Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before the defeat. ~Sun Tzu, Chinese Military Strategist, 5th c. BC

Quick decisions and short-sighted plans are often necessary evils when you’re running a business—but taking the long view will get you further. When faced with critical planning decisions, you can’t bury your head in the sand and expect great things to happen automatically, nor should you move too fast and “shoot from the hip” like a cowboy. Aim for balance, think logically, do your homework, and never underestimate the power of thinking a few moves ahead.

HR leaders shouldn’t stand by watching employment and business-related decisions unfold before their very eyes. They need to think strategically and methodically when making critical decisions about their organization’s needs and HR requirements for the future. Acting tactically is not always an easy road, but HR leaders should strive to be as involved as much as possible in their organization’s decision-making processes and operational goals. As an HR leader, your participation in the decision-making processes of your organization—alongside other key decision-makers—will help you envision where you want your HR operations to be 5, 10, or even 20 years down the road. Here are some ideas to help you get ahead of the game.

Action Plan

1.       HR—Be a Part of the Plan
First and foremost, HR needs to align themselves with the overall mission, vision and values of the organization. HR should be included (and should include themselves) in the major decisions affecting the organization’s most important resource – their people. According to a report by a consulting organization in the UK, it seems like the opposite is happening. More businesses are bringing in senior managers from outside HR to plan strategic HR processes. Seventy-five percent of employers included in the report involved non-HR managers in HR planning processes; while 66% of organizations had senior HR managers involved in strategic planning processes. The author of the report further states “it is surprising to find that senior HR staff are not involved in this planning process at one-third of the organizations in our survey. Without their involvement, organizations may be missing out on invaluable expertise relating to crucial people management issues." Consider downloading a Human Resources Plan to help get you started and visit HRdownloads for a Sample Strategic Business Plan Report Template to help you move ideas forward to your company’s decision makers.

2.       The Forecast Calls for Strategy
HR managers need to think strategically about the future direction of their people and the organization. This means ensuring you have the right people—and the right amount of people—for any changes that might develop within your business down the road. In the words of a famous pool player, “I’m not looking at this shot – I'm figuring out where I want the cue ball to be six shots from now." Although HR is not normally compared to a game of billiards, your planning should be tactical and account for developments in knowledge management, remuneration, retention, and recruitment. “Strategic workforce planning,” a common HR tool, revolves around two key ideas: making sure your organization doesn’t lose knowledge through employee attrition, and making sure you have the right projections for knowledge requirements to sustain your business. Workforce planning doesn’t stop at the number of employees or divisions you hope to expand into—it’s also about assessing your current capacity, what skills will be required to keep pace with future company developments, and assessing external labour markets. You don’t want all the skilled workers to walk out the door —and you also want to make sure you have the right number of new recruits to fill the gaps in the future. Consider implementing a Recruitment Plan, Workforce Planning Timeline, Talent Management Strategy Policy or Succession Planning Policy.

3.       Employees, Customers, and Results: They’re All Connected
Performing a traditional “gap analysis” is useful for determining the gaps between where you want to be and where you are now. Gap analyses are great, but to be even more effective you should take a close look at how you can enhance connections between your employees, your customers, and your profitability. For example, if you have a high number of skilled employees about to be laid off by executive decree and you haven’t planned for this development, you might lose business rather than building it. Or, you may have a large number of newer employees who could benefit from continuing education or training to keep up with changing business needs. If your people aren’t keeping up their skills, again, business might suffer. All of these components are connected and need to be nurtured in order to ensure the future success of the organization.

4.       Reality vs. Fantasy
So, what do HR managers and business leaders think HR strategy is all about? Is it really about strategy or is it about keeping up routine administrative tasks and policymaking? Ultimately, you need to make HR strategy a reality versus just a fantasistical notion of organizational togetherness and unified decision making. One way to do this is to get HR involved at the boardroom table, rather than just coming in to make arrangements after the fact, or fixing the mistakes later on. HR leaders are the talent managers and they need to show this clearly. Gather realistic information, and build realistic plans with the leaders of the organization. Make it a habit to get employee perspectives on what they would like to see offered to them in the future. Ask them where they see the organization moving a year from now, and how they see themselves in this picture. This will help you realistically gauge where you can focus your efforts to help them get to where they want to be, and where the organization wants to be. If you wish to gather anonymous feedback from your employees, consider implementing a customized employee survey.

5.       Opportunities, Not Threats
HR leaders need to start thinking along the lines of opportunities and exceptions. Getting skilled and talented people on board—and nurturing their development—is an investment that makes good business sense, and shouldn’t be viewed as a setback or potential threat. HR should send a clear message about how they place a high value on employees who perform outstanding work and their desire to keep them with the organization. Successful strategizing often takes a fair amount of independent thinking; it’s the type of activity that requires you to look at all the angles to find the best approach. It’s time-consuming, but it’s the best way to build some longevity in your HR processes. Executives in any industry know that if something isn’t working and there’s a better way of doing things, they should probably take that approach. HR needs to build this perspective into their strategies so they can drive business forward and create greater success for the organization.

Final Thoughts

Conventional wisdom tells us that professional chess masters can calculate about 15 moves ahead of their opponent. Others say chess masters strategize by thinking of all the possible mistakes their opponents might make, rather than just focusing on their own moves. Although it’s difficult for HR operations to be planned this far in advance, it never hurts to be at least a few steps ahead and think about what would happen if the wrong moves were made. Effective strategy is not only about tactical maneuvers or accounting for gaps in your workforce, it’s about having the right information and support from management to make key decisions for the organization. HR must take on an active leadership role, recognize the employer-customer-profit connection, and have opportunities to make exceptions for exceptional people. HR has a strategic advantage in any organization because it has direct view of the business through the talents of its people. This is an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted.

References
“HR excluded from HR strategy planning in one-third of organisations,” XpertHR Report, Personnel Report Magazine: http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/30/07/2012/58688/hr-excluded-from-hr-strategy-planning-in-one-third-of-organisations.htm