Strategic Planning Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

When doing an external scan of the environment for purposes of human resources planning (HR planning), what things should we look at?

In order to do human resource planning, you need to have a sense of both the current external environment, and anticipate things that may happen in the future in the labor market place. You do this via an external scan or environmental scan that can address the following issues and questions (adapted from Government of Saskatchewan HR planning guidelines).

What is the current external environment? What elements of the current environment are relevant to the company? Which are likely to inhibit the company from reaching its goals?
• What are the company’s specific issues and implications of these issues? What key forces in this environment need to be addressed and which ones are less critical?
• What is the impact of locall trends on the company (demographic, economic, political, intergovernmental, cultural, technology, etc.)?
• Are there comparable operations that provide a similar service? How might that change? How would that affect the company?
• Where does the work of the company come from? How might that change and how would it affect the organization?
• How might the external environment differ in the future? What forces at work might change the external environment? What implications will this have for the organization?
• What kinds of trends or forces affect similar work in other jurisdictions?
• What kinds of trends or forces affect the company's partners/stakeholders and customers?