The success and advancement of organizations are the results of hard work and careful planning. For organizations to achieve their goals, they need a solid organizational strategy. However, even the best strategic plan for the organization will only be effective if the HR plan is aligned with it. An effective HR plan is a tool to help organizations align their organizational goals with their HR capabilities. Therefore, every organization must have a clear HR plan to support its growth and development strategies and to achieve a competitive advantage.
Given the twists and turns that occurred during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, business leaders must learn a lesson from them to start charting a new path for the future. Thus, we must re-evaluate the HRM approach by finding a solid strategy essential to creating an effective HR plan that helps the organization achieve its goals and strategy for the coming years.
Shift from Traditional to Strategic
When shifting from traditional managerial performance to a more strategic role in the organization, the HR plan increasingly influences the organization’s success. Thus, the focus of HRM in the organization will shift from the traditional to the strategic way of working. It includes greater responsibility for employee experience and well-being, organization culture, emotionally intelligent leadership, diversity and equity, and data-driven foresight.
In other words, as business climates and regulations constantly evolve, so too do HR practices. Also, future business leaders should consider creating an effective HR plan that foresight the future and achieves the organization’s vision. As a future manager, while preparing your HR plan, you need to ask a set of critical strategic questions and discuss them with your HR professionals:
Question 1: How can HR analytics be leveraged to make the organization more proactive?
HR analytics has become a significant part of the strategic role of HR in organizations. Proactive leaders focus on data-driven HR vision, actions, and decisions and will be ahead of their competitors in the future.
As a strategic leader, you must objectively promote and apply HR analytics and integrate it into the HR plan. It links the results to the organization’s strategy to obtain a clear future vision and expectations for the organization.
Question 2: How will the concept of employement change in the organization?
Work methods have changed during the changes and crises in the business world today, such as the COVID-19 crisis. Many factors and shifts have taken place in the employees’ workplaces, from within the office to virtual work remotely. Or there may be a new balance between the two genres. Related questions to ask include:
- How do you expect these factors to continue to evolve?
- If your competitors did things differently, would you follow suit?
- What part of your customer and employee experience should you hold firmly?
- How can you ensure your employees’ trust and confidence in the work environment you provide?
Question 3: How to discover and respond to evolving employee opinions and expectations?
Organizations that value the opinions of their employees and create a culture of listening to them will also have an advantage in the future. Employee feedback can be a transformative strategic tool if leaders build trust by responding to feedback as transparently and quickly as possible. Related questions to ask include:
- How can you improve your current employee feedback and survey methods?
- What strategic goals can you achieve by benefiting from employee feedback?
- How will you ensure that your employees know you value their opinions, ideas, and expectations?
Question 4: How do employees adapt to the new regulations flexibly and smoothly?
As a successful business leader, you must prioritize making changes as flexible and smooth as possible for your employees. Note that this will help managers and employees to absorb changes and adapt to new policies or procedures. Related questions to ask include:
- How can the leadership team improve how critical organizational updates are received, processed, and communicated internally?
- How will making these changes affect managers and employees?
Question 5: What are the effects of the organization’s culture in the future?
Amidst the changing work environment, you, as a leader of the HR team, must proactively shape the culture of your new and evolving organization. Specifically, you may need an updated plan to bring the organization’s culture and values into new HR practices and recruit and train. Related questions to ask include:
- How will you achieve what is most important to the organization?
- How can you encourage employees to incorporate this culture and values into their interactions inside and outside the workplace?
Question 6: How to enhance institutional knowledge?
Talents are one of the main pillars of institutional knowledge and must implement appropriate plans to retain them in the future. As a foresight leader, you need to identify when the organization will most likely experience corporate knowledge drain, also known as “brain drain,” in the future. For example, do you have many permanent employees who can retire around the same time? Does your HR analytics expect another big turnover event due to other factors? For example, the desire to work remotely and opportunities to work with competitors? An organization with its HR practices can take some steps now to improve its future situation. Of which:
- Develop and discuss a succession plan with the leadership team and identify future leaders.
- Establish internal processes to obtain institutional knowledge regularly.
- Keep existing employees more involved in personal and professional development opportunities.
- Explore future HR trends.
Developing a comprehensive HR plan is essential to helping your organization achieve its goals. It aligns the organization’s mission with the business plan, ensuring that you can execute the strategy while pursuing your organization’s goals.
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