Designing A Corporate HR Plan

INDRANIL BANERJEE



As the business year has completed and the industry and the stakeholders are anxiously waiting for the results, the corporate world hardly has time to take rest, rather the honchos are gathered to develop new strategy to chalk out the corporate plan for new financial year. The corporate plan whether involving issues ranging from creation of a new image building drive or setting up of a new division or outsourcing of some non-core activities involve vital inputs from its HR department. To offer meaningful inputs in the business process of organization value chain during recent time the role of HR became noteworthy. HR just cannot remain isolated or behave like a mere headcount in the Corporate Think tank team. In order to ensure proper assimilation of Company objective with the aspiration of its people during recent past the need of a corporate plan for HR department of the organization has strongly been felt. Such plan if developed thoughtfully helps the organization to build its roadmap and thus may act as a useful strategic management tool. The following issues are required to be kept in mind at the time of developing plan to ensure its deliverable value.

· Role expectation of HRM wing :

The general expectation in corporate circles is to let HR perform its support service role, remain busy with people centric issues, maintain industrial peace and so on. Strangely, a good number of HR people are happily carrying out such maintenance role and thus when they look back find difficulty in counting one’s “Key Success Areas”. This issue becomes evident especially when they make self-assessment at the year-end. Finding very little alternative became force to express their performance for the preceding years only on generic terms. It is true that service role is important; rather it is the foundation on which business houses are built upon. But out of absolute volatile nature of stability of the business houses in this era of competition it is the need of the hour to look after the detail of deliverables rather than remain happy with doables only.

· Culture related issues :

HR often attributes lack of appropriate culture as the stumbling block for them to extend strategic support to the organization. They find difficulty in generating support whenever they come out with any proposition of change. Unless the Organization harness the HR philosophy how could one deliver? But rather than expecting somebody else to clear the path it would be better if HR itself shoulder this role. Definitely it is easy saying than practicing. But then, what is easy in this world – digging a well or opting for a vacation at space. If the organization could be focused with its target to acquire a definite part of pie of market share through its sales organization why not HR team would not strive for achieving desired level of cultural change indices. Even for choicest organization, there is a propensity to opt for professional service for culture survey without analyzing its utility value. If designed properly survey outcome may act as an important source of information but it would be futile if HR is not sincere to solve genuine people issues and mixes with all stakeholders.

· Customer orientation of HR :

To ensure that HR deliver on change initiatives processes the HR team is required to be exposed to both internal and external customers of the business house. It is required to act as a glue for cross functional alignment which may range from arranging cross functional meeting on Monday morning to participate Yoga class with all corner to mobilizing fund for marriage gift of employee ward. Other than transact Company policy with employee representative exchanging views on contemporary issues always add value for relationship building thus create a positive atmosphere for acceptance of change initiatives thus works excellently as Salesmanship. This is a phase where HR’ization of organizations’ IR department takes place and is viewed as a launching pad for building a learning and knowledge Organization.

· Alignment of organization goal to HRM function :

At the time of building corporate plan the HR team must be equipped with vital inputs of corporate objectives. Financial statements of the organization as well as its competitor, growth plan along the value chain and demographically, plan for capturing market share are a few illustrations which required being readily available to the top team of HR to work upon. In spite of imparting training on general topics like “Finance for non-finance executives” the top team preferably equipped by imparting industry specific training on “Interpretation of financial statement” and “Financial implication of HR Decision”. This initiative generally builds interest level for active participation of managers to the programme and helps to visualize Industry realities and appreciate issues while framing corporate plan.

· End-to-end architecture of plan :

Generally, Organization plans for setting target. Once the year ends effort of going for another round of target setting drive may turn to be futile if we not look back. It is worthwhile first to study previous years’ Corporate plan, check out the goal set, measure the achievement made, analyze the gap, if any, and cause thereof and once these processes are over then only plan for setting target for next year.

· Measuring Indices :

We all know – if we are not planning for success, we are simply planning for failure. To check out our wards performance we anxiously look for school annual report, before make investment decision look for Company balance sheet. It is time to consider that if measurement process is accepted practice for judging value contribution at every walk of life why the same is relevant for HR. Similarly, if compensation is determined for every additional number of units sold by a salesman why the same analogy is not applicable for HR. Here lies the importance of measurement. However, before we develop a measurement system it is imperative to know what to measure and then derive the inherent how part. These days it has become one significant issue for corporate to address. Whenever we check up for revamping our existing measurement system it should be remembered that Measurement is a key driver for performance and not the Performance itself. Also at the time deriving corporate plan the periodical benchmarking of individual HR process necessarily be aligned to get best result out of the plan. The HR team preferably must develop its own system of measurement and thus needs to be provided with relevant software and desired training for this purpose.

· Transaction approach :

Normally, cascading of management decision run down the hierarchy and thus essentially a Top-down process. There is common grievance of the operating level management regarding unilateral approach of top management of imposing decision to execute without assessing prevailing ground realities and thus advocate for Bottom up approach. Providing democratic platform for operating level Manager to encourage information flow to reach to a decision is welcome but the issues cannot be left to mercy of individual wishes and proposition. A sensible balance of both approach make the corporate plan realistic and contribute significantly not only to express comprehensive mission statement of the HR organization but also act as a control devise.

· Level of specialization :

HR is not administration but definitely has evolved out of administration. The HR started with its welfare role and significantly moved to the direction of employee development for better productivity. At the time of holding corporate plan meeting it is also advantageous to have the generalist people of administration, sharing the corporate objectives and funding issue. Many a time HR thinks due to lack of administrative support the best of plan remained non-implemented. Thus, it is worthwhile to discuss budget constraints and implementation timeline for individual agenda. While handling HR specialization initiatives like Training & Development, it is worthwhile to keep the long-term objectives of the Organization in mind. Similarly, issues related to Compensation & Benefits need to be dealt after comprehensive study of available salary survey of the industry and contemporary HR market. The robust Performance Management linked with C&B and T&D are guiding factors of Talent management practice and thus is helpful as attrition control device. There is a general propensity to undermine the Personnel Service function although it delivers the final product. It is true that now-a-days the companies are forging ahead to reach absolute specialization but what is the use of designing great HR policies if the same is not implemented and the benefit are not passed onto the all stakeholder. The spirit should be acknowledging the contribution of Personnel Service provider at operating level and request for their support for future implementation.

· Conclusion :

If the corporate plan of the organization is considered as part of initiation of scheduling project the same analogy is equally applicable for HR plan too. The process should ideally be started by mid March and finalized by mid April and communicated across the organization in a documented manner, which would work as guiding principle to achieve corporate HR goal. Recently across the corporate corner there is hue & cry to implement Balance Scorecard. More specific HR Scorecard is also floating. The scorecard an internal control devises works as motivator if properly displayed for both internal and external customer. It may have a significant impact for large diversified complex organization. However it would be a prudent step to check up relevancy of same for smaller organization. The experience says much effort on measurement may lead to shift of focus from performance to presentation. The corporate HR Plan as we found is a strategic tool and must have some uniqueness every year. It should reflect seriousness of the HR team to help bottom-line of the organization without being any source of embarrassment for the top management. It should be transparent without any hidden agenda concerning the employees in general. To generate support from all corners and enhance buy-in of the Plan, it should be launched by CEO of the organization.

(Offline, Volume-5, No- 2, April 2008)

Indranil Banerjee is Manager (P&A), WB State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. Kolkata. He can be reached at indranil.hr@gmail.com
The views expressed above are the author’s own and does not necessarily purport to constitute an official position of Offline or MW.