As business owners, managers, and HR professionals, we have a unique mission each day to support the goals of our organization with an invaluable resource: our people. How well we do this determines the fate of our whole operation and the people who are part of it.
To perform this mission well, it is best to start with an HR Strategic Plan. By conducting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis, an organization can boost its business with the right HR strategy. A strong HR strategy will help to decide long-term priorities and set short-term goals and provide a good framework for HR initiatives.
After your HR strategic plan is in place, it is imperative to have a firm foundation to launch the organization in a productive direction. Start by hiring or outsourcing HR staff to handle the following HR tasks. A Staffing Plan is essential to ensure you have the right number of people with the right skill set to perform the work to achieve the organization’s goals. Develop Job Descriptions to prepare your organization to hire employees. Writing an Employee Handbook and hanging Mandatory Employment Posters are also foundational HR steps. It’s not rocket science, it’s HR!
A solid Recruiting Plan will outline how and where to find the candidates necessary to implement the staffing plan you’ve already put in place. Smart selection tools like Applicant Tracking and thoughtful screening and interview questions help you land the perfect employees. Putting all of this together is the rocket fuel your HR needs to hire great talent.
An Onboarding Program is often an overlooked process. Onboarding is not the same as in-processing. It is more than a new employee document checklist or a new arrival orientation. Onboarding is not a one-time event but an ongoing process to ensure new hires acclimate to the company culture, understand their roles, and build relationships with colleagues. We can help you take onboarding where it’s never gone before!
Once you have the right people on board, it is critical to train and develop them to make certain they have the right skills to implement the organization’s goals. Having a Training and Development Plan will propel your HR to new heights by enabling employees to continue to grow and develop their skillset. This can include Career Ladders that help your employees see a career path in your organization while helping you develop a Succession Plan to identify potential employees for key roles in the future.
We understand that getting and keeping good employees is about a lot more than just the position. To be able to attract and retain top talent, a Compensation and Benefits Review will ensure you are providing competitive pay and benefits sought after by employees and will blast your HR from zero to hero!
At the end of the day, when your current mission is complete, it will be time for your next mission. That next mission could be a change of role, a promotion, a company merger, or even retirement. HR can aid companies and their employees as they prepare for a new mission!
We’re here to support your HR journey in every phase, from launchpad to landing. If your organization needs help with any of these HR lifecycle phases, call Rocket City HR Consulting – we make HR look easy!
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By Karen Burton, SHRM-SCP, SPHR
