What does it mean to be strategic from an HR standpoint?

1. What does it mean to be strategic from an HR standpoint? • One or more HR professionals (leaders) are involved in the organization’s strategic planning efforts (best-case scenario). • HR will develop a strategic plan to support the overarching plan. • HR is asked to lead strategic planning for the organization. • HR is asked to find a professional to lead strategic planning for the organization. • HR is an advocate for strategic planning so the organization has a foundation to develop its plans.

2. What is Strategic Planning? Clarify or develop a vision, mission and values. Conduct a SWOT analysis. Identify four to six key focus areas. Develop strategic goals. Create action plans. Develop a follow-up process and communication plan.

3. Involvement and Inertia Involvement is a key leadership practice to ensure you facilitate ownership and gain commitment and involvement. Know who to involve, when, how much, how often. Inertia is an organization’s tendency to follow established behavioral patterns even in response to dramatic environmental shifts.

4. Strategic Plan and Vision A strategic plan is a road map to lead an organization from where it is now to where it would like to be. A vision is a depiction of what you would like your organization and HR department to be like in the future. It is synonymous with intended results A vision is a specific future destination that is concrete. Example: “To put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s.” A vision statement is a brief explanation (one or two sentences) with some explicit commentary about why the vision is desirable. Vision statements should be more than slogans. They are a distillation of your organization’s values, dreams and priorities. While an organization should exist for one, single purpose, multiple visions can coexist

5. Characteristics of an Effective Vision Imaginable: Conveys a picture of what the future will look like. Desirable: Appeals to your long-term interests and the interests of other stakeholders. Feasible: Has realistic, attainable goals. Focused: Is clear enough to help guide decision-making. Flexible: Is general enough to allow for individual initiative and alternative responses in light of changing conditions. Comprehensible: Is easy to communicate; can be successfully explained within five minutes.

6. What is Mission? A mission is the purpose or reason for existence of your business. • It is a general heading or direction—it is abstract. • Example: “To increase man’s capability to explore the heavens.” A mission should be timeless. It should rarely, if ever, change.

7. Values Values are the essential and enduring tenets of an organization They have a profound effect on how everyone in the organization thinks and acts. Values create alignment and drive behavior. They provide a framework to help make decisions, prioritize actions and interact with each other. Types of values Core values are thevalues applied in daily choices. >For example, a core value might be honesty; you act on it when you consistently tell the truth and are open with people. Inspirational values are the values you want more of in your life. >For example, achieve better work/life balance. If you are not actively working on it, develop strategies about how to achieve it.

8. Key Focus Areas Key focus areas are the areas in which the organization will focus its attention in the next 1-3 years. Examples: Employees: XYZ Corporation will proactively attract and retain a committed and qualified professional staff to meet our clients’ needs. Programs: The HR department will define HR IT systems and programs to streamline processes and better serve our stakeholders.

9. Implementing Strategy Ensure that leaders can communicate the plan and manage performance. Assign ownership of key focus areas and goals. Establish interim debrief sessions with owners and measure the progress. Acknowledge and make success visible. Link strategic goals and values to the performance systems.