Strategic Planning Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Is There A Relationship Between Strategic Planning and Human Resources or Hiring?

Think about what constitutes good human resources planning, and hiring practices. Companies need to hire staff to fill needs both in the present (to respond to current demands), and to fill needs in the future (to respond to anticipated demands for workers). How can companies hire in a cost effective manner if they have no idea what the company will be doing, and what it will require in the future?

The answer is that it can't, and that the majority of companies do not hire with an eye what's going to happen in three years or five years or ten years. The result is that companies often get caught having to downsize (if they hired too many people), or get caught with the wrong people in the wrong slots.

Strategic planning forces executives and managers to look at the future, and to consider things like how the environment (e.g. the market) may change down the road. It encourages the setting of longer term goals and strategies. It encourages looking at the internal workings of the company to determine what it will need (and employees is part of this) to succeed in hitting its strategic goals, not only in the short term but the longer term.

Hiring, and human resource management which is undertaken strategically, and is planned to be responsive to the overall direction and strategic goals of the organization lends stability to an organization, and increases the liklihood that people will be hired to fill legitimate long term needs. And it helps guide in terms of what skills and abilities will be needed by the organization.