Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Successful Strategic Planning

Successful strategic planning seeks input from all stakeholders, including the shareholders, customers, suppliers and people, to identify the part each has to play to ensure the delivery of the business strategy. Given the global trends referred to earlier, the 'people' part of the strategic planning takes on new significance, since the capacity of the organization to learn is fundamental to improvement. The learning component of HR strategy becomes the business's own learning strategy.
To harness intellectual capacity and to get and keep the best people, far more innovative approaches than performance-related pay are necessary. Organizations have to create fluid structures of employment. This may mean that it is prudent to accommodate employees' own business interests within the umbrella of the organization. To get value from their key assets, organizations need to build environments in which their people are prepared to share their ideas rather than leaving the company to develop them.
Whilst many organizations are investing heavily in employee development to retain the best, the future suggests more fundamental rethinking of the employee relationship. Knowledge and intellectual capacity are likely to be the tradable commodities of the labor market (in higher education they already are). They will also be the competitive edge in organizations where they are the only tangible asset. Effective integration of HR planning and business planning offers a credible vehicle for achieving business excellence.

Strategic Decision-Making:

Strategic decision-making begins with the identification of vision and mission and their articulation to all stakeholders. Making the mission and vision a reality requires the identification of processes in which organizations must excel if they are to add value. Since the process by which business strategy is developed and defined is the highest level process the organization can engage in, and is the starting point for realizing vision and mission

Successful strategic planning is about releasing the potential of the whole organization; the success of leadership is about inspiring people to share in the vision so that they both embrace. In strategic planning, it is essential to take a holistic approach to identifying future market trends and identifying goals to capitalize on these trends. Too many strategic planning processes are reliant on partial filtered information from divisions or functions where personal agendas and blocking initiatives dominate. Additionally, organizations do not put enough effort into making the strategy a reality and success is increasingly about those that deliver their strategies. Self-assessment bridges the gap between strategy and action

Effective HR strategy:

An effective HR strategy aligned to strategic business planning is thus a prerequisite to ensure that underlying power structures, procedures, practices, values and norms are in place to facilitate the necessary pace of change that can be sustained within the psychological capacity of the business. There are many different ways of managing the improvement process, including a consultative approach through participation, intervention, education and communication and the style adopted has much to do with the nature of the change proposed, its pace and sustainability.

Performance Management System


Of equal importance is the need to put in place appropriate reward systems linked to the process improvements required for excellence. Without a reliable assessment of performance it is impossible to relate rewards to performance in a way that is motivating. A holistic approach recognizes that business processes cut across functions, therefore it is important to link reward systems to recognition of the accomplishment of teams rather than individuals. Performance goals then have to be tailored specifically to what the work team needs to accomplish and it is also important to link the goals of the individuals to those of the team

Team Reward Systems:

Team reward systems reduce the threat of conflict, increase the rewards to individuals who have a shared set of goals and produce more consistent behaviors than is evidenced in individuals alone. If this is the reality, then `whole organization' reward becomes the preferred approach. Add to this the notion that in the new economy 'reward' embraces knowledge, acquisition and personal growth, and these beliefs begin to prescribe an approach to HR planning that supports rather than obstructs excellence. It prescribes a solution based on achieving a balance of individual, team and organization, a balance that allows for comfort zones within which employees can embrace true ownership

People have to believe in a strategy and this requires that leaders create the right environment for the change to occur and for believing that it can. People management systems must be tailored to fit each unique business. But to create business excellence with HRM processes that intrinsically add value, all organizations need to develop HR strategies to support the integration of business planning with business excellence. A holistic approach nurtures proactive incremental change. It also avoids the sudden traumatic change that so many organizations endure as a result of radical improvement programmer and the inevitable stagnation that follows. In a sense the organization runs out of sustainable energy.

Changing Business Environment:

The process of carrying out change is not just about strategies and plans for their delivery; it is also about relationships between people and the management of workforce diversity in the context of the changing business environment. The increased emphasis on excellence through recognition of the individual and the team gives a balanced approach to HR planning pivotal to overall strategy achievement. Since strategy is related to what customer satisfaction means for an organization and to the ever-changing environment it operates in, there is no blueprint for choosing how to manage a company's resources, no best way that is appropriate under all circumstances. Strategic planning becomes a process of planning within a range of parameters rather than formal targets; the emphasis is on the overall direction and pace of change rather than detailed milestones.
There is a belief that if you tell people what is happening, what is necessary to achieve excellence, then they will perform accordingly. Some education strategies have effected improvement this way but others have foundered because informing and involving people does not guarantee the desired changes will happen

To Improve Human Resource Management:

Good human resource management (HRM) is essential to retaining staff and maintaining a high overall level of performance within a health organization. Effective HRM is one of the key building blocks of a comprehensive HRH strategy. A responsive human resource management system can help ensure that staff knows what they are supposed to do, get timely feedback; feel valued and respected, and have opportunities to learn and grow on the job. Fragmented, politicized human resource management systems and lack of human resource managers are two common barriers to effective HRM

Actions you can take:


• Designate a senior manager to be in charge of HRM
• Provide training to HRM staff
• Develop on-the-job, skill-based training for health care staff
• Streamline the planning, recruitment and hiring process
• Strengthen supervision
• Consider redefining scopes of practice for health care staff
• Track employee data such as attrition, staff turnover, absenteeism

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