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What does it mean to be strategic from
an HR standpoint?
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One or more HR professionals (leaders) are involved in the
organization’s strategic planning efforts (best-case scenario).
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HR will develop a strategic plan to support the overarching plan.
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HR is asked to lead strategic planning for the organization.
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HR is asked to find a professional to lead strategic planning for
the organization.
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HR is an advocate for strategic planning so the organization has
a foundation to develop its plans.
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What is Strategic Planning?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
Company
HewlettPackard
Mission
To make technical contributions for the
advancement and welfare of humanity
Mary Kay
Merck
Nike
To give unlimited opportunity to women
To preserve and improve human life
To experience the emotion of competition,
winning, and crushing competitors.
Wal-Mart
To give ordinary people the chance to buy
the same things as rich people.
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Values
Values are the essential and enduring tenets of an organization
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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 the values 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.
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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.
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Implementing Strategy
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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.