Employees are the driver of your business, so taking time to have a strategic plan for human resources is essential. Without an HR plan, your business will face challenges that might have been avoided. So, turn your HR department from task-focused to strategy-driven by setting the tone at the start of the year. Explore the core functions of HR to see how you can become more efficient and help move the company forward during the year. Below are how we structure our planning conversations to ensure success throughout the year.
Step 1: Determine Your Objectives for a Successful Year
Whether you are a new business getting off the ground or have a full well-oiled HR machine, determining your HR objectives is imperative. For small or new businesses, these goals can be simple: finalize an employee handbook, create HR procedures, or explore recruiting. For larger, more developed businesses, you might think more broadly: hone your recruitment and retention strategies, develop employee engagement and growth, or streamline current procedures. Regardless of what they are, clearly lay out and define your objectives.
Step 2: Determine Your Resources You Need
Once you set your objectives, determine the resources you need to accomplish them. Do you already have the people, time, and financial resources to obtain your goals? If not, consider outsourcing some functions or perhaps hiring additional personnel. If you cannot financially achieve the objectives, you might have to rework them to something more realistic. Resource management is essential for a successful year, so steps 1 and 2 might happen simultaneously.
Step 3: Determine How Your Will Measure HR’s Successes
Lastly, once you assess your objectives and resources, determine how you will measure success. For concrete objectives, such as having a finalized employee handbook, the measurement is simple. But for others, like honing certain strategies or practices, knowing you’ve attained the goal may be less clear. In these cases, find something as concrete as possible against which you can measure success. For example, if your objective is to create more efficient recruitment practices, how long does it take you to fill a role? What is the cost of that? Once you know this, determine where you want those numbers to be at the end of the year. If it takes 60 days to fill a role, the goal can be to decrease that to 45 days. Or, if the cost is $5,000, the goal can be to decrease that to $4,000.
By taking the time to set clear objectives, assess your resources, and determine how you will measure progress, you set up your HR department for success. They have clear goals and expectations, and they have an idea of how to dedicate their resources.
If while going through this process you need more resources or help in the planning, we are happy to step beside you! Learn more about our HR support, or contact us today.
