Planning and Implementing Strategic HR Policies

To achieve success in your human resources career, organizations need to make sure their HR strategies are lined up with any business strategies, environmental prospects and what sets the firm apart from others as well as its individualistic competency.

The Benefits of Strategic HR Planning

Human resource planning refers to the process of formulating HR strategies and designing programs and schemes to carry out their implementation. If done the right way, strategic HR planning results in several direct and indirect advantages for the organization.

Proactive Instead of Reactive Behavior

Proactive behavior refers to looking forward and having a clear vision and aims regarding the future of the company and how Human resources can be used to achieve the goals set. On the other hand, being reactive means dealing with issues as they simultaneously arise. In general, a reactive company could risk losing sight of the long-term course that should be set for the organization. In the past three years, the number of bankruptcies has greatly increased which is why any firm needs to make sure they keep a strong grip on their vital talent and try to introduce special incentives that would give a boost to any key performer going through a rough patch. While it may seem strange to be spending on employees when the company is going through hard times economically, it is necessary if the company wishes to keep its star employees on board. Strategic human resource planning allows an organization to formulate a clear set of objectives that capitalizes on its key talents and knowledge.

Managers tend to rely on their perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints to handle problems and make business choices. The assumptions on which their decisions are based are followed by success only if it has ecological validity in terms of the environment where the business operates. Conversely, this can lead to serious issues when the assumptions made are no longer of relevance. Strategic HR planning encourages critical thinking along with the creation of fresh initiatives only in the case of there being continued progress instead of a stiff process with a distinct start and a specific end date for completion. This is why many firms have designed an executive committee that is comprised of the CEO and an HR professional who discuss strategic problems regularly and alter the organization’s whole HR strategic and program structure every so often. Strategic human resource planning allows a company to understand where they stand presently and visualize where they aim to be in the future.

When the business strategy of the overall organization is combined with strategic human resource planning, organizations can identify any possible issues that may arise and any opportunities with consideration to the individuals responsible for the implementation of the strategy.

Companies, in general, hold a strong idea of who they tend to perform better than those who do not, especially when it comes to long-term performance. Strategic HR planning allows an organization to strengthen, modify and even readdress the present values of the company and maintain a culture that values aspects such as growth, innovation, teamwork and customer focus.

HR Strategies for Improving Company Performance

There is no textbook definition of what constitutes a good or bad HR strategy. Instead, the effect of an HR strategy always relies on how well it aligns with the rest of the factors involved. This statement leads to a basic yet important expectation from HR strategies that are broadly supported by research. When a company matches its HR strategies with other factors concerning the issue, it eventually results in better performance and if this alignment does not take place then there is inevitable incompetence and lack of consistency in the company’s performance.

The four factors that the company must keep in mind when deciding what HR strategies, they need to implement for there to be a positive impact on the organization’s performance: the firm’s strategies, characteristics, capabilities as well as its environment.

An HR strategy contributes to the positive growth of an organization. This is achieved when the company has a good fit between the human resource strategies and the general strategic direction of the company. The HR strategies applied in a company need to be in harmony with the environment in which the organization operates and be closely adjusted to the particular organization’s features. The strategies should allow capitalization of the key capabilities of the firm and be equally consistent and coordinate accordingly.

A corporation can have several businesses that are somewhat related or are entirely different. When it comes to corporate strategy, it refers to the unique combination of businesses every corporation chooses to take hold of and how resources are managed and inter-flow through these businesses. The key strategic business-related decisions that occur when a firm is at a corporate level involve factors such as growth, acquisition, diversification, and divestment. Business strategies in an organization refer to the development and application of strategies by fairly independent organizations, even if they belong to a bigger corporation.

Corporate Strategies

Corporate strategies with matching HR strategies are broadly divided into two main types. Companies that take on evolutionary business strategies tend to take part in the vigorous acquisition of new and upcoming businesses even if these businesses have no general relation to one another. Managing change in evolutionary firms is the key to survival. Entrepreneurship is reinforced and gaining control does not have a lot of importance considering each sector is generally autonomous. Fast responses, entrepreneurship, sharing risks and flexibility are all that proper HR strategy foster in businesses. Evolutionary corporations are not dedicated to a singular industry or business and may appoint employees from the outside market based on requirement and let go of them to minimize costs if necessary, with no promises of being rehired. Such HR strategies are suitable since they accept the reality that change, and development are constant in an organization. On the other hand, some corporations tend to be somewhat picky about their method of growth. They refrain from the acquisition of firms that are unrelated to their current industry and even companies in that particular industry that are not the same as them.