human resource strategic plan template

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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. 

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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A complete guide to effective HR strategy planning (& a free template!)

Businesses are beginning to recognize the strategic value of human resources. In fact, our State of People Enablement Report found that 79% of people ops leaders felt their C-suite saw them as important.* They no longer viewed HR as an administrative or supportive department, but as vital to the organization’s success.

As the role people teams play expands and grows in importance, taking a more systematic, data-driven approach is essential. Effective, intentional strategies ensure your human resources department stays aligned with overarching company goals while positively impacting the employee experience and making your organization a truly enjoyable place to work.

To that end, this article covers the essential steps you need to take for successful HR strategy planning. We’ve also included a best practice HR strategy template you can customize or use as inspiration for your own team.

* Leapsome’s State of People Enablement Report , 2023 ‍

🤿 Dive right into HR strategy development Our customizable HR strategy template includes all the essential stages and action points you need to structure and flesh out your ideas. 👉 Download template here

What is an HR strategy & why does it matter?

An HR strategy is a comprehensive plan that aligns team management with organizational goals. By integrating the two, companies can ensure that they recruit and retain the right talent to keep their initiatives and long-term objectives on track.

However, an HR strategy goes beyond hiring and keeping positions filled — it can help you engage, empower, and develop employees in a way that supports sustainable growth and fosters a positive work environment. 

When human resources plays a more strategic role, the company can also take a more proactive stance in its industry and build workplace resilience . People teams can forecast staffing needs and spot potential gaps and issues before they escalate into larger problems. For instance, you might anticipate turnover and escalate or adjust hiring efforts instead of scrambling to bring people on board as team members leave. ‍

💭 “In the future of HR, the People function continues to be a strategic partner to the business that is highly integrated into company performance and no longer seen as just a support and administrative function. Well-supported People functions and teams will result in better business results, deeper engagement, high employee enablement, and happy customers.” ‍ — Luck Dookchitra , VP People at Leapsome

Last, remember that while HR managers may take the lead, the best strategies are a collaborative effort between leaders, team leads, and team members. Including stakeholders from every area of your business gives you a more holistic perspective, ensuring that your plan will benefit the entire company. ‍

Free download: Our actionable HR strategy template

Human resources strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all. It’s best to tailor them to your company’s unique needs, goals, and culture rather than adopting a generic blueprint.

That said, having a detailed template can provide you with a structure and save you time on planning. You can check that you haven’t missed any essential steps and customize the strategy to suit your context. 

That’s why we’ve provided this free, downloadable template based on Leapsome’s own strategies and values. ‍

🏆 Create a winning HR strategy Streamline your HR planning processes with our comprehensive template that covers every step and checkpoint.  👉 Download template here

8 steps to creating an effective HR strategy plan

Whether you’re working off a template or starting from scratch, there are some essential steps that should go into the development of any great human resources strategy . Here’s everything you need to consider at each stage. ‍

1. Establish your HR strategy’s aims

Setting clear goals is essential as they will guide all the future decisions you make about your HR strategy. This step involves understanding your organization’s broad objectives and determining how you can support them, ensuring your plan contributes directly to the company’s aspirations and long-term success.

For example, your leadership team might clarify that their long-term objective is to enter the European market and establish a strong presence within the next two years. HR and the C-suite could collaboratively decide on the following aims:

• Hire 80% of the team for the new branch locally
• Relocate the remaining 20% of team members from existing branches

Speaking to other departments allows you to assess where your interests align and how you can support each other most effectively. In the example, HR might work alongside legal and accounting to find potential regulatory roadblocks to hiring in Europe.

When you’re developing cross-departmental aims and sharing them across the organization, tracking them can be challenging. Using goal-setting software like Leapsome allows you to establish complex objectives and track your progress toward them. Choose a platform that accommodates various methodologies, such as OKRs and SMART goals , so you can easily tailor your workflow to your company’s needs and preferences.

2. Review your industry

Staying up-to-date with industry happenings is essential to keeping your HR strategy relevant and competitive. You need to research the current state of recruitment, retention, and team management to understand what’s realistic before you develop any plans.

Going back to the example in step one, imagine you’re investigating the current European job market. You discover that there’s a talent shortage in your industry, which means that you may struggle to hire locally.

Look at official sites like Eurostat , the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the most recent information. HR thought leaders such as SHRM and the Harvard Business Review also report on job market trends.

Evaluating your position within the market can give you extra insights into developing a realistic strategy. You can see where you need to improve, where you already shine, and where competitors outmatch you. For instance, while looking into European expansion, you may notice that another company already has a strong foothold in the job market.

During your research, see where you can update your current HR tools and resources to support your strategizing. People enablement platforms like Leapsome can automate time-consuming parts of your workflow, such as distributing surveys, data collection, and scheduling meetings, so you can prioritize the planning itself. Automation also has the power to make you more adaptive to changes during the strategizing process — 63% of companies said it helped them to pivot. ‍

3. Analyze & check in with your team

Consider your team’s composition to evaluate the talent you’ve got and look for gaps. You might look into:

• Employee demographics
• Tenure and experience levels
• Job performance
• Salary and benefits

Let’s say you’re considering which team members would be ideal candidates to relocate to your new European branches. You might note that a high percentage of the team are digital nomads who are highly likely to be interested in traveling and living abroad.

To conduct an effective analysis, you need to go deeper than superficial numbers to uncover your team’s needs and wants. Running engagement surveys can help you measure employee sentiment about upcoming company initiatives. Use a flexible tool like Leapsome’s Surveys module so you can come up with questions that are specific to your organizational goals and strategy or customize a ready-to-implement template. Setting up an anonymous suggestion box also creates a space where employees can share concerns that you haven’t covered in your survey.

To keep employees at the forefront of your initiatives, use their feedback to create action points for your strategy. For example, you might discover that team members would be willing to relocate to head an expansion abroad if it meant they were getting a promotion. Tools like Leapsome’s AI-powered sentiment analysis can help you summarize written responses while our post-survey action plans can analyze them to give you quick suggestions. 

🎯 Put employees at the center of every plan Our engagement surveys can help you uncover your team’s concerns and align your strategies with their best interests. 👉 Learn more

4. Consider development opportunities 

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of your current team, see whether your company has the skills and expertise it needs to meet its objectives in-house. If not, determine how quickly you can fill any gaps through learning and development initiatives.

Start by conducting a skills gap analysis to compare the talent you need against your team’s current capabilities. Visualizing the knowledge and expertise you need for your company initiatives on a competency framework can help you spot areas for development. You’ll also see how many steps employees need to take to reach an optimal skill level. Leapsome’s AI-powered competency framework can help you get started — just input your department name, number of competencies, and number of levels to generate a framework in minutes.

Let’s say that you’re looking for employees to manage payroll for new branches in the United Kingdom. While no one in the existing accounting department is familiar with British regulations, one person has experience in international finance.

Once you’ve got a clearer idea of your talent needs, explore how effectively you can meet them by developing existing team members. For instance, you might:

• Ask managers to hold career development talks and report on which team members would be open to learning new, critical skills.
• Assess your current learning and development programs to see if you can adjust them to include the desired expertise.
• Research which training courses on the market cover the competencies you need.
• Explore the possibility of creating personalized courses to equip team members with the specific skills they need.

5. Explore pathways for career progression

As you develop your HR strategy, decide how roles should change to align with organizational goals and employee needs. You may need to create new positions if your current team structure doesn’t support your plans, especially if you’re growing or expanding.

Again, a competency or career progression framework could help you determine which employees can be upskilled or are ready to move into the positions you need. Leapsome’s Compensation and Reviews modules could save you time here by providing you with relevant data on all your internal candidates. You can also use the platform to collaborate with each employee’s team lead to make informed, well-rounded decisions.

For example, your company might need a sales manager to head a new branch in another country. After looking at your employee data, you might identify a salesperson who’s got experience heading a team, and a quick chat with their team lead may reveal that they’re eager to advance professionally. You can then see how to support them and upskill them to move into the new role.  ‍

6. Examine recruitment & turnover

Hiring and retention are often at the heart of human resources initiatives. For example, reducing turnover can help businesses maintain a knowledgeable and experienced team while they launch new ventures. A stable team is also vital to protecting employee well-being and company culture during changes. When colleagues are constantly coming and going, surveys show that team members are up to 25% more likely to resign .

Using the following steps, you can get clarity into how hiring and retention may play into your HR strategy:

• Measure your recruitment and turnover levels
• Filter the results by department and role
• Benchmark your results against the industry standard
• Review reasons for job offer rejections and resignations
• Consider whether you can expect these numbers to change
• Estimate how many positions you’ll need to fill

A people analytics tool like Leapsome can help you implement many of these steps. Our platform not only collects and analyzes your HR data, but gives you AI-driven actionable insights . For instance, Leapsome can sort your information to indicate the biggest impact drivers and filter out less relevant details. You can also benchmark this data against competitors and use predictive analysis to uncover future trends in turnover.

Ultimately, you can see how to solve potential turnover issues at the same time as you discover them, saving valuable time. ‍

7. Design HR initiatives & strategies

Now, you should be ready to translate all the aims and the insights you’ve collected into actionable steps. Write objectives that relate to both the overarching business goals and your team’s needs. If you’re using a cascading goal framework like OKRs, you can tie them directly to each of your company’s aims. 

If you find the OKR methodology tricky to implement correctly, consider using Leapsome’s AI-powered OKR generation feature: Simply provide a descriptive objective as a prompt, and allow the AI tool to generate key results and initiatives tailored to your overall goal. You can then refine your choices from the generated list by selecting the most suitable key results, and include relevant and realistic deadlines and metrics for your organization.

Let’s return to our example of the organization that’s looking to expand abroad. You might establish the following objectives and key results:

Company-level

• Objective: We operate in the EU within the next two years to diversify our market presence and increase our resilience. 
• Key result: We have five teams of 750 local hires and 250 relocated employees working across offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome.
• Objective: We have full teams with the best skills, experience, and culture add to run our European offices to ensure the success of our expansion.   ‍
• Key result: There are ten managers from our existing offices working in our new European ones who have successfully undergone our relocation program.  ‍
• ‍ Initiative: We arrange meetings to discuss career opportunities with the top 30 candidates.

Any key results should be measurable so you can track your progress and see whether you’re staying on course. For instance, the metrics in the examples above are the number of people hired and successful relocations.

Once you’ve written your objectives, finalize them with leadership, department heads, and employee representatives. You’ll need to double-check that everyone is aligned on the strategy. Returning to our example, perhaps the C-suite has agreed that ten managers can relocate and employees are on board, but department heads fear that it’ll leave them short-staffed. It’s essential to address these concerns: In this instance, you could consider implementing a transitional plan that outlines how the company will manage workload and resources during the relocation period. ‍

8. Monitor progress & review 

Your HR strategy plan doesn’t end with implementation — you need to decide how you’ll monitor how it’s going and potentially adjust your approach as your needs change and evolve. ‍

💭 “We’ve emphasized continuous improvement since our first HR strategy. Our approaches evolved as we gained insights from experiences and integrated more comprehensive training and development programs. We also honed our communication channels: Fostering transparent dialogues with staff proved essential in understanding their changing needs. By adopting the right technology, we’ve made HR processes more efficient and user-friendly. Our HR strategies have ensured we attract the right individuals who align with our company ethos and contribute meaningfully to our mission. We’ve seen significant benefits: increased productivity, improved teamwork, and a notable boost in our quality of service.” — Sarah Jeffries, Managing Director, First Aid Course Leicester

Using data analytics, you can continue to observe trends in:

• Recruitment and retention
• Onboarding, training, and development
• Engagement levels
• Punctuality and absenteeism

Looking at the data, you can determine whether you’re seeing the expected results. For example, if you’re expanding your organization abroad, you should see changes in recruitment levels and employee demographics. You might be interested in investigating your onboarding times if you’re hiring a lot of candidates to check that training is running smoothly.

You can also use the data to evaluate how well your company has managed the changes. Retention and engagement levels are often telltale signs — if the initiatives have improved job satisfaction, you can expect an increase in both.

You can run surveys to get a clearer idea of employee responses toward the initiatives. When you’re managing hundreds of people over different locations, reading every answer won’t be feasible. Instead, turn answers to Likert and multiple choice questions into data to gauge your team’s overall sentiment using data analytics.

If you ask open-ended questions, you could use a tool like Leapsome’s AI survey comment summaries . Our Natural Language Processor interprets qualitative survey results to give you a deep analysis of written responses.

How Leapsome enables HR professionals

‍ Human resource teams should be a vital part of any business’s big-picture strategies. With their input, organizations can strike an ideal balance between working toward ambitious company objectives and supporting team members.

To enable HR professionals to thrive as they take on more strategic roles within your organization, you need the right tools. Our people enablement platform is ideal for creating HR plans that are tailored to your specific business needs. We allow you to manage:

• Company-wide goals and OKRs
• Employee feedback and surveys
• Career advancement processes
• Onboarding, learning, and development
• People analytics

With Leapsome, you can easily collaborate on any human resources strategy and get data-driven insights to make the best possible decisions for your organization’s future.  ‍

🖼️ Focus on the big picture, not the fine print Leapsome automates data collection, survey distribution, and review cycles so you’re free to strategize. 👉 Book a demo

Leapsome Team

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HR Strategy Template

What Is a Human Resources Strategy?

A Human Resources Strategy is an overall plan focused on managing human capital to align with the business's core activities, with the ultimate goal of achieving the business mission. This usually revolves around the members who make up the organization as the most important division of an organization, and the best practices to implement. 

What's Included In This Human Resources Strategy Template?

This template is pre-filled with examples, which you can use as inspiration for your own HR plan.  

Within seconds of setting up your template, you’ll get immediate access to:

• 4x Human Resources Focus Areas
• 12x Human Resources Objectives
• 16x Human Resources Projects
• 19x Human Resources KPIs

Once you have set your template, you can also create up to two dashboards for real-time performance monitoring. 

And yes - you get free access with no credit card required. ✅

Who Is This HR Strategy Template For?

The underlying definition of Human Resources (HR) is employee-oriented and focuses on the employment process all the way through to fair pay and ultimately managing your employees. Our simple HR strategy template can be applied to any industry and almost every organization within that industry. Line managers, human resource managers and other HR professionals, CEOs, department managers, team leaders, and unions are all examples of professionals who could use such a template.

You can use our HR strategic plan template to improve your company’s workforce management, achieve common business goals, and maximize your human capital.

How Is This Human Resources Strategy Template Relevant To Your Organization?

Human Resources is a holistic department that is part of every organization. A good HR strategic plan can help with not only the hiring process, but also in establishing the culture of the workforce and the types of people with whom your organization wants to be associated. This is why Human Resources is relevant to any and every organization, including yours.  At Cascade, we understand that every organization has a different way of leading, training, and recruiting its employees. This is why we believe that using this Human Resources strategy template will be useful for you to better understand your employees and identify what factors may be affecting your success rate in hiring and retaining your staff. It will help you increase employee satisfaction, decrease turnover rates, and provide a better overall company culture.

How To Use the HR Strategy Template?

1. define clear examples of your focus areas.

Focus areas are strategic ways of addressing an organization's targets. Begin thinking about what comes to mind for your organization when you think of Human Resources and note down some keywords, i.e. people, culture, fair work, retention, and loyalty. Now, reflecting on these words, they are both values and focus areas that your company is trying to identify and associate its organization with. Next, ask yourself, "Am I struggling to address any of these areas?" Those areas are usually the ones that you should focus on. An example of HR focus areas includes talent acquisition, culture, and employee efficiency.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

When coming up with a strategic objective, it is important to ensure they are SMART goals, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. The main idea behind creating an objective is to have some form of direction and drive to strive toward. Within your HR strategy, these objectives will have to directly relate to the focus area of choice. Otherwise, there’s a huge chance that your strategic plan will fail.

Objective example: Develop a World-Class Employee Onboarding Program

The above objective would fall under the focus area of talent acquisition and is one target that needs to be met to address that focus area.

3. Set yourself measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

A KPI is a key performance indicator that is measurable and evaluates the success rate of an organization in relation to the task at hand. With reference to the Human Resources strategy template, organizations can use Key Performance Indicators as a way to track whether their key business objectives are on track, behind, ahead, or have been achieved. Need help on how to write KPIs? To assist you with this, Cascade has written 84 Key Performance Indicators that can be used within your HR strategy template.

Two example KPIs you can include in your HR plan to achieve the above objective are:

• Increase the percentage of 'Cherish & Retain' Employees
• Increase Internal to External Hiring Ratio

It is important to remember that under each objective, there will usually be more than one KPI to achieve that objective. This is because KPIs act as the building blocks in creating and reaching the Strategic Objective. Depending on the size of your organization, a time frame will also be required in order to measure the success rate and progress of the given target.

Check out a few other Human Resources KPIs written by Cascade that can also be incorporated into your HR strategy.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Creating effective projects will describe what you will do to accomplish your objectives. It is at this point in your strategic planning process that you will start to scope out exactly what actions you will take in order to achieve certain objectives. In relation to the Human Resources Strategy, these projects have to be directly related to achieving the KPIs. 

An example project for your Human Resources Strategy could be: Utilize the 9-Box Talent Grid for employee retention or 360-degree feedback communication exchange between employer and employee.

Both projects fall under talent acquisition and are directly related to how your organization can create the best environment for your employees while ensuring that the employees you recruit are people who want to work for your organization because of its reputation and brand image.

5. Utilize Cascade tools to track and visualize performance

Under Cascade, the creation of dashboards and snapshots is available. These visual tools, which mostly focus on dashboards, can help track the progress of KPIs and projects graphically. By adding a 'widget', you have the ability to graph out your measurable target and, more specifically, choose which target you want to focus on. Not all KPIs have to be tracked if they aren't of huge priority or relevance at the moment. This tool is a great way to keep your team accountable and on top of the tasks at hand.

Using dashboards in your Human Resources strategy will help your management team keep track of employee performance and gain a better understanding of what seems to attract employees to your organization and what changes could be made. For example, using a graphical table to track projects like 360-degree feedback and seeing how much of the project is implemented can allow employers to gain feedback as to whether or not the project is successful and boosts employee morale, efficiency, and productivity. This will prove to be a great way to make quick changes to your business's core activities relating to human resources strategy without having huge implications on your expenses.

HR Strategy Template FAQs

How do i start creating an hr strategy.

The main goal of an HR strategy is to maximize your human capital so you can achieve your overall business goals. That said, a good HR strategic plan starts with your “why”—the reason your business exists and what you want to achieve. From there, figure out where your HR strategy needs to fill in the gaps to help your business reach its goals. Use our template as a good starting point for creating your HR plan.

What are the important elements of an HR strategic plan?

Much like a strategic business plan, an HR strategic plan is composed of the following key elements:

• Goals and Objectives: Specific, measurable, and time-bound targets that the HR function aims to achieve to support the overall business goals.
• KPIs: This will help you keep track of whether or not you are achieving your goals.
• Budget: A detailed plan for allocating financial and other resources to support the HR function's strategies and action plans.

How often should we revisit or update the HR strategy?

Definitely not once a year. Executives, managers, and the HR department must ensure that HR goals are always aligned with business goals, which can change throughout the year. While reviewing your KPIs, revisit the entire strategic plan to see if it still makes sense in the current business environment.

Related Templates

• People & Culture Strategy Template
• New Employee Onboarding Strategy Template

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Effective human resources strategic planning connects your enterprise strategy to specific initiatives for your function. Done well, your HR strategic plan should provide a clear roadmap to deliver on your business goals. Use this proven one-page strategic planning template to:

• Build a successful strategic plan for human resources
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• Execute your strategic objectives on time and within budget.

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HR STRATEGY TEMPLATE

This HR Strategy Template is 186 PowerPoint slides of hr & org strategy storylines, plans, frameworks, org charts , analysis , icons, examples, templates, and more. Designed by human resource leaders and McKinsey consultants, the HR strategy template covers HR strategy , org strategy, org design , strategic alignment, financials, the employee journey (hiring, onboarding , development, evaluation, advancement), HR plans & initiatives, culture , values , compensation design, and much more.

Your HR & organizational strategy and plan are critical to you. Your time and energy are precious. Get a massive jumpstart on your HR strategy and presentation by instantly downloading the HR strategy template now with professionally designed and easy-to-edit slides and three color palettes included.

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WHAT DOES THE HR & ORG STRATEGY TEMPLATE COVER?

The HR & Org Strategy template has everything you need to create an amazing HR & Org presentation. The template agenda starts with the Year in Review & Current State, covering wins, metrics , org structure, key metrics, headcount, and current initiatives. The agenda then covers Next Year's Goals, outlining key HR & Org goals, KPIs , metrics, budgets, initiatives and more. Then the agenda dives into the details of the HR & Org strategies and initiatives covering how the team is going to improve every aspect of the Employee Journey from recruiting, onboarding, development, evaluation, promotions. The next part of the agenda covers Org Design , which dives into headcount, layers, career tracks, org consolidation, and team composition. The last agenda section covers Culture & Compensation. In addition, you get tons of extra frameworks, icons, and slides to customize your presentation. Furthermore, you can generate ideas for strategies and initiatives utilizing our free guides on Org Strategy, The Employee Journey & Culture , and Org Design . Take a look at all 186 pages of the template below. 

ALL 186 PAGES OF THE HR STRATEGY TEMPLATE

The Table of Contents for the Human Resources & Organizational Strategy Template:

1. Title Page 2. The HR Team's Mission 3. HR Strategy Agenda Slide 4. HR Team & Org Wins 5. HR KPI Performance 6. Company Org Chart 7. US Org Headcount Map 8. World Headcount Map 9. Org Current State Metrics 10. Headcount Chart 11. Headcount by Function Chart 12. HR & Org Strategy Framework 13. HR Strategy Scorecard 14. Next Year's HR & Org Goals 15. HR Goals 16. Company Goals, & Budget 17. Employee Engagement Heatmap 18. HR Initiatives & Progress 19. Human Resources Budget 20. Improve the Employee Journey 21. Employee Journey Framework 22. Employee Journey Initiatives 23. Employee Survey Results 24. Employee Journey Goals / KPIs 25. Talent Acquisition Funnel 26. 5C Onboarding Strategies 27. Employee Development Initiatives 28. Employee Assessment Strategy 29. HCM Platform Strategy 30. HCM Project Plan 31. Change Management Template 32. Employee Journey Strategy 33. Strategic Org Design 34. Org Design Framework 35. Core Competency Strategy 36. Cascading Goals & KPIs 37. Job Career Ladder Template 38. Headcount Reduction 39. Manager Headcount Reduction 40. Centers of Excellence Consolidation 41. Employee Certification Chart 42. Employee Mix Trend Chart 43. Organizational Chart 44. Elevate the Culture & Comp 45. Company Culture Framework 46. Company Culture Scorecard

47. Company Culture Initiatives 48. List of Core Values 49. Core Values Strategy 50. Core Values Initiatives 51. Company Norms 52. List of Comp & Benefits 53. Total Compensation Strategy 54. Cash Compensation Strategy 55. Commission Strategy 56. Stock Option Chart 57. Medical Benefits Initiatives 58. Office Improvement Strategy 59. Thank You & Questions 60. Additional Slides 61. GENERIC FRAMEWORKS 62. Arrow Tree Framework 63. 5 Block Horizontal Slide 64. Four Part Circle 65. Expanding Circle Framework 66. 5 Block Slide 67. Hexagon Slide 68. 3 Strategy Yin Yang Slide 69. 4-Part Puzzle Piece 70. Roadmap Slide 71. 4-Part Flower Framework 72. 8-Part Flower Framework 73. Speedometer Slide 74. Pyramid Framework 75. 3-Ellipse Framework 76. Funnel Framework 77. Alternative Funnel 78. Project Template 79. Performance Template 80. 3-Box Framework 81. Staircase Framework 82. Downward Flow Template 83. 4-Piece Process Framework 84. Core Initiative Framework 85. Milestone Framework 86. 4-Box Framework 87. 3-Box Framework 88. 3-Box Segmented Framework 89. KPI Template 90. KPI Goal Template 91. STRATEGY ICONS 92. Light Blue Background 1 of 3

93. Light Blue Background 2 of 3 94. Light Blue Background 3 of 3 95. Dark Blue Background 1 of 3 96. Dark Blue Background 2 of 3 97. Dark Blue Background 3 of 3 98. White Icons 1 of 3 99. White Icons 2 of 3 100. White Icons 3 of 3 101. Dark Blue Icons 1 of 3 102. Dark Blue Icons 2 of 3 103. Dark Blue Icons 3 of 3 104. Team Images 105. Human Resources & Org Icons 106. Human Resources & Org Icons 107. Human Resources & Org Icons 108. Charts & Agendas 109. Org Goals & Composition 110. Core HR Initiatives 111. European HR Strategy 112. Retention Initiatives 113. Mission & Values 114. HR Strategy Initiatives 115. HR Spend Doughnut Chart 116. Alternative Agenda 117. Employee Mix Pie Chart 118. Headcount Trend Chart 119. Stacked Column Chart 120. 100% Stacked Column Chart 121. Waterfall Chart 122. Bubble Chart 123. HR Radar Chart 124. Stratechi.com Bonus Material 125. Fundamentals of an Org 126. Purpose of an Organization 127. Organizational Processes 128. Company Processes 129. The Profit Equation 130. Core Competency Examples 131. Org Strategy Building Blocks 132. Solving a Business Model 133. Functional Process Examples 134. What is a Process? 135. Improving Processes 136. Org Strategy Framework 137. Infrastructure Prioritization 138. Procurement & Partners

139. Org Design Fundamentals 140. Org Design Elements 141. Org Structure & Roles 142. Types of Org Structures 143. Matrix vs. Functional vs BUs 144. HR & Org Benchmarking 145. Span of Control 146. The Right Leaders 147. ROLES Framework 148. Employee Journey 149. Building Blocks of Culture 150. Culture Strategy 151. Examples of Culture Strategy 152. Potential Company Values 153. Values Example 154. Norms Best Practices 155. Amazon Meeting Norms 156. Employee Journey Questions 157. List of Employee Journey Ideas 158. Google’s Employee Journey 159. Comp & Benefits Framework 160. Company Environment 161. Culture Transformation Plan 162. Employee Diagnostic Results 163. Diagnostic Survey (1/2) 164. Diagnostic Survey (2/2) 165. HR / Employee Worksheets 166. SMART Goal Worksheet 167. ROLES Worksheet 168. Will Skill Matrix 169. Will Skill Template 170. Sources of Power 171. Personal Power Plan 172. High Performing Teams 173. Team Charter 174. Extended Team Charter (1/2) 175. Extended Team Charter (2/2) 176. Functional Roadmaps 177. Roadmap PowerPoint Template 178. Roadmap Excel Template 179. Project Planning Exercise 180. Project Plan Template 181. Project Scorecard Exercise 182. Project Management Scorecard 183. Problem Statement Exercise 184. Problem Statement Template 185. KPI Worksheet 186. Terms of Use

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Human Resources Strategic Plan Templates

This HR strategy presentation template is 186 PowerPoint slides of hr & org strategy storylines, plans, frameworks, org charts, analysis, icons, examples, templates, and more. Designed by human resource leaders and McKinsey consultants, the HR strategic plan template covers HR strategy , org strategy, org design , strategic alignment, financials, the employee journey (hiring, onboarding, development, evaluation, advancement), HR plans & initiatives, culture, values, compensation design, and much more.

HR & Powerpoint Organizational Chart Templates

Human Resources & Organizational Strategy

This section covers the fundamental building blocks of your HR strategy, including the clear articulation of your HR team's mission.

Company Organization & Structure

Gain clarity and insight into your company's organizational structure with comprehensive org charts, visualize your workforce distribution with US and world headcount maps, and evaluate key organizational metrics

Headcount & Workforce Management

Dive into headcount analysis to make informed decisions about workforce management, explore headcount reduction strategies, and design career ladders to foster employee growth .

Employee Journey & Engagement

Build an engaged and productive workforce by improving the employee journey through efficient hiring, seamless onboarding, continuous development initiatives, and understanding employee sentiments with survey results.

Talent Acquisition & Development

Discover the power of an effective talent acquisition funnel to attract and retain top talent, utilize 5C onboarding strategies to ensure a successful integration, and develop employees with thoughtful initiatives for continuous growth.

Human Capital Management (HCM) & Technology

Strategize your Human Capital Management (HCM) with a comprehensive platform strategy, effectively plan HCM projects , and navigate organizational change with a robust change in human resources strategic plan template.

Culture & Compensation

Elevate your company culture and compensation design with frameworks that reinforce your values, and utilize scorecards to track the effectiveness of culture initiatives.

Core Values & Core Competencies

Define and uphold your core values, align your core competencies with your organizational strategy, and develop initiatives to strengthen these foundational elements.

Performance & Strategy Frameworks

Ensure alignment across your organization with cascading goals and KPIs, utilize milestone frameworks to track progress, and leverage powerful 3-box frameworks for strategic decision-making.

Employee Certification & Assessment

Implement employee certification processes for skill validation and use employee assessment strategies to identify potential and areas of growth.

Company Norms & Employee Journey Strategy

Establish company norms for efficient collaboration, and design a cohesive employee journey strategy that aligns with your organizational goals.

Retention Initiatives & High Performing Teams

Implement retention strategies to nurture talent, create team charters to foster high performing teams, and drive a culture of continuous improvement .

Company Culture Initiatives & Employee Diagnostic Results

Drive cultural transformation with well-defined culture initiatives, and gain valuable insights into your organization's strengths and areas for improvement through employee diagnostic surveys.

Compensation Framework & Procurement Prioritization

Craft a comprehensive compensation framework that aligns with your organizational goals, and prioritize strategic procurement to optimize resource allocation with this human resources strategic plan template.

Project Planning & Problem Statement Exercise

Utilize project planning templates to ensure successful execution of your HR initiatives, and conduct problem statement exercises to address organizational challenges effectively.

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Practicing Strategic Human Resources

Overview Background Benefits of HR Strategic Planning Developing a Strategic HR Plan

Assess the Current Situation

Envision the Future

Develop Strategic HR Objectives

Monitor and Evaluate

Additional Resources

This article provides a definition, background, information, resources and suggested reading on how to begin the process of strategic human resources. Topics include the following:

• Benefits to HR to engage in strategic planning.
• Developing a strategic HR plan.
• Assessing the organization's current environment.
• Creating statements of vision, mission and values.
• Implementing, monitoring and evaluating the HR strategic plan.

Strategic human resource management involves a future-oriented process of developing and implementing HR programs that address and solve business problems and directly contribute to major long-term business objectives.

HR management was once largely an administrative function focused on day-to-day responsibilities such as employee recruiting and selection and managing employee benefits. Changing labor market conditions and new business thinking call for HR business strategies that include recruiting and retaining the right people, as well as providing ethical and cultural leadership.

Strategic planning presents great challenges and opportunities for HR professionals. Nearly all HR leaders in the largest global companies are involved in strategic decision-making and participate on the organization's strategy team, and a majority of HR professionals report that strategic planning is part of their function. In contrast, HR professionals in many medium and small organizations are not often involved in organizational or functional strategic planning. Consequently, to achieve long-term strategic HR objectives and to be a key player in the organization's strategic planning process, some HR departments may need to convince senior management of the value and contribution HR can provide.

Benefits of HR Strategic Planning

The closer the alignment between HR and an organization's overall business strategy, the better the company's ability to anticipate and respond to customer needs and to maintain competitive advantage. Rigorous research, planning and development involving workforce culture, behaviors and competencies promote the successful execution of business strategy.

Particular benefits of HR strategic planning include the following:

• Avoiding costly and disruptive surprises that interfere with achieving goals.
• Addressing key issues in a timely manner to avoid crises.
• Promoting employee productivity and overall organizational success.
• Providing a sense of direction to positively affect how work gets done.
• Keeping employees focused on organizational goals.
• Providing a strategic focus to guide training and development initiatives.
• Giving leaders tools to help focus and implement their strategic initiatives.

Developing a Strategic HR Plan

HR's role includes developing a plan of HR initiatives to achieve and promote the behaviors, culture and competencies needed to achieve organizational goals.

Results-oriented goals broadly include the following:

• Correctly assessing staffing and skills needs and keeping training up-to-date.
• Developing and maintaining competitive pay and benefits.
• Managing performance and designing a rewards system that keeps employees motivated.
• Knowing what competitors are doing to recruit and retain talent.
• Providing training, including ethics, which reinforces corporate values.

The strategic planning process begins with four critical questions:

• Where are we now? (Assess the current situation.)
• Where do we want to be? (Envision and articulate a desired future.)
• How do we get there? (Formulate and implement a strategy and strategic objectives.)
• How will we know if we are on track toward our intended destination? (Establish a mechanism to evaluate progress.)

See  HR as Strategic Planning Facilitator .

The following sections examine each step in greater detail.

Being a strategic business partner means carrying out HR activities with the long-range goals of the organization in mind. To do this, HR professionals must do the following:

• Understand how the various organizational components interact and recognize the long-term implications of HR decisions. The impact of HR decisions must be thoroughly researched and analyzed before changes are implemented.
• Have a firm grounding in business basics, including finance, marketing, sales, operations and IT. These skills help with budgeting and with maintaining a workforce with the correct mix of skills.
• Develop and exercise analytic skills directed at "the why" as well as "the what." This may mean spending more time on so-called translational work (such as coaching business leaders, planning and implementing HR practices that effectively execute strategy, and helping teams manage change) than on transactional work (such as recruitment, training, human resource information systems and other traditional HR functions).
• Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of their organizations. The SWOT approach offers a clearer picture of customers, markets and competitors.

What are the basics of environmental scanning as part of the strategic planning process?

What is SWOT analysis, and how does it apply to an HR department?

How to Make Strategic Choices in Uncertain Conditions

Aligning the HR function to the organization's business strategy

For HR departments, intradepartmental strategic planning can be a good way to start the functional alignment process. However, regardless of whether strategic planning begins in the HR department or in another department, or is managed on an organization wide scale, the actions of the HR department will be integral to the success of the strategic plan. Thus, HR professionals must take care to align the HR function with every aspect of the strategic plan, even if the strategic plan does not explicitly address HR issues. Recent SHRM research reveals that HR professionals foresee significant workplace challenges, including rising health care costs, the retirement of large numbers of Baby Boomers and the increased demand for work/life balance. Retention programs, work/life programs, succession planning, and health, safety and security programs are among the HR efforts that are viewed as key workplace challenges through which HR can strategically contribute to organizations. See  Aligning Workforce Strategies with Business Objectives.

The HR alignment process is often driven by workforce composition issues. Although every organization's particular strategic plan is unique, the demographics and other characteristics of the available workforce have a major effect on the way businesses are staffed. In turn, the way organizations are staffed has a significant impact on the execution of the organization's strategy.  

HR professionals should monitor and respond accordingly to factors that may affect workforce composition, including the following:

• Age. The age of the existing employees, the age of the available workforce, and the patterns of retirement for older workers and for the entrance of younger workers can significantly affect workforce availability.  
• Current economic conditions. Unemployment rates, natural disasters and political changes can also have an impact the availability of workers.  
• Globalization. One aspect of globalization that will affect almost all organizations is the increasing diversity of the workforce. Another aspect of globalization is the economic incentive to outsource labor and production activities to wherever such costs are lower. A third, and related, aspect is immigration, both legal and illegal, in the United States and abroad.

Conducting a SWOT analysis

Understanding of the current situation can be enhanced by conducting a SWOT analysis. This analysis includes an internal assessment of the organization's capabilities and limitations as well as an external environmental scan to review its customers, markets and competitors, and to forecast to external opportunities and threats.

What is a S.W.O.T. analysis, and how does it apply to an HR department?

Cultivate Critical Evaluation with a PESTLE Analysis

How To Build On Your Organization's Strengths

Major areas to consider during an external scan include economic, demographic, political, social and technological trends. An analysis of customers, markets and competitors is used to determine how the market is changing, to predict who the future customers will be and to analyze competitors in the marketplace. See Strategic Planning: What are the basics of environmental scanning? and Report: HR Lags in Using Data to Make Decisions .

When conducting a customer/market/competitor analysis, HR professionals should answer the following questions:

• What business are we in?
• What is going on in the world in which we do business?
• What business should we be in?
• What are our resources?
• What are our core competencies?
• Who are our competitors?
• How will we compete?

When the HR strategic planning team has fully evaluated the current situation, it should consider what the ideal future would look like from an organizational perspective.

The question "Where do we want to be?" can be answered and clearly articulated by creating statements of vision, mission and values. A vision statement provides a description of what an organization wants to become or hopes to accomplish in the future. An effective vision statement paints a mental picture of the organization's preferred future that is inspirational, aspirational, compelling and concise. See  Human Resources Mission Statement Examples .

A values statement describes what the organization believes in and how it will behave. This statement can serve as the organization's moral compass and should be used to guide decision-making and assess actions taken. See  Mission: What Is the Difference Between a Company's Mission, Vision and Values Statements?

Setting strategic objectives is an important part of the strategic planning process. Therefore, these objectives must be aligned with the organization's mission, vision and overall strategy. Strategic objectives will vary from organization to organization.

To identify whether strategic objectives have a solid foundation for success, HR should consider the following questions:

• Have the benefits of obtaining the defined objectives been outlined and communicated?
• Are the strategic objectives relevant to the organization's position in the external market? For example, do they consider competitor positions, organizational size and financial strength?
• Do the strategic objectives recognize the organization's strengths and weaknesses?
• Do employees throughout the company understand how these objectives affect them and how they contribute independently and collectively to the defined objectives?
• Are the strategic objectives realistic and feasible? Unrealistic objectives typically result in disappointment for all involved.
• Have timelines for benchmarking progress and targets for completed objectives been set?
• Will the organization realistically be able to identify the success or lack of success in the accomplishment of strategic objectives in some quantitative fashion?
• Can the strategic objectives be linked back to the organization's overall strategy?

As an example, ABC Company may identify in its strategic planning analysis a need to improve the talent acquisition process. The strategic objective to address this issue is to design selection criteria to ensure best-fit hiring while reducing the time-to-fill positions.

Once a key initiative is identified, the organization should do the following:

• Continuously ensure that the objective and action plan are aligned with the organizational and HR strategy.
• Identify the primary actions required to achieve the objective.
• Set milestones for each action, and plan for contingencies.
• Identify the required resources, including budget and staff.
• Establish success measures.
• Communicate key messages.

Ultimately, a strategic objective is only as good as the overall strategic plan.

At this step of the strategic planning process, the focus is on specifying short-term answers to the question "How do we get there?" Specific, concrete short-term objectives that can be completed within six months to a year should be established to answer this question.

Although many organizations engage in strategic planning, very few of them believe they are highly successful at strategy execution. According to a survey by the American Management Association and the Human Resources Institute, only 3 percent of executives polled said their organizations were very successful at executing corporate strategy, whereas 62 percent stated their organizations were moderately successful. However, the companies that reported relatively high success in strategy execution were more likely to realize favorable revenue growth, market share, profitability and customer satisfaction.

Though every organization has its own strategy execution challenges, this study found that mastering the following areas is essential to successfully implementing strategic plans:

• Clarity of communication.
• Alignment of practices.
• Leadership.
• An adaptive organizational infrastructure.
• Resource management.

The single greatest barrier to executing strategy is the lack of adequate resources, the study found.

The final step should be establishing a mechanism to monitor and evaluate progress toward the achievement of strategic objectives. Most organizations conduct annual or quarterly strategic reviews for this purpose. These reviews do the following:

• Determine whether the organization is on track to achieve key objectives.
• Provide the opportunity to identify and adapt to significant internal or external changes that affect the strategic plan.
• Update annual action priorities.

Some organizations may find that systems or tools such as balanced scorecards, benchmarking and dashboards are helpful for keeping focus and monitoring results.

How can the balanced scorecard be applied to human resources?

How do I determine which HR metrics to measure and report?

9 Tips for Using HR Metrics Strategically

Artificial Intelligence Can Free HR Professionals to Focus on Strategy

Wilkinson, Michael (2011) The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy Atlanta, GA: Leadership Strategies Publishing.

Stroble, K. R., Kurtessis, J. N., Cohen, D. J., & Alexander, A. (2015). Defining HR Success: 9 critical competencies for HR professionals. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.

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Home » Employer Resources » HR Resources » HR Strategic Plan

What is an HR Strategic Plan?: A Comprehensive Guide

Human resources is a key player in transforming a business. With increased focus on digital transformation, inclusion and diversity, data-driven decision-making, and prioritization of employee well-being, organizations are looking to redefine their HR strategies. They seek human resources professionals who can draft a comprehensive strategic plan to guide organizational change. In this blog, we will discuss how to create an HR strategic plan, what to include, best practices, and examples for you to master this aspect of human resource management.

Table of Contents

HR Strategic Plan: Definition & Importance

A human resources strategic plan is a written document that contains details about the HR strategy for the stakeholders to understand and execute. This plan provides information, such as HR goals, initiatives, and priorities, and aligns them with the business objectives. Further, it specifies the resources and actions required to carry out and measure the progress of the strategies developed. The HR heads prepare the strategic plan in collaboration with organizational leadership that serves as a guide for all the HR activities in the organization. 

The reasons behind the importance of a strategic plan are given below:

• Helps in setting goals and tracking related progress. 
• Ensures the human resources department focuses on the predetermined priorities.
• Facilitates appropriate resource allocation. 
• Keeps all the stakeholders informed about the human resource strategy. 
• Enhances productivity and engagement of HR professionals by providing a clear roadmap to work. 
• Creates accountability for the HR strategy. 

If you are an aspiring HR professional looking to build a career in human resources, enroll in an HR course with placement to develop skills and kick-start your professional journey. 

Steps to Develop an HR Strategic Plan

The strategic human resource management process is a comprehensive procedure. It evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to devise a strategy. This strategy ensures operational goals and future demands for labor and talent are met. Let us discuss the steps to develop this document:

1. Understand the Business: Goals and Objectives

You require a thorough understanding of the past and present working of your organization to draft a strategic plan. Communicate with the key stakeholders and engage in discussions about the organization’s achievements, products and services, and goals. This will help you determine the business needs and identify the ways to fulfill them. 

2. Assess Current Capabilities: HR and Employees

The next step in strategic HR management and planning is to assess the current capabilities of the human resources department and the existing employees. Begin by evaluating the state of the HR with the SWOT analysis, i.e., understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can perform an HR audit to examine the readiness of your HR department and review the policies and processes. This helps to check if they are functioning well or if any aspects need to be improved. 

Assessment of the employee’s current skill sets is essential to check if they meet the operational needs. You can review employee performance, project history, continuing education, professional growth, and resumes to evaluate the collective workforce skill level. The information collected will provide you with an idea of the roles best suited for each individual and if there is a need for upskilling or hiring. 

3. Forecast Labor Needs: Gap Analysis

One of the goals of strategic human resource management is to cater to forthcoming changes in a workforce to ensure smooth and continuous operations. You need to conduct a gap analysis to determine if your employees have the necessary skills and knowledge to maximize their productivity. 

Take into account both external and internal factors while forecasting the labor needs of the organization. Here are essential factors to consider: 

Internal Factors:

• Personnel transfers
• Planned promotions
• Upcoming retirements
• Extended leaves of absence such as maternity or paternity leave

External Factors:  

• Technological development
• Global financial environment
• Legal and regulatory environment
• Demographic shifts
• Environmental factors 
• Labor market conditions

4. Outline Your Plan: Strategies to Manage, Motivate, and Retain Talent

Once you have done a gap analysis and forecasted your labor needs, move to the next step of the HR strategic planning process. In this step, you will outline your plan to meet the labor requirements of the organization, be it retaining or recruiting employees. 

Since employees require much more than rewarding compensation to remain engaged and productive in their work, it is essential to devise strategies to provide them with meaningful and fulfilling opportunities. 

Some of the strategies to manage, motivate, and retain employees include:

• Regularly auditing compensation, benefits, work environment, and employee engagement. 
• Identifying employees with skills outside their current roles seeking new challenges, and providing them with a development plan to grow within the organization.
• Creating a company culture that supports continuous learning. 
• Providing online training opportunities to upskill employees for new roles.
• Evaluating and adapting compensation and benefits packages to be more competitive.

Refer to your HR strategy and list the major objectives. Your HR strategic plan should have a brief description of initiatives and programs you will implement to achieve each HR objective.

5. Decide on a Budget

Considering finances in your human resource planning process is crucial because it ensures you can reference your budget and expenses as needed. The costs incurred on fulfilling the workforce requirements include hiring, training, payroll, etc. Deciding on a budget is essential to ensure you do not spend more than you intend to and efficiently achieve the strategic goals for human resources management. 

To achieve this, you can use budget forecasting reports, data visualization tools, and financial software to keep track of your annual expenses.

6. Specify KPIs for HRM Objectives

Specifying key performance indicators (KPIs) is necessary to monitor the performance of strategic HRM objectives. These are measurable results that showcase an organization’s success in achieving predetermined goals. KPIs are mentioned in the strategic plan so that the company can make adjustments and improve future strategies. Some of the performance indicators you can specify are turnover rates, time to hire, employee satisfaction scores, and headcounts. 

7. Create a Vision and Mission Statement: Summarize HR strategy

While the human resources strategic plan includes an outline of the HR strategy, you need to add a summary as well. Mission and vision statements are written to fulfill this purpose. These briefly describe the human resources strategy and act as an indicative test for future policies. 

8. Prepare a Document: Layout and Design

Remember that the aim of preparing the human resources strategic document is to allow various stakeholders to clearly understand the information. Therefore, this document has to be accessible and engaging. Here are some points to follow while preparing the HR strategic document:

• Select an appealing layout template best suited to your needs. Keep into account the information you will add and if there’s a design style that the documents of your company follow. 
• Customize the template so that it speaks to your audience. Use simple and concise language instead of jargon. 
• Use company-specific acronyms, words, or phrases that are common among the employees of your organization. 
• Include visual elements such as graphs, charts, and infographics to display projections, statistics, metrics, and more effectively. 

9. Develop a Communication Plan

The next step is to inform and communicate your HR strategy at all levels of the organization. For this, you need to develop a communication plan. It will include strategies and tactics to convince and motivate everyone in the organization to become familiar with the plan and make efforts towards implementing it. Here are some ways to share the strategic plan:

• For HR Teams: The HR teams of the organization should be well-versed in the plan. Communicate to them how the plan will roll out and their day-to-day responsibilities in implementing the strategy. 
• For Leadership Team: Since the leadership team includes a few individuals, you can prepare a presentation to walk them through the strategic plan. Further, explain how the plan aligns with the organization’s overall business strategy.
• For Employees: It is essential that the employees understand the purpose and benefits of your strategic plan. You can use common communication channels like meetings, newsletters, emails, and social media posts to help employees grasp the HR strategy and plan.

If the plan prompts shifts in practices and policies that affect employees, communicate the changes well in advance. Explain how the changes are vital and will benefit the company and teams. Further, provide information about the support you will offer them during the transition.

10. Map Out Action Plans

Use the HR strategic plan to create specific action plans. You can divide each objective into achievable tasks to accomplish them promptly. Then, assign these tasks to relevant teams and fix a schedule. Determine timelines, deadlines, and milestones to keep the HR professionals motivated and focused on the strategic plan. These action plans can act as points of reference for accountability, measuring progress, and avoiding delays. 

What to Include in an HR Strategic Plan?

The strategic plan of human resources is a roadmap for implementing initiatives that support the HR goals. Here are vital components that make the HR plan effective:

• Organizational Values and Goals: The official organizational values and goals should be mentioned in the strategic plan.
• HR Objectives and Key Results: These help in quantifying the success of the strategic plan. Therefore, it is essential to specify the plan’s objectives and HR metrics to measure progress. 
• HR Mission and Vision Statements: These statements are integral to the HR strategic plan. The vision statement mentions the purpose and ultimate goal of HR, while the mission statement provides the path to achieve the goal.
• List of Core HR Initiatives: Summarize the initiative of HR that will help in achieving the strategic human resource management objectives . These initiatives can be related to any aspect of HR, like recruitment, company culture, employee performance management, and compensation. 
• Priority Aspects: The strategic plan includes the tasks in the priority aspects or areas that the HR professionals will focus on when working towards the objectives. A description of how these efforts will enhance assistance from HR and support business goals is also provided. 
• Risks and Management: You should include the potential risks or challenges that may arise while executing the strategic plan. Additionally, discuss how the organization can handle these challenges and minimize the risks. 
• Resources: Specify how the resources (budgetary, human capital, and technology) required to implement the HR initiatives will be allocated to ensure cost efficiency. 
• HR Operating Model and Required Skills: There are various operating models, such as agile, business partner, and functional to describe how the HR department is structured and provides its assistance. Specify which of these models is used in your organization. Additionally, mention the skills and expertise required for this operating model to function effectively. 

HR Strategy Implementation: Best Practices

For the successful execution of the HR strategy specified in your plan, you can implement the following best practices:  

• Pay Attention to the Budget: Human resource strategy needs a sufficient budget to be enacted proficiently. Therefore, concentrate on initiatives where cost considerations align with the organization’s budget. 
• Ensure Collaboration: HR strategy implementation requires collaboration between HR professionals and other key stakeholders. Make sure that managers and senior leaders of the organization are well-informed about the strategy. 
• Prefer Strategic Solutions: To implement the HR strategy effectively, analyze the root cause of challenges and plan accordingly. While you can adopt short-term or transactional solutions for immediate issues, they are not viable in the long run. Therefore, prefer strategic solutions that focus on addressing the underlying issues and consider the long-term implications of decisions. 
• Monitor and Optimize Strategy: Implementing an HR strategy requires measuring its effectiveness over time with KPIs. If the desired results are not achieved, optimize the strategy accordingly. 
• Maintain a Balance: Effective administration acts as the foundation for strategic initiatives. There are several administrative responsibilities of HR , including day-to-day operations (record keeping), ensuring compliance (with laws, regulations, and internal policies), and managing risks (data security, confidentiality). Without proper administrative processes, strategic plans may be undermined by operational inefficiencies or compliance issues. Therefore, strike a balance between strategic thinking and administrative responsibilities. 

Examples of an HR Strategic Plan

Let’s dive into the HR strategic plan examples of some of the popular organizations to understand how they transformed with the help of strategic human resources activities. 

The strategic plan of Google emphasizes a data-driven approach with people analytics to rework its HR policies and transform the workforce into a more efficient one. It prioritizes transparency, communication, and employee well-being through initiatives like open access to company information, feedback options, fitness centers, and other programs. 

This is one of the strategic human resource management examples where the organization encourages innovation and risk-taking by creating a culture of psychological safety. With proper implementation of the strategic plan, Google achieves high employee satisfaction, job seeker interest, retention rates, and effectiveness at the managerial level. 

Nissan is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer. It is known for combining Japanese manufacturing methods with British productivity principles, a concept that is called ‘kaizen’. This is the term for Nissan’s core philosophy showcased in its strategic plan that emphasizes continuous improvement in job performance. 

Teams comprising top talent dedicated to skill development are hired based on the ‘kaizen’ philosophy. The organization provides several learning opportunities to its employees, even in remote work environments through e-learning content. Further, Nissan’s HR practices include providing leaders complete autonomy in recruiting their teams and transparent salary structures. The concept of self-designed careers and autonomy highlight the unique HR strategy examples in the industry. 

Every organization needs an HR strategic plan for efficient and effective implementation of the human resources strategy. You can navigate the steps provided and work on customizations according to your business. Ensure that the strategic plan document is kept safe to be referred to later to analyze the performance of the strategies developed. Also, explore HR best practices to transform your organization and expand your knowledge. 

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Shobha Saini, the Head of Human Resources at Internshala, has maintained a stellar track record in employee relations and talent acquisition. With eight exceptional years of experience, she specializes in strategic planning, policy-making, and performance management. A multi-talented individual, she has played a major role in strategizing HR practices in the organization.

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11+ hr strategic plan templates – pdf, word.

With every business, there’s always going to be a common goal that everyone will be working towards. However, how everyone will go about in achieving them might differ and that could highly affect the business’s success. For those in human resources , there has to be some sort of sample plan in order for them to figure out exactly what and who it is the business will need in order to attain success.

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How to Create an HR Strategic Plan

1. determine the human resource needs.

• Are the number of employees hired enough?
• Is there are a need to hire more?
• Is the hiring process tedious and is it difficult to find the employees needed?
• What are the different skills that your current employees possess?
• What skills and knowledge will the employees need in order to live up to expectations?
• Is there anyone who plans on retiring or resigning soon? Do you already have replacements ready for when they do?
• What are the sales forecast and how will they affect your business’s recruitment strategies ?

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2. Recruitment

3. selection.

• The amount of time it will take for you to go through the many different resumes
• The amount of time it will take to interview every single candidate
• The number of expenses it will take to interview every applicant
• The possible travel expenses for a new hire or a recruiter
• The possible relocation expenses for a new hire
• The cost of training these new hires to get up-to-date with what needs to be done

4. Determine Compensation

Example of hr strategic plan.

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5. Develop the Appropriate Training

6. performance appraisal.

• Career development review
• Performance review
• Employee appraisals

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4 steps to strategic human resources planning example

This 4 steps to strategic human resources planning template can help you:

• See an overview of the strategic HR planning process.
• Begin making your own strategic plan for your organization.
• Ensure adequate staffing to meet your organization’s operational goals.

Open this template to view a detailed example of a strategic human resources plan that you can customize to your use case.

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HR Strategic Plan

There are many aspects of business that you have to get right consistently. Due to the number of people that will be involved in your company, human resources should be among the top of those aspects. Flip through almost any corporate magazine and you should see successful HR strategies examples clear as day. They may not always spell it out, but read between the lines and you should find them. With that said, any company can make good use of a HR strategic plan. If you want to get your own sample of HR strategic plan templates and learn more, you best scroll on.

HR Strategic Plan Example

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The Importance of a Human Resource Department

There are various reasons why a human resource department is important to a company’s success and survival. First, there’s its responsibility as far as recruitment is concerned. This is the most basic task of any individual working in a human resource department. Anybody looking to find and edit an HR strategic plan template should always keep recruitment policies in mind. Another important function of a HR department is employee engagement . Together with management, HR officers formulate policies to keep employees motivated and productive. Lastly, there is counseling. HR departments must also aim to create a positive working environment for all employees in the company. To achieve this, HR people do counseling and discuss with employees their issues or other problems being encountered in the office.

Tips for Creating an HR Strategic Plan

Acquiring an HR strategy template or a downloadable HR strategic plan PDF sample is easy. Coming up with your own strategic plan from scratch is hard. However, it doesn’t have to be too difficult. Below are some tips that are bound to come in handy down the line.

Tip 1: Always Think of Your Future Needs

Being proactive and thinking of the future is often the right way to go whenever you develop any kind of strategic plan. The same goes for HR-related issues. When planning, ask yourself specific questions like ‘what skills will we require in the future?’ or ‘how large do we want our company to be?’

Tip 2: Consider What Your Company is Presently Capable of

Although thinking of the future is a must, you must also not neglect to look into what your present needs and capabilities are. You can even perform a SWOT analysis of your overall workforce to determine your strengths and weaknesses. Consider the risks and look for where your future opportunities are realistically. In learning both your present and future needs, you can better bridge the gap.

Tip 3: Lay Out Specific Plans

Having assessed what you need and what you are capable of, the next thing we can advise you to do is to lay out your specific plans. Keep them as detailed and realistic as possible. This should be easier for you to do now that you are better aware of your present capabilities. Another tip would be to keep the SMART acronym in mind: make sure everything is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

Tip 4: Re-evaluate as Often as Needed

Even when you think you already have the most well-thought-out plan, there may be parts of it that still require tinkering in the future. Or perhaps new developments will arise that make your plans less than ideal. Since no action plan can be accurately called foolproof, then you must prepare to adapt to any new circumstances that you and your company find yourselves in.

What are the essential components of a human resource strategic plan?

A developed vision-mission statement for your company is one. Without that component, your strategies won’t be guided in a proper manner. Then there is the intimate knowledge of what your HR department has at its disposal.

What role does HR play in a company’s overall planning process?

HR professionals often contribute to a company’s plans in various ways. One, they often formulate tactics designed to encourage greater interaction within the company. Their recruitment tasks also lead to the right people entering into the company’s plans as those professionals get slotted into key roles in the organization.

What are the two types of strategies employed by HR departments?

HR departments often employ two general kinds of strategies: one is called overarching strategies and the other is called specific strategies. The latter hones in on particular HR strategies and tactics while the latter branches off and involve the other departments of the company.

Any human resource strategic plan sample is always going to be better than having no plan at all. HR is a nuanced department with several pitfalls to navigate away from. Do it right and you set your company on the path of greater success. Do it wrong, and you should see yourself riddled with excruciating problems to solve. Which situation do you prefer? Take what you’ve learned from this article, along with any human resource strategic plan template or human resource strategic plan sample, and act on them today!

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A Quick Guide to HR Reporting in 2024 + Free Template

• May 20, 2024

Do you ever feel like you’re spending more time wrestling with spreadsheets than shaping your company’s future? Employee data is crucial, but it can quickly become an overwhelming tide if you lack the tools to analyze and interpret it.

Imagine being able to transform that data into a clear picture of your workforce – identifying trends, pinpointing areas for improvement, and making data-driven decisions that boost employee engagement, reduce turnover , and propel your organization forward.

This is the power of an effective HR reporting process. It’s not just about numbers; it’s about unlocking the hidden potential within your data to become a strategic HR leader.  

This blog is your roadmap to navigate this data landscape. We’ll equip you with the knowledge of the different types of HR reports to transform your HR function from data-drowning to data-driven, empowering you to make a real impact on your organization’s success.

Let’s get started.

Turnover Report

Track employee departures and understand why they leave.

A turnover report tracks employee departures within a specific timeframe. This report is essential for identifying trends in employee exits, pinpointing areas with high turnover, and understanding the reasons behind them. Armed with this knowledge, the Human Resources team can develop targeted retention strategies to keep valuable employees engaged.

Metrics to Track

• Department or Team
• Manager or Supervisor
• Salary Band or Compensation Level
• Hierarchy Level
• Gender or Diversity
• Tenure (Time with the Company)
• Reason for Departure (Voluntary vs. Involuntary)
• Performance Ratings
• Demographic Factors

Key Questions it Helps Answer:

• Which departments or teams experience high turnover?
• Are there specific managers with higher turnover rates?
• What are the reasons for employee departures (voluntary vs. involuntary)?
• How long does it take to replace departing employees?
• Is there a correlation between employee turnover rates and employee demographics?
• Are there patterns in turnover related to performance ratings?
• What impact does turnover have on operational costs?
• Are there recurring themes or issues identified in exit interviews?
• How does turnover impact overall organizational stability and culture?
• What strategies and best practices can be implemented to improve employee retention?

Time-to-Hire Report

Streamline recruitment and reduce the time to hire new employees.

Tracks the time taken to hire new employees, from initiating the hiring process to onboarding the new hire. A time-to-hire report helps identify bottlenecks in the recruitment process. By understanding where delays occur, HR can streamline recruitment, develop better recruitment strategies, and reduce time-to-hire, leading to cost savings and a faster ramp-up for new hires.

• Job Level or Role
• Recruitment Stage
• Manager or Hiring Lead
• Candidate Demographics
• Type of Position
• Source of Hire
• Historical Trends
• How long does it typically take to fill open positions within the organization?
• What are the average days or hours spent on each stage of the recruitment process (sourcing, screening, interviewing, selection, offer, onboarding)?
• Are there specific stages of the recruitment process where delays commonly occur, and if so, what are the causes?
• What is the overall cost-per-hire, including expenses related to sourcing, advertising, interviewing, and onboarding?
• Do certain job levels or positions require significantly longer recruitment times compared to others?
• Are there departments or teams experiencing longer time-to-hire periods, and if yes, what factors contribute to these delays?
• How does the time to hire vary across different locations or geographic regions where the organization operates?
• What impact does an extended time to hire have on the organization’s ability to meet staffing needs and maintain operational efficiency?
• Is there a correlation between the time to hire and the quality of candidates selected for open positions?
• Based on historical data, are there seasonal or cyclical patterns in recruitment timelines that can inform workforce planning and resource allocation?

New Hire Satisfaction Survey Report

Ensure a smooth onboarding experience and improve retention.

Analyzes feedback from new hires through automated surveys conducted shortly after onboarding. This report helps assess the effectiveness of the onboarding process and identify areas for improvement . Satisfied new hires are more likely to integrate smoothly, become productive members of the team, and stay with the company longer.

Metrics to Track:

• Job Role or Position
• Onboarding Period
• Previous Work Experience
• Hiring Source
• Training and Development Opportunities
• How satisfied are new hires with the overall onboarding experience?
• What aspects of the job responsibilities are new hires most clear or unclear about?
• How do new hires rate the quality and effectiveness of the training and development provided during onboarding?
• Are new hires receiving adequate support and accessibility from managers, colleagues, and HR during the onboarding process?
• How well do new hires feel integrated into their team and aligned with the company culture?
• What is the level of satisfaction with the physical work environment, facilities, and amenities?
• How do new hires perceive the communication and feedback processes during the onboarding period?
• What are the perceptions regarding organizational growth opportunities?
• Would new hires recommend the company as a great place to work based on their onboarding experience?
• Are there specific areas or stages of the onboarding process that require improvement based on new hires’ feedback?

Performance Review Ratings with Key Performance Indicators

Identify trends, ensure fairness, and improve performance management.

Analyzes performance review data to identify trends and potential areas for improvement. This report helps ensure consistency and fairness in the performance review process . It can also uncover patterns related to high or low performers across departments or demographics.

Metric to Track:

Dimensions:

• Performance Level
• Tenure with the Company
• Training and Development History
• Location or Geographic Region
• Promotion Status
• Feedback and Improvement Plans
• What are the overall workforce trends in performance ratings across departments or teams within the organization?
• Are there disparities in performance ratings based on demographic factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, or tenure?
• How consistent are performance ratings among different managers or supervisors across the organization?
• Which job roles or positions demonstrate consistently high or low-performance ratings, and what factors contribute to these trends?
• What are the performance levels of employees based on performance ratings (e.g., high performers, average performers, low performers)?
• Is there a correlation between employees’ tenure with the company and their performance ratings?
• How effective are training and development initiatives in improving employees’ performance based on performance review outcomes?
• Are there regional variations in performance ratings, and if so, what factors influence these differences?
• What is the relationship between performance ratings and employees’ promotion status within the organization?
• How well are feedback and improvement plans implemented following performance reviews, and what impact do they have on subsequent performance outcomes?

Skill Gap Analysis Report

Bridge the gap between current skills and future needs.

Identifies the discrepancy between the skills currently possessed by the workforce and the skills required for present and future needs. A skill gap analysis report helps HR develop targeted training programs to bridge these skill gaps and ensure the workforce is equipped for future challenges.

• Skill Category or Competency Area
• Employee Tenure or Experience Level
• Future Business Needs or Strategic Goals
• Training Effectiveness and Adoption
• External Market Trends or Industry Standards
• Feedback and Employee Input
• What are the critical skill gaps within different departments or teams of the organization?
• Which specific job roles or positions exhibit the most significant skill deficiencies that need to be addressed?
• In which competency areas (e.g., technical skills, soft skills, industry-specific skills) are employees lacking proficiency?
• How does employees’ tenure or experience level correlate with identified skill gaps?
• Are there demographic disparities in skill gaps based on factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, or educational background?
• Which performance levels (e.g., high performers, average performers, low performers) show the most urgent need for skill development?
• What are the key skills required to support future business needs or strategic goals, and how do current skills align with these requirements?
• How effective have past training programs been in addressing skill gaps, and what improvements can be made to enhance training outcomes?
• What external market trends or industry standards impact skill requirements, and how can the organization adapt to these changes?

Pulse Survey Report

Keep your finger on the pulse of employee sentiment.

Short, frequent surveys that gauge employee sentiment on various aspects of work. Pulse surveys provide real-time insights into employee engagement, morale, and satisfaction. This allows HR to identify and address any emerging issues before they escalate, fostering a more positive and productive work environment.

• Location or Office Site
• Work Schedule or Shift
• Team Collaboration
• Communication Channels
• Feedback and Action Perception
• How satisfied are employees with their overall work experience within the organization?
• What factors contribute to employees’ level of engagement and commitment to their work and the organization?
• Are employees satisfied with their specific job roles and responsibilities, and if not, what aspects need improvement?
• How do employees perceive their relationships with managers and supervisors, and what impact does this have on morale and productivity?
• What is the effectiveness of teamwork and collaboration within different departments or teams of the organization?
• How clear and effective are communication channels within the organization, and how can they be improved?
• What are employees’ perceptions of work-life balance, and how does workload impact personal well-being?
• Do employees feel that management receives and acts on their feedback, and how does this influence engagement and morale?
• How do employees perceive diversity and inclusion initiatives within the organization, and are there areas for improvement?

360-Degree Feedback Reports

Gain a holistic view of employee performance for development.

360 degree feedback report provides comprehensive performance feedback from an employee’s manager, peers, and sometimes even direct reports. It offers a holistic view of an employee’s performance, helping with development planning and identifying areas for improvement.

• Feedback Providers
• Leadership and Management
• Communication Skills
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Customer or Client Relationships
• Conflict Management
• Goal Achievement and Performance
• Development and Growth Needs
• How does the employee’s performance and effectiveness as a leader/manager differ based on feedback from managers, peers, and direct reports?
• What are the employee’s strengths and areas for improvement in communication skills as perceived by colleagues at different levels within the organization?
• How effectively does the employee collaborate and contribute to team projects according to feedback from team members and stakeholders?
• What is the employee’s problem-solving approach and decision-making capability based on input from multiple perspectives?
• According to feedback from various stakeholders, how adaptable and flexible is the employee in handling changing work environments and challenges?
• What is the perception of the employee’s customer or client relationship management skills, and what problem areas need development?
• How does the employee manage conflicts and interpersonal issues within the team or organization according to feedback from colleagues?
• To what extent does the employee achieve employee goals, and what factors contribute to goal attainment based on feedback?
• What are the employee’s specific development needs and growth opportunities identified by feedback from different sources?
• How can the organization leverage the feedback to tailor targeted development plans and initiatives to enhance the employee’s performance and effectiveness?

Diversity Metrics Report

Track progress towards diversity and inclusion goals.

Analyzes the composition of the workforce across various demographic categories. This report helps HR track progress towards diversity and inclusion goals and identify areas where improvement is needed. A diverse and inclusive workforce fosters creativity, innovation, and better decision-making.

• Ethnicity or Race
• LGBTQ+ Identity
• Disability Status
• Veteran Status
• Socioeconomic Background
• Geographic Location
• Language Diversity
• Leadership Positions
• Employee Roles
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
• Inclusive Policies and Practices
• Recruitment and Hiring
• Promotion and Career Development
• Employee Engagement
• Innovation and Performance
• How diverse is the workforce across different demographic categories such as gender, ethnicity, age, and LGBTQ+ identity?
• What is the representation of employees with disabilities and veterans within the organization?
• Are there disparities in socioeconomic backgrounds or geographic locations among employees?
• How inclusive are leadership positions and senior management roles in terms of diversity?
• What is the distribution of diversity across various job roles and departments within the organization?
• Are there effective employee resource groups (ERGs) and inclusive policies that support diversity and inclusion initiatives?
• How diverse is the talent pipeline, especially at recruitment, hiring, promotion, and career development stages?
• What is the impact of workforce diversity on employee engagement levels and overall organizational performance?
• Are there correlations between workforce diversity, innovation, and creativity within the organization?

Pay Equity Analysis Report

Ensure fair and equitable compensation across the workforce.

Analyzes compensation data to identify any gender, race, or ethnicity-based pay gaps. An employee pay equity analysis report helps HR ensure fair and equitable compensation practices, fostering a culture of trust and transparency.

Key Metrics to Track:

• Race or Ethnicity
• Job Level or Hierarchy
• Years of Experience
• Base Salary
• Bonuses and Incentives
• Benefits and Perks
• Are there gender-based disparities in compensation within the organization, and if so, what factors contribute to these differences?
• What are the racial or ethnic pay gaps across different job roles, levels, or geographic locations within the workforce?
• How do age-related factors impact compensation levels and pay equity among employees?
• Are there disparities in pay based on disability status or veteran status, and how can these be addressed to ensure equitable compensation?
• What role does educational background play in compensation differentials, and are there opportunities to promote educational equity in pay practices?
• How does job level or hierarchy influence compensation disparities?
• What job roles or functions exhibit significant pay gaps, and how can job design and compensation structures be revised to promote equity?
• Do differences in years of experience contribute to pay disparities, and how can organizations recognize and reward experience while ensuring equitable compensation?
• What impact does geographic region or location have on compensation levels, and how can regional wage disparities be addressed to promote pay equity?

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) Report

Measure employee loyalty and likelihood to recommend the company.

The eNPS is a metric that gauges employee loyalty and likelihood to recommend the company as a great place to work. A high eNPS score indicates a positive work environment and engaged employees who are brand advocates.

HR Metrics to Track

• Tenure or Experience Level
• Company Size
• Industry or Sector
• Employee Engagement Levels
• Reasons for Scores
• Trend Analysis
• Onboarding Experience
• Performance and Recognition
• How likely are employees to recommend the company as a great place to work based on their eNPS scores?
• What factors contribute to variations in eNPS scores across different departments, locations, or job roles within the organization?
• Are there demographic or tenure-related differences in employee loyalty and likelihood of recommending the company?
• Which organizational factors, such as company size or industry sector, influence employee sentiment and eNPS scores?
• What are the key drivers behind high or low eNPS scores, and how can actionable insights be derived from employee feedback?
• How does employee engagement level correlate with eNPS scores, and what strategies can be implemented to boost employee engagement and loyalty?
• What impact does the onboarding experience have on employee loyalty, and how can the onboarding process be improved to enhance eNPS scores?
• What role do performance evaluations, recognition practices, and career development opportunities play in influencing employee loyalty and eNPS scores?
• How have eNPS scores trended over time, and what changes or initiatives have impacted employee loyalty and satisfaction levels?

Free HR Reporting Templates with Google Sheets!

We understand that building HR reports from scratch can be time-consuming. To kickstart your journey, we’ve compiled a collection of free HR report templates readily available on Google Sheets. These templates cover a wide range of essential reports, including turnover rates, time-to-hire, employee satisfaction surveys, and more. With these templates as a foundation, you can easily customize them to fit your specific needs and get a head start on data analysis.

Why Consider a Unified Tool Like Peoplebox for HR Reporting?

While our Google Sheet templates are a great starting point, managing numerous spreadsheets can become cumbersome as your HR department needs grow. This is where a unified HR analytics platform like Peoplebox comes into play.

Peoplebox goes beyond basic reporting, offering a comprehensive suite of tools to empower your HR team. Imagine a central hub where you can consolidate all your HR data into a single report, automate report generation, and gain deeper strategic insights through data visualization and advanced analytics. Peoplebox can help you:

• Streamline Data Collection and Reporting: Effortlessly collect and store HR data from various sources, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring data accuracy.
• Automate Report Generation: Generate reports with a single click, saving you valuable time and allowing you to focus on strategic analysis and decision-making.
• Gain Deeper Insights: Leverage powerful analytics and data visualization tools to uncover hidden patterns, identify trends, and make data-driven recommendations.
• Improve HR Decision-Making and workforce management: Gain a holistic view of your workforce and make informed decisions about talent acquisition, retention, performance management, and more.

Get a free demo of Peoplebox and discover how it can streamline your HR processes, empower data-driven strategic decisions, and unlock the true potential of your workforce.

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Free MS Word Strategic Planning Templates

By Courtney Patterson | May 11, 2024

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Below is a collection of the best strategic planning templates in Microsoft Word to help you create a comprehensive roadmap for future growth and success.

Included in this article, you'll find: 

• A one-page business strategy template
• A Microsoft Word IT Strategic Plan Template
• A 5-year strategic business plan template
• A nonprofit strategic plan template
• A list of related strategic planning templates

Microsoft Word Basic Strategic Plan Template

Download the Sample Basic Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word   Download the Blank Basic Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word  

When to Use This Template : Use this template with or without sample data when you are starting your business and need to outline a clear direction and foundational strategies. This tool is crucial for transitioning from an informal approach to a more structured strategic planning process. 

Notable Template Features : This basic strategic plan template simplifies the planning process with a clear, easy-to-follow structure that covers essential strategic elements. It includes sections for mission and vision statements, a SWOT analysis, goals, and action plans, making it accessible for first-time strategists.

Check out these  free strategic planning templates that offer robust resources, including ready-to-use frameworks and expert advice, so you can meticulously craft and execute your strategic vision.

Microsoft Word One-Page Business Strategic Plan Template

Download Sample One-Page Business Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word Download Blank One-Page Business Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Consider this template when you’re on a deadline and need a swift, comprehensive snapshot of your strategy. Available with or without sample data, the template is ideal for pre-meeting preparations, allowing you to quickly and thoroughly review your strategic position.

Notable Template Features : This one-page business strategic plan template boils down intricate strategies to a single, accessible page. Featuring streamlined sections for goals, actions, and metrics, it delivers a clear and concise strategic outline that's easy to share and discuss. Download the sample version for a pre-filled template, or try the blank version to fill in the sections with your own data.

Check out this  strategic planning guide , complete with free templates that offer you all the tools and insights you need to expertly develop and implement your strategic plans.

Microsoft Word IT Strategic Plan Template

Download Microsoft Word IT Strategic Plan Template Download Sample IT Strategic Plan Template  

When to Use This Template : Dive into this template when your IT department is gearing up for a major overhaul or aligning with new business strategies. Available with or without example text, the template is a must-have for plotting out the technological roadmap that supports your organization's long-term vision.

Notable Template Features : This IT strategic plan template features IT-specific sections, such as technology assessments and future roadmaps, making it a powerhouse for managing and planning IT investments. The template includes detailed prompts, so you can thoroughly address and align each aspect of your IT strategy, from cybersecurity to cloud computing, with overarching business objectives.

Explore this  article on crafting strategic plans . It offers a treasure trove of free templates to guide your team through the strategic planning process, ensuring a seamless and effective strategy formulation.

Microsoft Word Advanced Strategic Planning Template

Download the Sample Advanced Strategic Planning Template for Microsoft Word Download the Blank Advanced Strategic Planning Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Turn to this dynamic template with or without sample data when you’re ready to plan an all-inclusive strategy. Perfect for times of significant growth or change, it's especially useful for teams looking to blend comprehensive market insights with long-term planning.

Notable Template Features : This advanced strategic planning template is designed to guide you through every facet of strategic development, from SWOT analysis to detailed financial planning. Offering structured sections for an all-encompassing view of your business landscape, it ensures that you have a robust foundation for decision-making and future growth. Download the sample version for a pre-filled template, or try the blank version to fill in your own data.

Dive into this comprehensive  guide on strategic planning model templates to access a diverse array of free resources and streamline the path to your strategic goals.

Microsoft Word One-Year Strategic Business Plan Template

Download Sample One-Year Strategic Business Plan Template for Microsoft Word Download Blank One-Year Strategic Business Plan Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Use this one-year template with or without sample data to reach your key goals within the next year. It's a must for companies looking to translate annual objectives into clear, actionable steps.

Notable Template Features : This one-year strategic business plan template is designed with simplicity in mind, featuring sections that help break down goals into achievable actions and timelines. The template’s streamlined approach ensures that you can focus on what matters most, making it easier to track progress and adjust strategies as needed.

Microsoft Word 5-Year Strategic Business Plan Template

Download the Sample 5-Year Strategic Business Plan Template for Microsoft Word Download the Blank 5-Year Strategic Business Plan Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Use this template to lay the strategic groundwork for the medium-term achievements your organization aims to reach in the next five years. Available with or without sample text, it's perfect for transitioning from startup to established entity, allowing you to focus on expansion and scalability.

Notable Template Features : This 5-year strategic business plan template empowers you to set ambitious yet attainable goals and create strategies for market expansion. It also includes tools for financial forecasting and resource allocation, making it easier to manage growth and measure success over a longer period.

Microsoft Word Long-Term Strategic Business Plan Template

Download the Long-Term Strategic Business Plan Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Use this template when you’re aiming for a plan of 10 years or longer and envisioning your business's journey toward long-term innovation and industry leadership.

Notable Template Features : Featuring a decade-spanning outlook, this long-term strategic plan template empowers you to set visionary goals and detailed strategies for sustainable growth and innovation. It’s designed to help you align your long-range plans with actionable steps, ensuring every department is moving toward a common, ambitious future.

Microsoft Word University Strategic Plan Outline Template

Download Sample University Strategic Plan Outline Template for Microsoft Word Download Blank University Strategic Plan Outline Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : This template helps university leaders chart a future course that enriches academic excellence and campus life. Use it during periods of strategic reflection or in advance of accreditation reviews to ensure all goals align with the institution's mission and vision.

Notable Template Features : Tailored to the academic sector, this strategic plan outline includes sections for setting educational priorities, creating a strategy for program development, and planning campus enhancements. Available with or without example text, it facilitates a comprehensive approach to institutional growth, encouraging stakeholder engagement and long-term planning for academic and infrastructural improvements.

Microsoft Word Marketing Strategic Planning Template

Download the Sample Marketing Strategic Planning Template for Microsoft Word Download the Blank Marketing Strategic Planning Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Turn to this template when you're preparing to put a new product on the market or revamping your brand's presence. It's ideal for synchronizing your marketing initiatives with your overarching business goals.

Notable Template Features : This template with or without sample data stands out with its clear sections for defining marketing objectives, pinpointing your audience, and crafting detailed campaign strategies. It supports marketers by laying out a comprehensive plan that not only attracts but also retains customers, ensuring all marketing activities are in lockstep with the business's vision and objectives. Try the pre-filled template to see sample text, or use the blank template to fill in your own data.

Microsoft Word Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template

Download the Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template for Microsoft Word

When to Use This Template : Reach for this template when your nonprofit is gearing up for a period of strategic renewal or aiming to better align its efforts with its core mission. Helping you clearly articulate your organization's direction and impact, this tool is crucial for running annual planning sessions or preparing funding and grant applications.

Notable Template Features : This template is designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, featuring sections dedicated to mission statement clarification, stakeholder engagement strategies, and impact assessment methods. It offers a comprehensive framework for nonprofits to navigate the complexities of sustainability and mission-driven planning, ensuring every activity contributes to long-term success.

Related Strategic Planning Templates

Discover this list of free templates that perfectly complement your strategic planning needs. From business model canvases to detailed market analyses and customer journeys, these tools ensure a solid value proposition and guide your business toward success.

Free Microsoft Word Action Plan Templates

Check out these  free Microsoft Word action plan templates for tools to streamline your project planning, enhance your task management, and achieve your goals more efficiently.

Free Gap Analysis Templates

Explore this  collection of free gap analysis templates to help you identify the discrepancies between your business's current state and its desired future state, offering a clear pathway for strategic improvement and goal achievement.

Free Scenario Analysis Templates

Use these  free scenario analysis templates to get frameworks that prepare you for various future possibilities, enabling strategic decision-making and risk management.

Secure Your Organization’s Future Success with Strategic Planning Templates from Smartsheet

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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