How to Develop a Human Resource Strategy

Human resource professionals have the potential to make a great contribution to the strategic management of an organization. One way to develop an effective human resource strategy is through the use of a strategy checklist.

By developing a complete human resource strategy that ties in to the strategic objectives of your organization as a whole, you can create a great positive impact on your company’s bottom line.

Step 1: Develop a checklist in an Excel spreadsheet in order to understand the strategy of your organization.

Highlight the key driving forces, including technology and human resources, which may impact the strategy of your department. Define the consequences of these driving forces and determine which are positive and which are negative.

Step 2: Conduct a SWOT analysis of your organization.

Determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Risks that affect your business. As an HR professional, you should focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the people within your organization. Consider the current skills of your staff and identify where skills and education levels may be improved.

Step 3: Determine critical personnel issues.

Identify personnel issues which may have a direct impact on the effectiveness of your organization’s strategy. Prioritize these issues so that you know which problems must be tackled first.

Step 4: Develop an action plan for implementing your HR strategy.

Create a time line for the successful completion of your key objectives. Highlight options for the managers of your organization so that they may choose how best to attack their individual personnel issues on a departmental level.

Step 5: 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.

Step 6: Advertise your plan to your 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 will benefit from the plan on a personal level in order to gain acceptance and ensure compliance with the program.