Resources Plan

In order for strategic human resources to be successful, foundational human resources should be in place first. 

This, unfortunately, is a common mistake employers often make. They have a really good understanding of what strategic human resources (HR) is, but they are not implementing the foundational HR that needs to be in place before an organization can succeed strategically. 

For example, if a company wants to offer career-pathing, to effectively create a map of where employees can grow in their jobs that allows them the opportunity to expand and develop within the organization, they need to first spend time creating well-documented job descriptions that have full competencies included. Otherwise, they probably won’t be successful with their overall strategic goal. 

It’s like building a house. You can’t put the roof on before you lay the foundation. 

First Things First

In order to take advantage of strategic HR, you need to first take a look at what you’re building all of it on. You have to look at: 

• Do you have a clear vision? You want to have a clear understanding of what the end result should look like in order to achieve your vision. For example, I want to be able to show a path through which a receptionist can become director of operations.
• Do you have a plan? You want to know ahead of time what the process should look like. For example, in the example cited above, you may want to create a choice of paths toward the director of operations position, such as through Customer Service and through Manufacturing, in order to provide variety to the employees.
• Do you have a “map?” You must have a systematic map from the very beginning phase when you bring an employee on board. For example, you should have a comprehensive on-boarding and orientation process, as well as milestones marked out along the way. These may be key positions achieved or specific learning objectives completed.
• Do you offer training and development? You have to be able to identify what training and development needs there are within your organization, and what must be provided outside the organization. Each training objective must be aligned with the overall plan.
• Do you have a good file system in place? The information you’re going to need to use in order to develop a strategic plan is going to primarily be found in your job descriptions, employee handbook, performance reviews and employee files. If these files are incomplete or disorganized, finding the necessary information will be difficult at best.

How to Plan for Strategic HR

I spend a lot of time with executives and senior-level managers in my day-to-day business. I interview them; I get a very good, firm understanding of their industry and of their business; I talk to them about their business overall, not just the HR aspect of it. 

I do this because, when I’m talking to a company about aligning their strategic goals with their HR and company initiatives, I need to understand where their market is and how the company moves within its industry. 

For example, I have a company I once worked with whose employees were mostly bi-lingual—and not a common language like Spanish or something you would often hear; they spoke a rather unique language. In addition, a segment of the client base for this company also spoke this particular language. 

So when I was talking to the company about its strategic plan for HR, I had to build on the fact that they needed pretty specific employees. They couldn’t just go out there and recruit any old college graduate. They needed to find people who spoke this particular language so the employee would be able to communicate with their customers. 

Once I had a better understanding of their company, I could help them figure out where they wanted to go by asking them: 

• “What are you goals—immediate and long-term?”
• “Where do you see yourself in three years? In five years?
• “How do you envision your company in the future?” 

Then we looked at some of the challenges and problems within the organization. We reviewed what HR practices were in place at the time of our discussion and I questioned them as to how they wanted their HR function to operate. 

Once I had all the information I needed, I took it—plus the results from surveys I ran—and looked at what the company wanted to achieve. 

Doing this allowed me to give the company a good overview of what they were doing well and what they needed to improve on in order to develop a more strategic HR plan. This really helped them gain footing as they moved forward.

In order to take advantage of strategic HR, you need to first take a look at what you’re building all of it on.