For profits, a successful human-resources management strategy should complement your overall business strategy. This is just as important as a business plan and marketing plan.

By aligning your HR program with your organization’s plan and objectives, you are more likely to be profitable.

Overall, you need to implement some crucial elements.

For instance, analyze your HR strengths and weaknesses; train your employees; forecast what you’ll need in staffing; prepare for employee turnover; hire strategically; and prepare a succession plan.

To align your HR program with your business strategy, here’s a more detailed checklist:

1. Review your business strategy and goals

This is important so you don’t overlook anything to be in the best position to align your employee-development planning with your organization’s goals.

Identify and analyze critical roles in your business.

2. Plan for transparency

Inform your supervisors and key employees about your plan to make sure your company is effectively aligning your human resources program with business strategy.

Educate them on the process. Change make employees nervous. Be sure supervisors are ready to alleviate any concerns of their staffs and to explain how changes may or may not affect them.

3. Evaluate your staff

Check to be sure your employees fit well with their job descriptions. Identify their abilities, knowledge and skills including their certifications and education.

Evaluate your employees. Take steps to avoid making errors in your evaluations. Continue to assess the quality of their completed projects.

If you’re good at engaging your employees, you’ll discover tangible qualities. Look for any other salient talents, especially their soft skills for interacting with each other, customers and vendors.

Inspire them to maximize their performance. Determine if they’re promotable or at least willing to accept additional responsibilities.

Answer their questions. Be sure to give positive feedback at every opportunity.

4. Craft a set of employee-development blueprints

Engage your employees to fully ascertain their career goals and their talent levels. Compare their opinions with your impressions.

Determine what your workers need in the way of skill enhancements. Be positive in your interactions with your employees.

Develop your plan of action for each person.

Provide necessary training and education to fill in the employees’ skill gaps. Always focus on helping your employees to grow professionally.

Once they appear ready for advancement, test your approach. Create a few scenarios or projects to test their new skills and progress and enthusiasm for the additional work as growth opportunities.

5. Develop a succession plan

Turnover is inevitable. Your succession planning must be capable of helping you to evaluate and to have employees ready to overcome unforeseen obstacles.

It’s best to at least involve your supervisors and key employees in the process. If it isn’t feasible, it tells you important information about your culture.

To keep growing a business and long-term sustainability, it’s vital to preserve the trust of customers, employees, partners and investors. Therefore, succession planning is essential.

6. Do a gap analysis

You’ll need to fully understand your current situation – strengths and weaknesses – and what you’ll be needing to do in improving processes as well as designing and implementing best practices to achieve your goals.

Examine your job descriptions to evaluate whether they are compatible with what you want your employees to achieve.

Review your employee handbook to see if it’s current in terms of employment laws and regulations in the locales you plan to operate. Update where appropriate.

Remember companies that don’t convert their employee handbooks into electronic documents are missing noteworthy opportunities in human resources. If you haven’t already use best practices for an online employee handbook.

Have your employees read it and acknowledge their understanding.

Ascertain your training programs and what they’ll be needing.

Assess your health and benefit policies and procedures. Make sure you’re in full compliance at every level and meeting the needs of your workers.

Don’t forget about your technology. What works? What will you need?

7. Develop your new HR approach

Create an effective HR mission statement.

Ascertain your culture and skills inventory – if you have the right people and enough of them and whether they’re prepared for your growth. If necessary, plan to fix any culture shortcomings.

Promote a trust culture that’s appealing to everyone so you will profit from cross-generational teams.

Plan for the best-possible rewards package for your current staff and for any new employees.

Upgrade your technology and make sure your talent will be able to operate it.

8. Continuously monitor your HR approach

Review your plan on an ongoing basis to keep it aligned with your business strategy. Anticipate employee issues to keep a desirable culture.

Situations change. Regularly update your plan and procedures.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are relevant articles:

Management Strategies for Productive Applicant Interviews — You must be assertive – ask the right questions and listen intently to cut through the morass of canned answers to get the answers you need to make good hiring decisions.

HR Pros Typically Rescue Managers Who Make 11 Errors — Beware: Many problems are not caused by HR professionals but by managers who don’t use best practices.

16 Best Practices to Stay out of Legal Trouble with Employees — Generally, in human resources, companies find themselves in legal hot water because they inadvertently make mistakes with their employees. It’s important to triple down on preventative measures and responses to legal hazards when necessary.

Tips to Prevent or, if Necessary, Eliminate Employee Toxicity — From time to time, nearly every boss has to cope with an employee’s negativity. That’s annoying enough, but you’ve got a nightmare if toxic attitudes spread among the rest of your workers. Here are solutions.

Productivity: 5 Management Tips to Motivate Your Employees — A major quandary for managers is to bring out the best in their employees. Every manager wants to do it, but it’s not always easy. What’s the reason? Usually, it’s because employees are disengaged – disconnected from their managers and companies. Here’s how to fix it.

For Best Performance, Inspire Employees with Non-Financial Rewards — Money talks, of course, and is a way to motivate employees. But money is not always the chief motivator. Here’s why with some ideas.

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

-Henry Ford

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.