HR Planning Starts with Knowing Where You Want to Go

Part One of Our Series on Connecting People-Centered Intentions with Strategic HR Action

One of the easiest ways we’ve found to explain the rationale for HR planning is the exchange between Alice and the Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Alice asks which way she ought to go, and the Cat tells her that depends on where she wants to get to. When Alice says she does not much care where, the Cat quite sensibly informs her that, if that is the case, it does not matter which way she goes.

That is a pretty good description of what can happen in HR when the organization has not been clear about direction. The HR team can be working very hard — hiring, advising, training, solving problems, updating policies, and responding to whatever the day brings — and still not be sure whether all that effort is moving the organization toward what matters most.

In the Hauer People approach, the purpose of the HR Planning Process is to determine and articulate the strategic human capital management capability development work priorities necessary to position the organization for successful accomplishment of its mission-directed business goals and desired outcomes.

That is a long sentence because the work is meaningful. More simply: HR planning helps the organization decide what people capabilities must be developed so the mission can be accomplished.

Three Areas of Capability

We frame the work through three connected areas: Talent, Culture and Organization, and HR Capability.

Talent is about the people the mission requires. It includes the acquisition, development, management, and engagement of the talent necessary for organizational success.

Culture and Organization is about the environment that sustains that talent. It includes the work environment, structures, and approaches that help people do meaningful work effectively.

HR Capability is about the function that delivers the work. HR itself must continue developing as an efficient, effective, customer-engaging enterprise capable of supporting the organization’s strategic priorities.

This framing matters because it keeps HR planning from becoming a list of disconnected projects. It asks: What talent does the mission require? What environment will sustain that talent? What must HR be able to deliver?

Planning Is a Choice About Focus

Most HR organizations have more possible work than they can realistically complete. The planning process creates a disciplined way to decide which work should come first and why.

Done well, HR planning produces more than a document. It creates shared understanding, focused priorities, and a basis for accountable action.

When HR work is busy but not clearly directed, the most useful place to begin is with the question that gives the work its purpose: where is the organization trying to go, and what human capital capabilities will help it get there?

If there is one takeaway from this first post, it is that HR planning works best when it begins with a clear sense of where the organization is trying to go and what human capital capabilities will help it get there. In our next post, we will look at the two documents that help carry that planning work forward: the HR Strategic Plan and the HR Operating Plan.