HR & Business Planning

Your human resources department can do more than just check everyone's time sheets and remind your team about harassment rules. Using HR in business planning can help you grow by training your staff, building team loyalty and finding new recruits before you need them. A good human resources action plan won't just happen, though — it needs your leadership.


Involving human resources in your business planning makes it easier to prepare for the future. Well before you have to expand your staff, HR should be figuring out what kind of workforce you need and how to recruit and retain the best candidates. Strategic HR business planning can ensure the candidates are ready when you need them.

HR: Tactical and Strategic

Incorporating HR into business planning is easier if you understand the difference between tactical and strategic human resources. Tactical HR, Insperity says, is the routine day-to-day stuff that helps keep your business running: posting compliance notices, handling payroll, recruiting and hiring, processing employee forms and paperwork. Whatever system you've set up for handling employee complaints, HR tackles the problems and resolves them.

Strategic HR business planning focuses on your future needs rather than today's. To grow your business over the next decade may require improving productivity, developing a pipeline of high quality job candidates, providing training for employees and retaining talent. None of these happen by accident. If, say, workplace diversity is important to you, you want your HR department planning to find and recruit diverse job candidates.

HR Business Planning

Strategic HR business planning can head off employee problems before they start. Great Place to Work says companies with a human resources action plan make it easier to invest in your people and grow your business. For example, a culture that makes it easier for employees to speak freely makes it easier to learn about problems before they become catastrophic. It can also build employee loyalty.

Petaurum Solutions says even if everything's great now, you should be discussing HR department goals for the next year and beyond. The human resources action plan should be in place before you need it, with answers to key questions:

  • When will you need to hire a larger staff? How much larger?
  • What type of employees will you need, with what skill sets?
  • Where will you find them? How will you convince them your company should be their top pick?
  • How will you advertise openings to attract suitable candidates?
  • What's the timeline? If, say, the hiring process takes a month and onboarding takes another month, you'll need to start recruiting at least two months ahead of when you need an employee on deck.
  • What's the plan for replacing key employees if they're hired away or become too ill to work?
  • Which interview process will select the best candidates?

The human resources action plan should also cover training and development for employees who want more responsibility or want to increase their skills. HR can also offer insight on the company structure as you grow: Would a flattened hierarchy make you more attractive to the kind of workers you need, for instance?

HR is also well-positioned to talk with employees and find out how they see your company culture. Does the office culture invite your team to air their concerns? Do they look forward to seeing their coworkers every day? What HR learns can help you see where company culture needs to change.