Discuss and illustrate HR’s role in the strategic planning process

The focus of human resource management (HRM) is on managing people within the employer-
employee relationship. It involves the productive use of people in achieving the organisation’s
strategic business objective and the satisfaction of individual employee needs. HRM is major
contributor to the success of an enterprise because it is in a key position to affect customer, business
results and ultimately shareholder value. Ineffective HRM is a major barrier to employee satisfaction
and organisation success. Here are the roles of Human Resource in the strategic planning process:

1. Recruitment and selection – having the right people in the right places is important in order
the achieved the goals of the company. Then, that recruitment and selection of staff should
be very high priority. The recruitment is about the ability of the organization to source new
employees, keep the organization operating and improving the quality of the human capital
employed in the company. The quality of the recruitment process is the main driver for the
satisfaction of managers with the services provided by Human Resources.

The main goal of the recruitment and selection is about finding the best recruitment
sources, hiring the best abilities from the job market and keep the organization competitive
on the job market. The recruitment and selection is about managing high volumes of
employment resumes and the capacity to choose the right candidates and pushing them
quickly through the organization. The recruitment process usually need a strong support by
the dedicated recruitment software solution. It can be provided externally, or the software
can be run internally. Many vendors provide the recruitment software solution, but the
organization has to choose carefully the right solution to meet its need [1].

The recruitment process needs a complete process description. It is not possible to solve the
job candidates individually. HR recruiters have to follow the process and they have to keep
 the candidates flowing the right manages to achieve the consensus, and decision about the
hire quickly. The described process helps to set and achieved the right limits. The
performance of the recruitment process has to be measured, analysed, and new, innovative
recruitment solutions have to be implemented.

The recruitment is the expensive HR process, and it consumed a larger proportion of the HR
budget. The recruitment is about time to hire and the cost of hiring in most organizations.
The HR is responsible for the proper management of the process to improve the
performance of the recruitment process to keep the managers satisfied [1].

The competitive HR management always starts with the competitive recruitment process.
The organization builds the competitive advantage with its employees. The recruitment
process has to determine the best sources on the job market. The HR recruiters have to
utilize the recruitment sources and managers have to make the right and quick hiring
decisions. This is the basic set-up of the competitive recruitment process [4].

2. Training and development – most organisations look at training and development as an

integral part of the human resource development activity. The turn of the century has been
seen increased focus on the same in organisation globally. Many organisation have
mandated training hours per year for employees keeping in consideration the fact that
technology is deskilling the employees at a very fast rate [2].

Technically training involves change in attitude, skills or knowledge of a person with the
resultant improvement in the behaviour. For training to be effective it has to be planned
activity a thorough need analysis and target at certain competencies, most important it is to
be conducted in a learning atmosphere [3].

While designing the training program it has to be kept in mind that both the individual goals
and organisational goals are kept in mind. Although it may not be entirely possible to ensure
a sync, but competencies are chosen in a way that a win-win situation is created for the
employee and the organisation.

Typically organisation prepared their training calendars at the beginning of the financial year
where training needs are identified for the employees. This need identification called as
 training need analysis is a part of the performance appraisal process. After need analysis the
number of training hours, along with the training intervention are decided and the same
spread strategically over the next year[2].

Both training and development are in different in certain aspect yet components of the
same system. Development implies opportunities created to help employees grow. It is
more long term or futuristic in nature as opposed to training, which focus on the employee
grow. It also is not limited to the job avenues in the current organisation but may focus on
other development aspect as well.

For example, employees are expected to mandatorily attend training program on

presentation skills however they also free to choose a course on perspectives in leadership
through literature. Whereas the presentation skills program helps them on job, the
literature based program may or may not help them directly [2].

Similarly many organisations choose certain employees preferentially for programs to

develop them for future position. This is done on the basis of existing attitude, skills and
abilities, knowledge and performance of the employee. Most of leadership programs tend to
be of this nature with a vision creating and nurturing leaders for tomorrow.

The major difference between and training and development therefore is that while training
focuses often the current employee needs or competency gaps, development concerns itself
with preparing people with future assignment assignments and responsibilities.

3. Compensation and benefits – the compensation and benefits process belong to most
important Human Resource process, which are critical for the organization and modern
Human Resource organization. The compensation and benefits is about managing the
personnel expenses budget, setting the performance standards, setting the transparent
compensation policies and introducing the competitive benefits for employees. The
organization with effective compensation and benefits drives its personnel costs, manages
the performance of employees and rewards the extraordinary performance.

The compensation and benefits processes introduce the transparency into Human Resources
and rewarding employees for the achieved performance. The compensation and benefits
provides the managers with the compensation tools to build a difference among employees
as the high performance corporate culture can be built in the organization.

The compensation and benefits department monitors the external job market and optimizes
the personnel expenses budget of the organization. The compensation and benefits defines
the compensation strategy, sets the transparent and simple compensation policy and
defines the general rules for the extraordinary payments, bonus scheme applied in the
organization and introduces general other compensation policies like the Relocation Policy,
Short-Term Assignment Policies, Benefit Car Policies and other [5].

The compensation and benefits department is usually responsible for the transparency in
the compensation practices in the organization and keeping the internal fairness of the total
cash. The compensation and benefits has to supervise the development of new
compensation components and keeping the general rules for the design of the
compensation components

The compensation and benefits department is responsible for the personnel expenses
budget of the organization. The compensation and benefits department sets the standards
for the individual salary increase, the mass salary review and the rules for the bonus payour
as the organization keeps the financial stability and the planned personnel expenses budget
is kept.

The compensation and benefit department has special processes to monitor the external job
market as it can set the right compensation policy, which is compliant with the approved
compensation strategy. The compensation and benefits department is responsible for the
extensive monitoring of the market and designing the new compensation components
inspired by the HR best Practices in the compensation area.

The compensation and benefits department is always closely attached to the development
of the new compensation component, which support the performance and effectively of the
organization. It co-operates with different business units and it aligns their requests into
general rules for the compensation components, which are transparent and fair.
 The compensation and benefits designed new adjustment to the compensation strategy and
the compensation policy as the organization does not lose its competitive advantage on the
job market

In conclusion, to build a team of professionals, it is of utmost importance to have an equally

professional and well-managed Human Resource department. A slipshod HR function will cost your
organization’s future and compromise on its achievement. To summarize, the role of HR is to
maintain law and order in the organization and amongst the employees, which further extend to
attracting, engaging and retaining top talent
References

1. Recruitment and Selection - HRM Guide [Internet]. Simplehrguide.com. 2017 [cited 7

September 2017]. Available from: http://www.simplehrguide.com/recruitment-and-
selection.html
2. Training and Development - A Key HR Function [Internet]. Managementstudyguide.com.
2017 [cited 7 September 2017]. Available from:
http://managementstudyguide.com/training-development-hr-function.htm
3. 1. The Role of Organization Development in the Human Resource Function [Book]
[Internet]. Safari. 2017 [cited 7 September 2017]. Available from:
https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/handbook-for-
strategic/9780814432495/ch1.xhtml
4. Dessler G. Human resource management. Place of publication not identified: Pearson
Education Limited; 2017.
5. Compensation and Benefits - HRM Guide [Internet]. Simplehrguide.com. 2017 [cited 7
September 2017]. Available from: http://www.simplehrguide.com/compensation-and-
benefits.html