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Blog Human Resources 6 Steps to Create a Strategic HR Plan [With Templates]

6 Steps to Create a Strategic HR Plan [With Templates]

Written by: Jessie Strongitharm Aug 25, 2022

The backbone of any successful business is the people and processes behind it — that’s why creating a human resources (HR) plan is key. This strategic document drives your business forward by evaluating where your workforce is at, and comparing it to future needs.

Without an HR plan, organizations can suffer from issues that would have otherwise been avoided. From productivity pitfalls to costly employee turnover , there’s no shortage of risks you can sidestep if you do human resource planning in advance.

Not sure where to start? No worries. I’ve outlined six steps you can take to create an effective HR plan that ensures your organization is well-staffed and well-served. You’ll also find a variety of HR templates that you can customize in just a few clicks — no design expertise required.

Click to jump ahead:

What is human resource planning?

Assess employees’ current skill levels
Forecast your labor needs based on available information
Revisit your organizational design
Outline how you will manage, motivate and retain talent
Align your workforce planning with your budget
Establish KPIs for your human resource planning objectives

Human resource planning is the process of considering the current and future “people needs” of an organization.

This involves evaluating an organization’s workforce structure and protocols to ensure operational goals are met, productivity stays high and future demands for labor and talent can be fulfilled. Staying updated with industry trends using the LinkedIn People Directory can help achieve this.

The result of this process is the creation of an HR plan, which typically takes the form of a written document sometimes autogenerated using HR software . These documents tend to follow a similar structure to most strategic business plans and are created on an annual basis, by HR managers or company leaders.

Check out the template below for an example.

This eye-catching, one-page HR Strategic Plan Template offers a concise summary of your human resource planning efforts, so you can easily share info with colleagues.

Just swap out the text and visual assets for those of your choosing in Venngage’s editor , and you’re off to the races.

6 steps to create a strategic HR plan

Ready to create a strategic plan for the human resources that power your business? Here are six steps to help you succeed at the human resource planning process.

1. Assess current employees’ skill levels

The first step to creating a future-forward HR plan is to assess employees’ current skill sets, and compare them to your operational needs moving forward. This will help you identify gaps and inform any hiring of new employees.

Employees’ skill levels can be assessed by reviewing their work history, hard and soft skills and professional growth over time.

Using a matrix is a great way to understand where the skill gaps in your current workforce exist. Below is an example that describes the skills needed for different marketing roles.

Don’t need it for marketing specifically? No worries — you can fully customize this template by swapping in your own text to examine any human resource gaps.

Another way to assess skills is by giving employees a questionnaire they can fill out. This Employee Competency Assessment Template does just that.

Based on the information collected, you’ll get a sense of what positions best suit each individual, and whether any upskilling or hiring is required.

2. Forecast your labor needs based on available information

Next in your strategic strategic HR management plan, you’ll want to consider the future. This involves accounting for any upcoming changes to your workforce, so operations can continue without error.

When forecasting labor needs, the following should be considered:

Planned promotions
Upcoming retirements
Layoffs
Personnel transfers
Extended leaves of absence (i.e. maternity/paternity leave)

Beyond those, it’s a good idea to assess the impact of external conditions on your labor needs during your human resource planning. For example, new technological developments may decrease the amount of employees you require to operate your business.

3. Revisit your organizational design

Organizational design is the process of structuring the way a business operates so it can best achieve its goals. This is hugely important when it comes to your human resource planning process!

With a clear understanding of your organization’s strategic objectives in mind, reviewing your organizational design allows you to understand the staffing requirements you’ll need to succeed at them. This means taking into account your organizational structure and chains of command, as well as how work gets done and the way information flows.

From there, you’ll be able to see which departments need more team members so it can accomplish the organization’s objectives.

An easy way to get started is by using an organizational flow chart.

With its color coding and layout, even a new manager can quickly look at this chart to identify the people responsible for leading teams and making decisions.

And if there are any changes, it’s easy to to reflect them in the chart itself. All you need to do is customize the text and visual assets in Venngage’s Chart Maker as desired.

Not quite your style? There’s plenty of other organizational chart templates to choose from.

Here’s an organizational chart that’s perfect for small businesses that have limited employees. One quick look, and you’re good to go.

The bottom line is, no matter how big or small your business may be, you should always revisit your organizational design to optimize your workforce management and business operations.

Related: Types of Organizational Structure [+ Visualization Tips]

4. Outline how you will manage, motivate and retain talent

In this day and age, it’s a known fact that companies must provide more than just a paycheque to attract and retain talent, and encourage growth.

It’s true — studies have shown employees are more engaged in their work when they feel it is meaningful, fulfilling and slightly challenging. So your human resource plan should consider how to inspire such feelings, and what actions you can take to motivate employees to stay. (Hint: a strong HR training and development program is key.)

The talent management infographic template below is a great way to begin.

Using this process chart , you can detail the steps you’ll take to retain the talent you have. Reference it as needed in your human resource planning.

Another great way to keep staff motivated and geared towards their professional growth is by coming up with ideas for employee development . Facilitating a company culture that champions continuous learning guarantees your team will feel supported and challenged in all the right ways.

The two employee development plan templates below will help you do just that.

Though both templates are geared towards healthcare organizations, it’s easy to customize their content in Venngage to promote the continuous learning and development of employees in any industry.

As a result, your employees will be able to reach their full potential, while simultaneously supporting the long-term goals of your organization.

Related: 6 Employee Development Ideas for Efficient Training

5. Align your workforce planning with your budget

Let’s face it, human resources ain’t cheap.

Meaning, if you struggle at organizing and monitoring your HR budget, you’re bound to overspend on your initiatives —and no financially savvy business wants that.

That’s why I recommend including financial information in your HR planning process, so you can reference your budget and expenses as needed. This includes not only hiring and training costs but also the complexities of managing a global payroll for diverse teams.

Ensuring this allows you to stay within range as you work towards achieving your strategic goals for human capital . Plus, you don’t need to use one that contains walls of text and wack-loads numbers. Check out the clean and cheery option below — it’s as easy to fill out as it is to understand.

And if you’re looking to compare a forecasted budget to previous annual spending when strategizing your HR budget, the Budget Comparison Infographic Template below will help.

The bar graph is a great data visualization of annual expenses, organized by category. Just add (or import) any values to Venngage’s editor, swap out the text, and you’re ready to compare with ease.

Related: 10+ Expense Report Templates You Can Edit Easily

6. Establish KPIs for your human resource planning objectives

Measurable results are important when it comes to your HR planning processes, because they indicate whether your strategy is working or not.

Keeping those metrics in mind, your company can make adjustments and improve upon any future plans — AKA strategize for future success in business. That’s why your human resource plan should include info re: the specific key performance indicators (KPI) you’ll be measuring.

KPIs are established to help determine if HR strategies and plans are working. Much like those used for evaluating the performance of marketing or sales plan , KPIs for human resources are measurable results that indicate an organization’s success at achieving predetermined goals.

These may take the form of headcounts, turnover rates, demographic information, time to hire and employee satisfaction scores.

Here’s one employee satisfaction survey you can use to understand your workforce better.

When you’re ready to organize those HR KPIs in a document, the recruiting template below is perfect for keeping tabs at a glance.

Related: 10+ Customizable HR Report Templates & Examples

How do I make an HR plan?

After you’ve collected the data you need, you’ll want to convey this info in an engaging, professional manner for easy referencing and sharing amongst colleagues. Given this, using Venngage is the best route to go.

Here are the simple steps to help you bring an actionable HR plan to life:

Outline the information you would like to include in your strategic hr plan
Pick the human resource planning templates that best suits your needs
Customize the templates’ text and visual assets so they speak to your organization
Apply your company’s brand guidelines with a few clicks using Venngage’s automated branding feature, My Brand Kit
Download and share as desired

Note: sharing is available free-of-charge. However, the option to download your creations and access features like My Brand Kit and Team Collaboration are available with a Business plan .

FAQ about HR plans

How long should an hr plan be .

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the length of an HR plan. That being said, if you’re going to share it with colleagues, you probably don’t want to create a 20+ page document. One to five pages should suffice.

Try to be as concise as possible when relaying the facts, and use data visualizations wherever possible to save room.

Do I need an HR contingency plan?

In the same way creating an HR plan is a proactive move that helps your organization account for future needs, it’s a good idea to devise an HR contingency plan. This ensures there’s a back-up plan in place should your initiatives not go as expected.

For example, if you’ve identified that you need five new hires to keep up with consumer demand, but the talent pool is lacking, a contingency plan could house suggestions for restructuring your workforce to mitigate this.

In other words, it’s best-practice to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Is an HR plan different from an employee development plan?

Yes. While an HR plan is a strategic document describing how an organization addresses its personnel-related needs at a high-level, an employee development plan outlines the processes needed to help an individual achieve their professional goals.

Even though the human resource planning process may involve outlining some employee development tactics, it is not unique to each employee as in the case of an employee development plan.

Make your HR planning processes effortless

You don’t need a crystal ball to feel confident about your people moving forward. With a solid HR plan and strategy in place, you’ll prime your workforce — and all business endeavors — to succeed in even the most competitive of markets.

Just remember this: human resources planning, and creating strategic business plans in general, doesn’t have to be exhausting.

With Venngage’s huge selection of professionally-designed templates and easy-to-use editor, all it takes is a few minutes to produce a polished document perfect for all your needs. Sign up for free today !

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HR Business Plan Template: Everything You Need to Know

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce. 4 min read updated on September 19, 2022

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce so that you collectively meet your business objectives, regardless of any changes in the industry or economy.

When creating your HR business plan, you need to perform a needs analysis of your workplace to tailor the plan to your company's requirements. You'll also need to learn about the industry standards for your field to make sure you're competitive.

Without such a plan in place, your workers will feel unprepared and won't know how to work towards your company's overall goals.

Steps for Developing a Human Resources Department Business Plan

There are several steps to creating an HR business plan. They include:

Clarify the requirements . While you might be tempted to create a detailed plan that encompasses the entire company's next 10 years, hold off. Always talk with your boss to see how much detail he or she would like in the plan. This will save you time and help streamline the process. However, there's no harm in creating your own personalized strategic plan for your specific department.
Read through the HR job descriptions . The HR department typically has employees such as HR assistants, HR generalists, and an HR director . Read through the job descriptions for each worker in the department and see what kind of duties are missing. Brainstorm additional functions that each job role could provide to the company.
Curate your list . Take the different functions you've brainstormed and compare them to what each member of the HR department is already doing. Are there functions you could add or subtract from each employee for more productivity? You don't have to go into detail here, but just think about how you could improve each role.
Schedule a meeting with the executives . Before you make any changes, you'll obviously need to get input and approval from the company's executives. They may have more feedback on how the HR department can provide additional services and support the company's overall goals and mission.
Create a feedback form . Come up with a list of questions to ask leadership about HR's role in the company and provide it to them in advance of the meeting so they have time to think it over and talk with their staff. You may even want to provide a rating and ranking format for the questions, as this will make their responses easy to understand and implement. Overall, this is a key process to understanding what management and employees want and need from the HR department.
Look at external resources . While the internal information you're collecting is the most important, it also doesn't hurt to take a look at data from professional organizations and websites, such as the Society for Human Resource Management , The Balance , or HR Magazine . You can also ask colleagues from other local organizations for tips on creating your business plan.
Use this information to make a plan . With your ideas, feedback from executives, and tips from external resources, you should have a clear idea of what your plan should look like. The things that are missing from the HR department should now be clear, and this should guide you on what to focus on to improve HR's contribution to the company.
Identify goals for this year and next . While your plan can have long-term goals, keep the majority of them a little bit shorter in scope to see how things work out. This gives you the chance to reorganize and restructure if things aren't going right. Consider creating a list of accomplishments you can reach for the end of this year and into the next.

A Real Life Example

If you're seeking more guidance on how to create a successful HR business plan, look to Starbucks as an example.

As the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks had $21.3 billion in sales in 2016.

Despite these massive numbers, Starbucks maintains the same approach to their human resources department. All of the HR planning is guided by the company's organizational strategy and brand.

Their strategy is to use specific interview techniques when hiring new employees. This lets them identify potential leaders and place them in a "New Partner Orientation and Immersion" training program. With this system, Starbucks has achieved the lowest employee turnover rate in the quick-service restaurant industry.

Starbucks also offers numerous employee perks and dedicates a lot of time to employee training through an online portal that teaches employees essential job skills.

If you need help with your HR business plan template, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

Hire the top business lawyers and save up to 60% on legal fees

Content Approved by UpCounsel

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The HR Strategic Plan to Take Your Business to the Next Level

Chances are the past couple of years have meant major changes for your business. That’s why it’s more important than ever to take stock of your business’s changing needs and rethink how HR can contribute to the big picture. The best way to plan for the future? An HR strategic plan.

An HR strategic plan and an Annual HR plan both help you identify your organization’s long-term goals and then chart a path for achieving them . By definition, a good plan will strategically drive intentional decision-making, up employee engagement, and avoid wasted resources.

In this post, we’ll walk you through how to write an HR strategic plan of your own and even give you an HR strategic plan template to help you get started. Who knows what 2024 may bring— we’ll make sure your HR strategic plan for 2024 covers everything.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Benefits of an HR Strategic Plan Template for HR Strategic Plan Considerations When Designing an HR Strategic Plan How to Implement an HR Strategic Plan Boost your HR strategy with software ✅

Benefits of an HR Strategic Plan

Your HR team is nothing to sneeze at! They’ve done a great job supporting employees at every turn, from recruitment to the exit interview. So, why do you need an HR strategic plan?

A plan can help evaluate current HR and company policies and procedures to see if goals are aligned. Understanding where you are will help you understand where you need to go. This information means you can set specific goals to help your business reach new heights. And a good HR plan will set milestones to let you know you’re on the way.

The HR strategic planning process helps build team cohesion. Your HR staff will be primed to act in accordance with company goals even in situations that aren’t clearly outlined in the plan. Strong HR is vital to the success of any business. A strategic plan keeps everything shipshape and makes sure employees are supported, engaged, and productive.

Template for HR Strategic Plan

You get it; a plan is important. Now, how do you put one together?

There are four steps in our HR strategic plan template which can guide you as you create your own plan. We’ll include some strategic plan examples to show the types of goals to include.

Determine Guiding Principles

The first step is to determine your organization’s values or guiding principles. Ask yourself what is important to the business and be sure to consider the company’s mission statement and employee handbook . That is to say, what values does the HR department work to incorporate or reinforce? During this first step, don’t think about the plan. Just concentrate on what makes your organization great, different, or successful.

Values might include diversity, teamwork, respect, communication, integrity, innovation, leadership, transparency, employee well-being , or work-life balance. If you feel so moved, you can expand on these values with a sentence or two. Make sure to include the whole HR team in this process! It’s sure to be an interesting conversation starter.

Decide on Focus Areas for your HR Strategy

Next, use the guiding principles to zero in on where your organization needs to step up its game. For example, if you listed “diversity” as a guiding principle in the first section, in the second section you may want to list “recruitment” as a key focus area.

It may be time for a little SWOT analysis . SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Think about where your company shines and where it is falling short of the values you listed in the previous section.

Forecast how HR Requirements may change in the year ahead and take a look into change management practices. If your business is growing, focus on building employee engagement to make sure no one feels lost in the fray. If your business is tightening its belt (2020-21 have been tough!), concentrate on talent management to help employees make the most of available resources.

Be creative here! This part of the plan is for thinking big. You can adjust always adjust your goals later.

Set Concrete, Strategic HR Goals

Here is where we get into the nitty-gritty. Guiding principles? Check. Focus areas? Check. You know where you need to go. How will you get there? In this part of the plan, you need to set key objectives. For example, if you listed “diversity” as a core value in section one and “recruitment” as a focus area in section two, now it is time to think about how you can your HR team can build a diverse workforce through recruitment.

How do you reach a more diverse pool of applicants? Perhaps HR can launch a social media campaign or adjust company branding to tap into new demographics. Maybe they can promote alternative work plans, such as fellowships, internships, or flexible work schedules . Some of these questions may take time and research to answer. It can be a part of the HR strategic plan to “create a plan.”

Remember that the goals in your HR strategic plan need to be measurable. How else will you know that you’ve succeeded? For inspiration, you can check out successful HR strategies examples. For example, in 2015, Twitter publicly established “credible and achievable” goals . They wanted to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in tech jobs and leadership goals by about 1%. Think about what numbers make sense for your organization.

Communicate your HR Strategic Plan

Considerations When Designing an HR Strategic Plan

Some questions may arise while developing the plan but we are here to help you through them.

Is a strategic plan the same as a business plan; if not, how does it differ?

Business plans are very important for uniting workers toward a common goal when an organization is just getting started. An HR department business plan provides a structure for ideas in order to initially define the business. A strategic plan, however, is used to provide focus, direction, and actionable steps in order to move the organization forward. Use strategic plans in order to unite the major objectives the organization hopes to achieve with the steps it actions it will take to achieve them.

What are some HR Strategic Plan Examples?

Each organization’s HR strategic plan should be specifically tailored to the goals and needs of that business. Although no two plans should look alike, there are some general standards to keep in mind. Consider statistics like the HR management to HR employee ratio while developing strategic hiring goals. With that said, different industries will have different priorities when it comes to setting goals.

For example, the finance industry regularly undergoes massive transformations as new technologies (“fintech”) reshape the field. An HR team in this sector will need to be agile, ready to manage organizational development or re-train employees to meet the demands of an ever-changing industry.

For retail businesses that see a lot of turnover, HR teams may want to focus on the recruitment of quality candidates. Improving training for new employees and offering strong talent management will ensure the knowledgeable and hard-working employees stick around.

How to Implement an HR Strategic Plan

The key to implementing an HR Strategic plan is communication! Make sure your HR staff gets a say in determining values, priorities, and goals for the coming year. Then, regularly check in to see how things are going. Be sure to set milestones for the coming year so that you can track progress.

If you follow our HR strategic plan template, your HR department will be in an ideal position to support your business in 2024, whatever arises. Though your 2024 HR strategic plan won’t cover all the situations which might arise, it will help your department to better understand and internalize compy goals.

Develop your HR Strategic Plan with the help of real-time people analytics data.

Written by: Valerie Slaughter

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Hi, This is Harsha I am working in healthcare as an HR, wanted some inputs of the employee engagement which is unique and doable for Healthcare staff.