Role of Human Resource department in strategic planning of an organization :

There is an ongoing debate about the role of human resources in strategic planning. In some cases, senior managers view Hyman resources management solely as a compliance function. Other senior managers look to the HR function for more consultative services such as leadership development, performance management and employee engagement. Often times HR is called to help implement a key initiative of strategy after the decision has already been made.

Meanwhile, HR professionals are looking for the proverbial “seat at the table” in the strategic planning process. Some will tell you that the role of human resources in the strategy process is to focus on workforce planning and succession planning. While these functions are important to the successful implementation of strategic plans, there are also opportunities for HR professionals to be involved in the development of strategic plans.

The fact is that strategy is rarely developed without the consideration of human capital. Perhaps more importantly, no strategic plan is successful without the successful recruitment, deployment, development and management of human capital. So then, why wouldn’t the HR professional be “at the table”?

The answer is that the HR function must create a perception of value throughout the planning cycle by demonstrating its knowledge, alignment and success. In other words, the HR function must successfully prove its ability to create value to the organization at every step in the strategic planning process from environmental scanning, to organizational assessment, to strategy development, implementation and performance measurement.

There are four guiding principles that will lead the HR professional to be invited to “the table” and more importantly that will ensure that his/her seat stays “reserved.”

1. Understand the strategy development and strategic planning process.

2. Know your business

3. Run HR like a business.

4. Take a position on strategic issue

5. Let’s explore each of these

· 6. Understand the strategy development and strategic planning process

In order to actively participate in the strategic planning process, it is important to have a solid understanding of the process. Strategic planning is the process of evaluating an organization’s operating environment, customers and competition, as well as its capabilities and competencies to define a strategy and then to make decisions on the allocation of resources (including its capital and people) to pursue the strategy.

A good strategic planning process is iterative, incorporating internal and external information, various functional expertise and cross-divisional management personnel throughout the year. Further, it aligns the entire organization with measurable metrics, which are tracked and evaluated on a regular basis.

It is important to establish an understanding of your organization’s strategic planning process and the decision-making process associated with it. At every stage in the strategic planning process information will be analyzed in order to make decisions. Seek out those opportunities and offer information and insight that will enable those conversations.

Strategic decisions will be made based on return on investment (ROI), economic profit or shareholder value creation, revenue growth, market share growth, margin, reputation or other factors. Companies also make decisions based upon short-term (sometimes quarterly) or long-term expectations, depending on the stage of growth and legal structure of the company. Once you understand the planning process and the decision-making criteria for your organization, you can begin to make inroads into the process. Your input into the process at every stage should be in alignment with the decision-making process of the company. In fact, your ability to align your conversations and actions with the process and decision-making criteria will at least get you on the “long list” of invitations to the “table.”

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS

Knowing you business will get you on the “short list” of invitations to a seat at the table of strategic planning. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of functional leaders miss their opportunity. Many are too focused on being experts in their field that they under-invest in developing expertise in their business.

In order to really understand your business you must know how the money flows as well as what are the levers that drive growth and profitability. It is important that you understand these levers and know how your organization and function can and does influence them.

For example, a commissioned sales force is often thought of as variable cost. The reality is that an infrastructure is needed to acquire, onboard, train, manage, develop and retain talent. There is a fixed cost component to every commissioned salesperson. You should be able to articulate the fixed costs ratio for hires for every new hire when having conversations with the C-suite.

It is also important that you know what’s happening in the marketplace in which you compete. Establish methods to stay abreast of environmental trends, customer trends, competitive trends and innovation that might be on the horizon. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to regularly spend time with operators and functional experts who have a finger on the pulse of the business. This will serve the dual purpose of developing trusting relationships with your internal customers.

It is equally important that you understand the jargon of business and, perhaps more importantly, the jargon of your business. The vernacular of business is ever-changing. C-level individuals continuously read and learn new concepts and new methodologies designed to enable them with tools to maneuver the treacherous waters of business. It is important that you stay abreast of these concepts as well. Whether you read books and/or business briefings, subscribe to Harvard Business Review or attend strategy conferences, be sure to exploit learning opportunities outside of your field of expertise. You will know you have reached a level of proficiency when you can effectively translate HR jargon to business jargon.

RUN HR LIKE A BUSINESS

Human resource management is a function of business. The function exists to manage the human capital of a business, thus, it is imperative that the goals of the function be in alignment with goals of the business. In order to accomplish this you must start by knowing your internal and external customers. What are the demands of the business units and corporate center that you serve? How will those demands shift over time? How do their demands impact their ability to deliver results to their clients? The answers to these questions and questions like them will enable you to craft a strategy to deliver solutions to your customers, thereby creating a perception of value that can be levered.

Secondly, it is important that you know your competition. This is sometimes a difficult concept for internal service functions; however, remember that everything can be outsourced! Regularly investigate and analyze the offerings of outsourcing companies capable of responding to requests for proposals to deliver any key aspect of your function. Similarly, investigate a business unit’s ability and/or interest in supplying itself with functional expertise.

Lastly, demonstrate and communicate value at appropriate times. This is sometimes counter-cultural for the HR profession; however, your success in a competitive environment depends not just on the value you add but also on who knows you add value. The first step in demonstrating/communicating value is to measure outcomes, not output. In other words, focus on the consequence, not the action. Communicate the incremental revenue growth generated in a month, not just the number of new hires in a month. Discuss the impact on earnings per share made by the promotion of senior managers who successfully completed an executive development program.

TAKE A POSITION ON A STRATEGIC ISSUE

When the time is right, leverage the aforementioned principles and take a position on a strategic issue that your company is facing. In order to get your invitation to the “table” you must be perceived as someone who can identify strategic issues and as someone who brings innovative solutions to the resolution of those issues.

Use good judgment when selecting the issue(s) for which you will engage yourself. Be practical and choose one that will generate a “quick win.” Search for a major new internal initiative (particularly those that “bubble up” in the organization), a major customer-focused initiative or identify an issue generated by negative news and the need for risk management. Also, be sure to provide strategic thought leadership, backed by facts and analysis when you engage. For example, it is not enough to tell the CEO or COO that turnover is high and that we need to work on employee engagement in certain business units to improve. Employee Engagement, while real and effective, is still an esoteric concept to most at the C-level.

Take the conversation deeper by explaining what the turnover is costing the company today and how much the continued cost will affect profitability over a multi-year period. Then, provide a list of initiatives that you propose (after consultation and involvement with line management) along with the expected costs and benefits of such activities. Show this information in terms of investments, costs and benefits over a period of time, along with how these initiatives will positively impact the bottom line over multiple years.

To score extra credit, explain the cost/benefit analysis in terms of net present value, economic profit and/or impact on earnings per share (if your company is publicly traded).

CONCLUSION

The ultimate goal of strategic planning is the identification and exploitation of opportunities along with the mitigation of risks, by aligning the goals and initiatives of an organization and by allocating the necessary and appropriate resources to deliver the desired results of its stakeholders.

The HR function can and should be involved at every step of the process. Successful execution of the aforementioned guiding principles throughout each phase of the planning process builds the perception of value of the HR professional and of the HR function.

Furthermore, the HR professional’s position is strengthened by providing fact-based insight to stakeholders to enable their strategies, by shaping HR functional plans and policies and procedures to align resources to enable the appropriate initiatives and activities, and by aligning performance management systems to the strategic plan.

For further details on this topic ,, Pl contact RK Gopal Nanduri on rkgnanduri@gmail.com

Preparation / Conducting The Strategic Planning.

Guidelines to Keep Perspective View during Planning.

Many managers spend most of their time "fighting fires" in the workplace. -- their time is spent realizing and reacting to problems. For these managers -- and probably for many of us -- it can be very difficult to stand back and take a hard look at what we want to accomplish and how we want to accomplish it. We're too buy doing what we think is making progress. However, one of the major differences between new and experienced managers is the skill to see the broad perspective, to take the long view on what we want to do and how we're going to do it. One of the best ways to develop this skill is through ongoing experience in strategic planning. The following guidelines may help you to get the most out of your strategic planning experience.
1. The real benefit of the strategic planning process is the process, not the plan document.
2. There is no "perfect" plan. There's doing your best at strategic thinking and implementation, and learning from what you're doing to enhance what you're doing the next time around.
3. The strategic planning process is usually not an "aha!" experience. It's like the management process itself -- it's a series of small moves that together keep the organization doing things right as it heads in the right direction.
4. In planning, things usually aren't as bad as you fear nor as good as you'd like.
5. Start simple, but start!

Stacking the deck in favor of a successful Strategic Planning Effort

{ How not to do Strategic Palnning}

It's best to have a team of planners conduct strategic planning. Therefore, it's important to have skills in developing and facilitating groups.

Commitees ( fro example,may have committees do environmental scan,get input from others) Conflict management in Groups.
Conflict Management (this topic provides basics in managing conflict in groups)]

Consultants :You may want to use a consultant to help you plan and carry out strategic planning

Creative Thinking :Very important when setting goals and how they will be reached

Innovation : Very important when designing strategies or methods to reach goals

Decision making : Useful when selecting which goals and strategies to follow.

Facilitating in Face to Face groups : These skills are very important when helping a group come to consensus

Focus groups ; Get input from internal and external customers to identify issues ,goals,methods

Group –based Problem Solving and decision making:These activities are at the core of stragic planning

Meeting management : Planners make a decision in meetings;these sklills will be very useful .

Problem solving : This is helpful,especially when tackling difficult decisions.

Value Diversity : It’s best tpo egt a wide variety of perspectives when planning.

Need Consultant or facilitator to help you with Planning?

You may want to consider using a facilitator from outside of your organization if:
1. Your organization has not conducted strategic planning before.
2. For a variety of reasons, previous strategic planning was not deemed to be successful.
3. There appears to be a wide range of ideas and/or concerns among organization members about strategic planning and current organizational issues to be addressed in the plan.
4. There is no one in the organization who members feel has sufficient facilitation skills.
5. No one in the organization feels committed to facilitating strategic planning for the organization.
6. Leaders believe that an inside facilitator will either inhibit participation from others or will not have the opportunity to fully participate in planning themselves.
7. Leaders want an objective voice, i.e., someone who is not likely to have strong predispositions about the organization's strategic issues and ideas.

Who should be involved :

Strategic planning should be conducted by a planning team. Consider the following guidelines when developing the team.
(Note that reference to boards of directors is in regard to organizations that are corporations.)
1. The chief executive and board chair should be included in the planning group, and should drive development and implementation of the plan.
2. Establish clear guidelines for membership, for example, those directly involved in planning, those who will provide key information to the process, those who will review the plan document, those who will authorize the document, etc.
3. A primary responsibility of a board of directors is strategic planning to effectively lead the organization. Therefore, insist that the board be strongly involved in planning, often including assigning a planning committee (often, the same as the executive committee).
4. Ask if the board membership is representative of the organization’s clientele and community, and if they are not, the organization may want to involve more representation in planning. If the board chair or chief executive balks at including more of the board members in planning, then the chief executive and/or board chair needs to seriously consider how serious the organization is about strategic planning!
5. Always include in the group, at least one person who ultimately has authority to make strategic decisions, for example, to select which goals will be achieved and how.
6. Ensure that as many stakeholders as possible are involved in the planning process.
7. Involve at least those who are responsible for composing and implementing the plan.
8. Involve someone to administrate the process, including arranging meetings, helping to record key information, helping with flipcharts, monitoring status of prework, etc.
9. Consider having the above administrator record the major steps in the planning process to help the organization conduct its own planning when the plan is next updated.

Note the following considerations:
10. Different types of members may be needed more at different times in the planning process, for example, strong board involvement in determining the organization’s strategic direction (mission, vision, and values), and then more staff involvement in determining the organization’s strategic analysis to determine its current issues and goals, and then primarily the staff to determine the strategies needed to address the issues and meet the goals.
11. In general, where there's any doubt about whether a certain someone should be involved in planning, it's best to involve them. It's worse to exclude someone useful then it is to have one or two extra people in planning -- this is true in particular with organizations where board members often do not have extensive expertise about the organization and its products or services.
12. Therefore, an organization may be better off to involve board and staff planners as much as possible in all phases of planning. Mixing the board and staff during planning helps board members understand the day-to-day issues of the organization, and helps the staff to understand the top-level issues of the organization.

You shoud invite all the people concerned to strataegic planning groups.

How Many Planning Meetings will we need ?

Number and Duration of Planning Meetings

1. New planners usually want to know how many meetings will be needed and what is needed for each meeting, i.e., they want a procedure for strategic planning. The number of meetings depends on whether the organization has done planning before, how many strategic issues and goals the organization faces, whether the culture of the organization prefers short or long meetings, and how much time the organization is willing to commit to strategic planning.
2. Attempt to complete strategic planning in at most two to three months, or momentum will be lost and the planning effort may fall apart.

Scheduling of Meetings

1. Have each meeting at most two to three weeks apart when planning. It's too easy to lose momentum otherwise.
2. The most important factor in accomplishing complete attendance to planning meetings is evidence of strong support from executives. Therefore, ensure that executives a) issue clear direction that they strongly support and value the strategic planning process, and b) are visibly involved in the planning process.

An Example Planning Process and Design of Meetings

One example of a brief planning process is the following which includes four planning meetings and develops a top-level strategic plan which is later translated into a yearly operating plan by the staff:
1. Planning starts with a half-day or all-day board retreat and includes introductions by the board chair and/or chief executive, their explanations of the organization's benefits from strategic planning and the organization's commitment to the planning process, the facilitator's overview of the planning process, and the board chairs and/or chief executive’s explanation of who will be involved in the planning process. In the retreat, the organization may then begin the next step in planning, whether this be visiting their mission, vision, values, etc. or identifying current issues and goals to which strategies will need to be developed. (Goals are often reworded issues.) Planners are asked to think about strategies before the next meeting.
2. The next meeting focuses on finalizing strategies to deal with each issue. Before the next meeting, a subcommittee is charged to draft the planning document, which includes updated mission, vision, and values, and also finalized strategic issues, goals, strategies. This document is distributed before the next meeting.
3. In the next meeting, planners exchange feedback about the content and format of the planning document. Feedback is incorporated in the document and it is distributed before the next meeting.
4. The next meeting does not require entire attention to the plan, e.g., the document is authorized by the board during a regular board meeting.
5. Note that in the above example, various subcommittees might be charged to gather additional information and distribute it before the next planning meeting.
6 Note, too, that the staff may take this document and establish a yearly operating plan which details what strategies will be implemented over the next year, who will do them, and by when.
7. No matter how serious organizations are about strategic planning, they usually have strong concerns about being able to find time to attend frequent meetings. This concern can be addressed by ensuring meetings are well managed, having short meetings as needed rather than having fewer but longer meetings, and having realistic expectations from the planning project.

Always First Do "Plan for a Plan"

Too often, planners jump into the planning process by reviewing the organization's mission or then establishing a vision and goals to achieve in the future. Instead, planners should always start by doing a "plan for a plan." When planner skip this step, they too often produce a plan that is not relevant to the organization, unrealistic to apply, and inflexible to the culture and limitations of the organization.

Strategic Analyses -- Analyzing External and Internal Environments

(Many planners prefer to start strategic planning by clarifying the mission, vision and/or values of the organization. Other planners prefer to start by taking a wide look around the external environment of the organization and also the inside of the organization, and then clarifying/strategizing what the organization should do as a result of what the planners find. If you prefer to address the mission, vision and/or values next, then skip to those sections later on below.)

A frequent complaint about strategic plans is that they are merely "to-do" lists of what to accomplish over the next few years. Or, others complain that strategic planning never seems to come in handy when the organization is faced with having to make a difficult, major decision. Or, other complain that strategic planning really doesn't help the organization face the future. These complaints arise because organizations fail to conduct a thorough strategic analysis as part of their strategic planning process. Instead, planners decide to plan only from what they know now. This makes the planning process much less strategic and a lot more guesswork. Strategic analysis is the heart of the strategic planning process and should not be ignored.

Taking a wide look around the outside of the organization to dentify.

Opportunities and Threats

An external analysis usually includes looking at various trends, including political, economic, societal, technological and ecological.

What is an Environmental Scan ?

Environmental Scanning.

Consider these Diving Force Impacts.

Taking Stock(very basic overview of environmental sceanning)

Look out ! Environmental Scanning for associations.

Also consider the needs and wants of stakeholders -- do a stakeholder analysis.:

Stackholder Analysis and Consultations.

Looking around Inside of Organization to Identify

Strengths and Weeknesses.

The following assessments might be useful in helping you to take a look around the inside of your organization -- to assess the quality of all of its operations.

Organizational Assessments for Profits and non profits.

People problems masquerading as Business problems.

For more particulars on the topic ,,SWOT Analysis, Monitoring and managing change in implimanting new strategy and related topics :write with your quarries to RK Gopal Nanduri on rkgnanduri@gmail.com .

An Overview Of Understanding of Strategic Planning.

Introduction –What is strategic Planning?

There Are Various Different Views and Models -- and the Process You Use Depends

Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there or not. The focus of a strategic plan is usually on the entire organization, while the focus of a business plan is usually on a particular product, service or program.

There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc. For example, there are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues-based, organic, scenario (some would assert that scenario planning is more of a technique than model), etc.

1) Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the organization's mission (and vision and/or values), goals to work toward the mission, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when).

2) Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organization, strategies to address those issues and action plans.

3) Organic strategic planning might start by articulating the organization's vision and values, and then action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values. Some planners prefer a particular approach to planning, eg, appreciative inquiry.

Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer.

Quite often, an organization's strategic planners already know much of what will go into a strategic plan (this is true for business planning, too). However, development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organization's plans and ensure that key leaders are all "on the same script". Far more important than the strategic plan document, is the strategic planning process itself.

Also, in addition to the size of the organization, differences in how organizations carry out the planning activities are more of a matter of the nature of the participants in the organization -- than its for-profit/nonprofit status. For example, detail-oriented people may prefer a linear, top-down, general-to-specific approach to planning. On the other hand, rather artistic and highly reflective people may favor of a highly divergent and "organic" approach to planning.

Some Basic Descriptions of Strategic Planning -- and a Comparison to Business Planning

· What is strategic planning?

· Are you implementing any strategic planning?

· Strategic planning or business planning ?

· The difference between strategic planning and financial planning.

· Metaphors be with you : The strategist as poet.

Some Different Models of Strategic Planning :

· Basic overviews of various Strategic Planning models.

· Should I use Goals- Based or issue based planning?

· The organic model od strategic planning

· Scenario planning : A prudent activity for any organization strategic intuition.

· The drivers Model : The secret to facilitationg Strategy.

NOTE: Much of the following information is in regard to goals-based strategic planning, probably the most common form of strategic planning. However, issues-based planning is also a very popular approach to strategic planning -- an approach still too-often forgotten.

For-Profit Versus Nonprofit Strategic Planning

Major differences in how organizations carry out the various steps and associated activities in the strategic planning process are more of a matter of the size of the organization -- than its for-profit/nonprofit status. Small nonprofits and small for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in large organizations. On the other hand, large nonprofits and large for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in small organizations. (The focus of the planning activities is often different between for-profits and nonprofits. Nonprofits tend to focus more on matters of board development, fundraising and volunteer management. For-profits tend to focus more on activities to maximize profit.)

Therefore, the reader is encouraged to review a variety of the materials linked from this page, whether he or she is from a nonprofit or for-profit organization. Items below are marked as "nonprofit" in case the reader still prefers to focus on information presented in the context of nonprofit planning.

(An upcoming section includes numerous overviews of the overall strategic planning process various Overviews.

Benefits of Strategic Planning.

Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes in organizations, including to:
1. Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
2. Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
3. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
4. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
5. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
6. Listen to everyone’s opinions in order to build consensus about where the organization is going.

Other reasons include that strategic planning:
7. Provides clearer focus for the organization, thereby producing more efficiency and effectiveness.
8. Bridges staff/employees and the board of directors (in the case of corporations).
9. Builds strong teams in the board and in the staff/employees (in the case of corporations).
10. Provides the glue that keeps the board members together (in the case of corporations).
11.Produces great satisfaction and meaning among planners, especially around a common vision.
12. Increases productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness.
13. Solves major problems in the organization.

When should Strategic Planning Be Done ?

The scheduling for the strategic planning process depends on the nature and needs of the organization and the its immediate external environment. For example, planning should be carried out frequently in an organization whose products and services are in an industry that is changing rapidly . In this situation, planning might be carried out once or even twice a year and done in a very comprehensive and detailed fashion (that is, with attention to mission, vision, values, environmental scan, issues, goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc). On the other hand, if the organization has been around for many years and is in a fairly stable marketplace, then planning might be carried out once a year and only certain parts of the planning process, for example, action planning (objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc) are updated each year. Consider the following guidelines:
1. Strategic planning should be done when an organization is just getting started. (The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with a marketing plan, financial plan and operational/management plan.)
2. Strategic planning should also be done in preparation for a new major venture, for example, developing a new department, division, major new product or line of products, etc.
3. Strategic planning should also be conducted at least once a year in order to be ready for the coming fiscal year (the financial management of an organization is usually based on a year-to-year, or fiscal year, basis). In this case, strategic planning should be conducted in time to identify the organizational goals to be achieved at least over the coming fiscal year, resources needed to achieve those goals, and funded needed to obtain the resources. These funds are included in budget planning for the coming fiscal year. However, not all phases of strategic planning need be fully completed each year. The full strategic planning process should be conducted at least once every three years. As noted above, these activities should be conducted every year if the organization is experiencing tremendous change.
4. Each year, action plans should be updated.
5. Note that, during implementation of the plan, the progress of the implementation should be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis by the board. Again, the frequency of review depends on the extent of the rate of change in and around the organization.

For more details on conducting Strategic planning, SWOT analysis of your organization contact RK Gopal Nanduri on rkgnanduri@gmail.com