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Blog Human Resources

6 Steps to Create a Strategic HR Plan [With Templates]

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 ensures you’ll be able 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 ! 

HR Business Plan Template: Everything You Need to Know

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce. 4 min read updated on February 01, 2023

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce so that you collectively meet your business objectives, regardless of any changes in the industry or economy.

When creating your HR business plan, you need to perform a needs analysis of your workplace to tailor the plan to your company's requirements. You'll also need to learn about the industry standards for your field to make sure you're competitive.

Without such a plan in place, your workers will feel unprepared and won't know how to work towards your company's overall goals.

Steps for Developing a Human Resources Department Business Plan

There are several steps to creating an HR business plan. They include:

• Clarify the requirements . While you might be tempted to create a detailed plan that encompasses the entire company's next 10 years, hold off. Always talk with your boss to see how much detail he or she would like in the plan. This will save you time and help streamline the process. However, there's no harm in creating your own personalized strategic plan for your specific department.
• Read through the HR job descriptions . The HR department typically has employees such as HR assistants, HR generalists, and an HR director . Read through the job descriptions for each worker in the department and see what kind of duties are missing. Brainstorm additional functions that each job role could provide to the company.
• Curate your list . Take the different functions you've brainstormed and compare them to what each member of the HR department is already doing. Are there functions you could add or subtract from each employee for more productivity? You don't have to go into detail here, but just think about how you could improve each role.
• Schedule a meeting with the executives . Before you make any changes, you'll obviously need to get input and approval from the company's executives. They may have more feedback on how the HR department can provide additional services and support the company's overall goals and mission.
• Create a feedback form . Come up with a list of questions to ask leadership about HR's role in the company and provide it to them in advance of the meeting so they have time to think it over and talk with their staff. You may even want to provide a rating and ranking format for the questions, as this will make their responses easy to understand and implement. Overall, this is a key process to understanding what management and employees want and need from the HR department.
• Look at external resources . While the internal information you're collecting is the most important, it also doesn't hurt to take a look at data from professional organizations and websites, such as the Society for Human Resource Management , The Balance , or HR Magazine . You can also ask colleagues from other local organizations for tips on creating your business plan.
• Use this information to make a plan . With your ideas, feedback from executives, and tips from external resources, you should have a clear idea of what your plan should look like. The things that are missing from the HR department should now be clear, and this should guide you on what to focus on to improve HR's contribution to the company.
• Identify goals for this year and next . While your plan can have long-term goals, keep the majority of them a little bit shorter in scope to see how things work out. This gives you the chance to reorganize and restructure if things aren't going right. Consider creating a list of accomplishments you can reach for the end of this year and into the next.

A Real Life Example

If you're seeking more guidance on how to create a successful HR business plan, look to Starbucks as an example.

As the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks had $21.3 billion in sales in 2016.

Despite these massive numbers, Starbucks maintains the same approach to their human resources department. All of the HR planning is guided by the company's organizational strategy and brand.

Their strategy is to use specific interview techniques when hiring new employees. This lets them identify potential leaders and place them in a "New Partner Orientation and Immersion" training program. With this system, Starbucks has achieved the lowest employee turnover rate in the quick-service restaurant industry.

Starbucks also offers numerous employee perks and dedicates a lot of time to employee training through an online portal that teaches employees essential job skills.

If you need help with your HR business plan template, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

Hire the top business lawyers and save up to 60% on legal fees

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Management and Human Resources Business Plans

The management portion of your business plan, the hr portion of your business plan, frequently asked questions (faqs).

As a startup, it’s never easy to come up with a business plan, let alone the management and human resources sections of a business plan. Despite that, it’s important that you start your business plan for human resources as soon as possible. Doing so gives your management goals a plan that will guide you and keep your business on track as it grows. 

The key components of your human resources business plan should include your organizational structure, the philosophy and needs of your HR department, the number of employees you want to hire, how you plan to manage them, and all the estimated costs related with personnel.

You’ll want to start your HR business plan by outlining your own managerial experience and skills as well as those of your team. Highlight the roles of each member of your team, and any particular areas of strength or deficiency in your personnel lineup. For example, your HR team may be strong in compliance and conflict resolution but weak in hiring. 

Don't worry if you don’t have a complete team in place when you write your HR business plan. Simply use this section to outline the organizational structure along with job descriptions, how you plan to recruit key team members, and what their responsibilities will be.

This section should look like a pyramid with you at the top and will likely have lateral positions. Be as specific as possible when defining an employee's responsibilities because this is what will drive your business.

Do You Need an HR Manager?

If you’re a solo practitioner, you may not think of including an HR manager in your management business plan. However, if you expect to hire non-managerial employees (such as salespeople or clerical workers), you should consider recruiting a human resources manager.

If hiring a human resources manager can’t be done, consider a human resources consultant. Human resource management requires an immense amount of time and paperwork, and an experienced HR consultant will be able to quickly get your payroll and benefits program up and running, affording you more time to concentrate on growing the business. Human resource responsibilities should include:

• Handling FICA and unemployment taxes and paperwork
• Ensuring compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act
• Staying on top of IRS filings

There are plenty of companies that offer HR management platforms tailored to each business's needs. Research these companies and be sure to include their estimated cost in your HR business plan.

When you develop the HR portion of your business plan, begin by including a brief overview of your HR strategy. Investors may be curious about how your payroll will be handled and the associated costs of administering it, as well as the type of corporate culture you plan to create. Specific items to highlight in the HR section include:

• Payscale: Show the salaries for managers and non-managers based on the market for those jobs.
• Vacation time: Describe your vacation-time policy. How much time do employees get? How quickly does it accrue? Vacation time is not required by law, but most firms offer vacation time to stay competitive and keep employees refreshed. 
• Insurance: Health insurance is a common staple benefit, although skyrocketing prices have forced many firms to cut back on this benefit. If you can’t afford a health plan, look into subsidizing one with employees paying the rest. Alternatively, inquire if a professional insurance representative can help you get a bulk rate.
• Additional benefits: Other things to consider include life insurance, a 401(k) and matching funds, bereavement leave, religious and floating holidays, and a bonus structure, if applicable.

In addition to the key elements above, it helps to have a framework from which to build your HR business plan. Here’s a basic outline that can help you get started: 

• Figure out what your human resources department would need. 
• Determine a strategy for recruiting talent.
• Formulate your hiring process. 
• Develop a training program for new employees. 
• Determine how much you want to pay your team (this is a good spot for payscale info)
• Create performance standards

It may be overwhelming to contemplate these benefits and their costs in the early stages of setting up your business, but in a competitive labor market, your firm needs to offer enough to entice qualified people and, more importantly, to keep them happy.

Consider revisiting your management and HR business plans every couple of years to see if you need to create action steps to refine your processes.

What should be in an HR business plan?

An HR business plan should include a mix of the steps you plan to take to launch an effective HR department, as well as specifics about how you plan to handle time off, insurance, and other benefits you plan to offer.

How do I write a human resources plan?

It helps to start with a simple framework. Try to break the plan down into sections: HR needs, recruitment, hiring, training, pay, and performance reviews. From there, incorporate other aspects of HR, like benefits and promotions.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce. " Does Your Small Business Need an HR Department? "

 University of Minnesota. “ Human Resources Management: 2.2 Writing the HRM Plan .”

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. “ FY 2020-2022 Strategic Business Plan: Human Resources .”

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HR Business Plan: What Is It And What Are Its Steps?

Every company that has an HR department needs an HR business plan. Without it, you will have inconsistencies when you deal with your employees.

Human resources manage the relationship between your company and its employees. Due to this, it is only natural for human resources to have their own plan of approach to their tasks.

Key Takeaways:

An HR business plan is the strategic approach of the human resources department.

The HR business plan should clarify responsibilities, organize its processes, and create performance standards in which to gauge its success.

First assess the current HR situation, then establish goals and strategies to enact those goals for the HR department.

Make sure your HR strategies comply with legal requirements.

What Is A HR Business Plan?

An HR business plan is a strategic approach your human resource department will follow to accomplish its goals.

Like all business plans, an HR business plan needs to define its objectives, organize systems of measured success, and incorporate a flexible framework. A robust plan can adapt to new scenarios and still focus on its long-term aims.

Though this will vary by company, in general, every HR business plan will want to:

Clarify roles and responsibilities. Focus on the roles and responsibilities of the department and its members. You want to understand the job descriptions of each member of the human resource department. Then decide what the overall purpose of the department is and connect it back to each member. Be aware of any conflicting or contradictory agendas and seek to streamline.

Design and organize processes. Human resources helps hire, train, onboard, and terminate staff. There should be well-detailed plans for each process that keeps the human resources department prepared for any scenario.

Address compensation and benefits. Human resources manages the implementation of benefits and compensation. Therefore, the department’s plan must discuss how this will be handled.

Comply with legal requirements. The human resource department needs to be well-versed in the legal requirements and protections of the employees. The plan should provide a clear compliance with the law.

Create performance standards. A business plan is useless unless it can be evaluated against measures of success. It helps to provide metrics with results to be more objective in analysis.

Tie in to overall business plan. The HR business plan needs to complement the overarching business plan of the company. Avoid any policies or procedures that conflict with the overall business plan.

A human resource business plan will develop these points into a coherent strategy.

Steps To Develop A HR Business Plan

Assess current human resource situation. Before a plan is made, the human resources department and the company executives need to know what they have already. Your company should evaluate the roles and responsibilities of its human resource staff. You will want to see if anything is missing or if there is anything that is expendable.

Establish goals for human resource department. Now that you know what you’re working with, it is time now to think about what you want the human resource department to accomplish. Use the roles and responsibilities you just clarified to arrange practical benchmarks you want the department to make. Make sure goals do not interfere with one another but build toward an overall objective.

Create strategies to enact goals. Once you have your goals in place, it is time to build strategies to accomplish those goals. These strategies should work in tandem, so make sure each one has a logical progression. Like the goals, you do not want your strategies to interfere with one another but instead build towards an overall objective.

Evaluate business plan. Once you enact the plan, you need to make sure you accomplish your goals. Have a feedback system put in place where you can measure the success and failures of your plan. Come up with contingency plans in case your initial plans need to be re-evaluated.

Why Have A Human Resource Business Plan

An HR business plan is needed to establish long-term success with your employees.

Your plan gives focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the department. Human resources play a critical role in the hiring, training, and retention of staff. A business plan will clarify these procedures.

A HR business plan also provides consistency in the implementation of benefits and managing the welfare of the employees.

The human resource business plan empowers the department to perform at its best. In turn, it will help employees be equipped and compensated to perform at their best.

Without a HR business plan, your company is at risk conflicted and contradictory procedures that impede growth and success.

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Conor McMahon is a writer for Zippia, with previous experience in the nonprofit, customer service, and technical support industries. He has a degree in Music Industry from Northeastern University and in his free time he plays guitar with his friends. Conor enjoys creative writing between his work doing professional content creation and technical documentation.

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Building An HR Plan For 2024

Posted by Noel • January 4, 2022 (Last modified August 15, 2023) • 6 min read

As the time comes for performance reviews, HR leaders are faced with another challenge in the early days of 2024: building an HR plan for their companies. The most successful human resources departments will develop and implement effective plans that focus on multiple areas of their daily duties on the hiring to retiring pipeline.

A strategically written, well thought out HR plan is an essential part of any business plan to help organizations reach their goals. Not only do you need to create goals, but you need to have the scaffolding in place to get there.

If you’ve never developed an HR plan for your company – or you need to start over thanks to this new world we live in – you’re in the right place. Trakstar’s fully-integrated platform for performance management, employee engagement, recruiting, and learning management has changed the way many companies think about human resources and the work they do. 

If you are interested in learning more about Trakstar’s Platform, be sure to schedule a free, live demo today. To learn more about building an HR plan, continue reading.

What Is An HR Plan?

An HR plan helps align human resources with the rest of the company in terms of mission, strategies, values, visions, and goals. There is no “one size fits all” way to build a human resources plan. Instead, it takes some introspection about not only HR, but the rest of the company as a whole.

An HR plan will give insights into HR functionality and ensure that everything HR does, from hiring to training, firing to creating succession plans, is consistent. The best HR plan will outline what the department will do to get the company from where they are today to where they want to be at the end of the quarter, month, sprint, year or however else you measure timelines. Often, this aligns with corporate or overall organizational goals and KPIs.

Human resources leaders, with the help of day-to-day managers, are the ones writing the goals for their employees, so they should be well-versed in what the overall goals of the company are and have ideas about how to get there. The most comprehensive HR plans will include:

• Tactics for hiring new employees
• Techniques to onboard new hires
• Ways to cut down on employee turnover
• Ideas for incentivization of existing employees

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what needs to be in a plan. The more comprehensive and detailed the plan is, the better the chances are for success.

Start By Identifying Needs

First, start by thinking about what happened in HR within the last year. Audit where your time, budget, and intent went over the course of the year. Get as detailed as possible. Think about churn rates, onboarding practices, training initiatives, retention rates, and anything else that was spearheaded by the HR department. 

Make a list of what went wrong and how you’d like to change it. Consider why those things didn’t go the way you wanted them to, and think about what you’d do differently the next time around. Then, think about your successes and what went well. What can you learn from those situations?

When you look at the differences between your successes and your failures, you will be able to identify your needs – and your next steps.

Focus on Retention

When building an HR plan, the human factor is what gets difficult to account for, especially during the Great Resignation. You are most likely going to be spending a lot of time onboarding people and ensuring that the good employees you have stay with your company. For midsize companies, the struggle is even greater to retain top-performing employees. Your plan needs to include specific, actionable goals about retention.

Retention starts with good onboarding, but it doesn’t end there.

One of the best ways you can do that is through training and educating your employees. Employees who are lea rning new things and encouraged to grow are more likely to stay with a company than those who receive no ongoing training. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) , 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 years if they experienced great onboarding and continued training throughout their tenure with the company. 

Simply put: if you aren’t including ongoing training in your HR plan, you are missing out on key retention opportunities.

Training your employees doesn’t have to be difficult! Trakstar Learn can help you train (and onboard) your employees from anywhere on any device using multimedia content, auto-enrollment, and quizzes. Even better, we provide detailed reports that you can take to leaders to show what your team is learning, how well they are doing, and more. To schedule a live demo of Trakstar Learn, click here .

Talk To People

Another great step to building an HR plan is to talk to the people who will make it happen.

First, talk to senior leaders about what their expectations are so that you can lay the groundwork within your HR plans. If there are long term changes or significant adjustments you will have to make in six months, what can you do now to prepare for that? Talk to leaders about how and where they want to grow.

Next, you want to talk to your department heads. These are the people who will do a majority of the work to help you achieve your goals. Their success is your success, so you have to know what really matters to them and makes their days easier. Managers and leads also have a better idea of who might be leaving the company, so it is important to pick their brains for potential hiring needs as well.

This doesn’t have to be an endeavor that takes a lot of time! You can build engagement surveys to help gauge the pulse of the people that matter to your planning. Taking the time to build these surveys will allow you to ask important questions and get feedback quickly. It will also help you identify who is providing the feedback so that you can target your initiatives in your plan.

Build An HR Plan For A Remote Environment

One final thing to think about is that we are still living in a remote environment, and it doesn’t look like it will change. Remote employees face specific challenges in engagement, camaraderie, and upskilling. 

For more information about managing performance and keeping your employees engaged in a remote or hybrid environment, you can download our free webinar here .

Building An HR Plan Depends On Your Time – Maximize It

There is one thing we all forget to work into our HR plans for the new year: our time. At Trakstar, we’ve talked to HR leaders from all over the world and we know that your most precious resource is your time – you can’t do it all. We strive to meet the needs of HR leaders and managers through our full Trakstar Platform, including Hire , Learn , and Perform  – with Insights coming soon!  

Trakstar goes above and beyond just making things easier, it allows you to see the hire to retire pipeline in a completely different way – and that is something many of us need to do in 2024 and beyond.

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Download : Free HR Business Plan Template

Every success story starts with a plan. Using this template, you can help flesh out a business plan for your HR function with: 

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Prepare Your Annual HR Plan for 2024

Each year, it is important to create an annual HR plan to guide your people team or human resources department. However, in 2024, it is even more important for HR departments to take into account recent changes , and develop a sound hr strategic plan to take their teams to the next level.

More important than the details of the plan itself is to make sure the company’s mission and vision are reflected within your annual HR plan for 2024. Without clear objectives and a path to achieve them, you may fall short in reaching your company’s goals.

A highly focused and clearly communicated annual HR plan helps to guarantee your HR objectives will be met.

In this article, we will cover the ins and outs of yearly HR planning and provide the key steps to reach your HR goals.

Table of Contents

What is Meant by HR Planning ?

The purpose of a human resources plan is to analyze and evaluate all the elements related to the human resources policy for the coming year.

Everything from staff dynamics, organizational structure , and working conditions to the hiring process and onboarding of new employees .

As there are many aspects of an HR annual work plan, it’s important to first understand the company environment within which you work, as this will greatly affect the HR plan you create. Once you evaluate the company environment, you can then move forward with creating a successful HR plan of action.

Prepare your annual business plan for HR in 2024 and reach all of your objectives.

Map Out Your Annual HR Plan: Evaluate the Company Environment

At the beginning of the year, companies establish a strategic plan, dependent heavily on the human resources department, where the key annual objectives are set.  In order to develop a successful annual HR plan, it’s important to take into consideration the company’s policies and procedures , as well as the employee handbook . That way, you can rest assured that the goals and plans of the company are aligned with those of HR.

To reach your HR objectives, you must first know the answers to the following questions:

What Can We Improve on From Last Year’s Annual HR Planning?

Success is simply the result of many failures and tried attempts, all put together. Identifying past struggles and using them as fuel to propel you forward is what leads to success and improvement.

What Expected Challenges Can I Include in My Yearly HR Plan?

When you know what’s coming, you can better adapt and take advantage of the changes, rather than let them take advantage of you. Consider learning about change management techniques to stay in control through the ups and downs. Analyzing the potential challenges is fundamental for preparing your team for what’s ahead. Also, knowing which changes, events and activities are taking place in the coming months, and how they will likely influence your team, allows you to better manage what lies ahead.

What Areas Within the Company Should I Plan to Improve?

Constant evaluation of the state of the company and its staff is crucial to coming up with solutions to improve. With Factorial, for example, you can create human resources reports that display a graphical vision of the company, outlining the required areas of improvement. If used correctly, these charts can also allow you to make visual conclusions about things such as the turnover rate or employee motivation.

Identifying key areas of improvement is one of the stepping stones to a successful large or small business HR plan.

As a result, reaching your yearly objectives is easy when you take the proper steps to first analyze the company’s environment and what you are working with . Clear communication between the human resources department and the company’s management is vital to creating a solid base for your annual human resources plan.

Define Your Annual HR Plan Goals & Objectives

The objectives of the company’s strategic plan are called long-term objectives . These types of objectives help measure the reach and success of the human resources plan.  Generally speaking, they can be divided into two categories:

• Explicit Objectives : Focus on attracting and retaining talent, employee motivation, and improving employee engagement. To set explicit objectives in your annual HR operating plan you have to consider employee experience, the onboarding process, career plans, etc.
• Implicit Objectives: Follow the company’s philosophy and help form the company culture. They show the power of the HR department and how it can help improve productivity. In addition, these objectives focus on the work environment and quality of life for the employees while maintaining all labor regulations.

Organize Your Annual HR Planning: Set Team Responsibilities

Once the objectives are clear, both for the company and for the human resources department, it’s time to create your HR plan by reviewing the team responsibilities. Keep in mind, a thorough analysis of what each department will do in order to contribute to achieving the 2024 HR goals is necessary before moving forward.

Following this, the first step in the HR action plan 2024, is to assign a person who will be in charge of creating and implementing the HR plan . For smaller companies, this person will probably be the CEO. In slightly larger businesses, the person responsible is normally the same one who handles all of the human resources-related tasks. Medium-sized companies will look to their HR team; with every member delegated to a specific task, each corresponding with a goal.

Human resources organizational charts are a great way to visually see who is responsible for what, and who reports to who in the company. Using this type of chart is incredibly helpful for your staff planning.  They can be also useful to ensure that the HR management to HR employee ratio is in check. Try using a free organizational chart template to have a clear picture of your company’s structure.

These charts are great for displaying the following:

• The structural hierarchy of the company : Directors, managers, intermediate profiles, employees, etc.
• The departments within the company : Marketing, sales, product, human resources, etc.
• Positions to fill : If there are any gaps in the company structure, the organizational chart will make them clear.

Annual HR Staff Planning: Identify Open Positions

Thanks to the organizational chart you can clearly see how many people you need to hire and for which positions. If you want to achieve your objectives for the coming year, you’ll need to have the right team in place.

In your HR plan you will define:

• Which positions are open – Write a detailed description of all the positions to be filled, including the corresponding department, responsibilities, functions, where they fit in the hierarchy, and their workload.
• Define the ideal profile – Here you’ll have to specify the profile of the candidate you are interested in hiring. Clearly outline the level of education you are looking for, the experience level, and the skills required. Based on this, you can decide whether to recruit from within the company if there is an employee that fits the desired profile.

Clearly defining the above details, are important steps to take in your HR plan. Therefore, allow yourself the time to study and analyze your company at each stage of the HR plan creation process.

Start Planning with a Defined HR Policy

Your updated human resources policy must meet the standards and demands of the general HR and strategic plan. The hr policy will also include guides for the HR department, including, but not limited to:

Hiring Guide

The main purpose of the hiring guide is to assist the HR manager in hiring and onboarding. This guide serves to outline the roles and responsibilities of the employees you are looking to hire. It should contain information on the types of contracts for each position as well. Also, including an HR annual training plan template in your hiring guide is beneficial.

Note: As an HR manager, you will need to decide whether the hiring process will be outsourced or handled within the company. If hiring is done from inside the company , a strategic onboarding process must be established to ensure successful recruitment and retention.

Compensation Guide

With every new contract you plan on offering, you need to state the details of each. For example, the salary amount, benefits, and economic bonuses. Make sure that what is offered in your compensation guide is in line with your overall Human Resources budget.

Workplace Satisfaction Guide Personal

Taking care of new hires is important, but don’t forget about your veteran employees. Long-term employees need to feel continually valued and supported as well. In your HR plan, you should invest part of your budget for the personal and professional development of each employee in the team.

Investing in employee wellbeing creates greater workplace satisfaction. Providing employees with the right personal development tools for success is key. Employees that feel supported display greater motivation for achieving their own goals and career aspirations.

Company Guide

Inside the HR policy, you should think about including a practical guide from the company. Contained in this guide, would be the company vision and mission, proper conduct guides, and conflict resolution codes

Build Your Annual HR Plan 2024

Now that you’ve gone through all the previous steps, you’re ready to build the best HR plan for 2024.

As you can see, creating the ideal HR plan for 2024 takes time and effort to compile . Unfortunately, a high percentage of small and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the personnel to create a dynamic HR plan.

Save time creating your Annual HR plan with Factorial!

A solid HR plan is fundamental to achieving company goals. If you don’t have the correct tools to do the job, you’ll end up exhausting yourself creating a plan that will miss the mark in the end.

With Factorial, you can create your human resources plan for 2024 with ease. Build your organizational chart , fast and easy, and see who is in charge of what at a glance. Decide which departments need more assistance or restructuring.

Furthermore, Factorial gives you access to all kinds of human resources reports. These reports help you analyze the state of your company, allowing you to more effectively create the most successful HR plan for the coming year!

Are you looking for a little extra support to streamline your HR processes?

Simplify your HR processes with Factorial

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“Unfortunately, a high percentage of small and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the personal to create a dynamic HR plan.”

‘personal’ should be ‘personnel’, unless I am mistaken?

A great article otherwise!

Thanks Trudy!

Post more! Seriously, I am really digging what you have written so far. I’ve scanned your blog right now for more things to read.

Thanks , this piece was indeed very useful.

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HR Consulting Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Human Resources Consulting Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their human resources consulting businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through an HR consulting business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your human resources consulting business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan

If you’re looking to start an HR consulting business or grow your existing business, you need to write your own business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your HR consulting business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Human Resources Consulting Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a human resources consulting business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the lender will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings is the most common form of funding for a human resources consulting business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for HR consulting businesses.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you want to start an HR consulting business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below we detail what should be included in your own business plan for an HR consulting firm.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your own business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of HR consulting business you are operating and its status. For example, are you a startup, do you have an HR consulting firm that you would like to grow, or are you operating human resources consulting firms in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the HR consulting industry. Discuss the type of HR consulting business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of HR consulting business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of human resources consulting businesses:

• Human Capital Strategy : this type of business focuses on strategic matters such as corporate culture, diversity, and organization design.
• Compensation & Benefits: this type of business involves analyzing and consulting on all aspects of employee compensation, from base pay to secondary benefits, as well as pension and retirement.
• Talent Management: this type of business focuses primarily on recruitment and retention of talent, as well as on talent development.
• Professional Development: this type of business offers services ranging from leadership coaching and development to developing learning management systems.

In addition to explaining the type of HR consulting business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of websites launched, the types of sites developed, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the HR industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the HR industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your HR consulting business plan:

• How big is the human resources industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your human resources consulting business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your HR consulting business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: financial services companies, government entities, healthcare institutions, and technology companies.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of human resource consulting business you operate. Clearly, government entities would respond to different marketing promotions than technology companies, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most HR consulting businesses primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.  

Finish Your HR Consulting Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other human resource consulting firms.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes more generalized management consultants or dedicated in-house HR teams.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other HR consulting businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be human resource consulting businesses located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• Do they specialize in specific industries (i.e. healthcare, technology, etc.)?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide either a wider range or more specialized range of services?
• Will you offer virtual service options?
• Will you provide superior customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For an human resource consulting business, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of HR consulting company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to strategic consulting, will your HR consulting business provide compliance consulting?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, will you operate from a physical office, or will you primarily interact with clients online and/or at their place of business? In this section, discuss how your location will affect the demand for your services.

Promotions : The final part of your marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Signs and billboards
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your HR consulting business, including marketing, providing consultations, building analytics processes, developing and presenting recommendations, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to sign your 50 th consulting contract, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to open an HR consulting business in a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your HR consulting business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow your business.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in human resources and/or managing HR consulting businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in Human Resources, or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you focus on one client at a time, or will you have teams working on multiple projects at once? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing an hr consulting business:

• Office build-out
• Cost of buying or leasing a company vehicle
• Cost of office supplies such as computers and software
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office lease, any notable clients you’ve served, or an overview of the services you offer.  

Putting together a business plan for your HR consulting business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will have an expert HR consulting business plan; download it to PDF to show banks and investors. You will really understand the HR industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful HR consulting business.  

HR Consulting Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my hr consulting business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your HR Consulting Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of HR consulting business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have an HR consulting business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of HR consulting businesses?

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your HR Consulting business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to learn about Growthink’s business plan writing service .

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Human Resource Planning: 17 Tips for Scaling Your Business

Ever thought about how important your team is to your business success? They’re like the engines driving your growth—the ones that keep things running smoothly. But hey, managing them can sometimes feel like trying to gather a bunch of playful kittens. From finding new teammates to getting them up to speed, it can be as tricky as herding those cute felines. And when your business is growing, these challenges can get even trickier. That’s where Human Resource Planning comes in.

Welcome to your roadmap for scaling your business while keeping your workforce happy and productive. This guide is like a treasure map with 17 golden strategies to master Human Resource Planning. These strategies are here to help you level up, showing you how to make your scaling journey smoother and your business even better.

Table of contents

What is Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

What is human resource planning used for, challenges of human resource planning.

• Why is Human Resource Planning important? 

Steps to Human Resource Planning

• Regularly assess your current workforce ability
• Cultivate talent to align with your business’s vision
• Streamline internal management succession planning
• Improve your hiring process now
• Establish and actual HR department
• Budget for human capital growth
• Get your best practices in line with your actions
• Perform a gap analysis
• Leverage analytics for informed decision-making
• Take a customer-centric view of HR
• Build a comprehensive employee handbook
• Evolve and adapt your employee communication
• Create mid-term employee goals
• Find a mentor
• Evaluate your leadership
• Know when you need to subtract

Human Resource Planning: FAQs

Imagine your business as a puzzle, and each piece is a member of your team. Human Resource Planning (HRP) is like being the master puzzle solver. It’s the process of figuring out who you need in your team and when you need them. Just like you plan ahead for a party or a trip, HRP helps you plan for the people you’ll need in your company as it grows. It’s all about being prepared so your business can run smoothly even when things change.

Key takeaways

• Plan your team’s growth: Plan out how your team will grow, write down the jobs you need, and set goals for when to add new members.
• Keep checking on your team: Keep an eye on your team’s skills, listen to their feedback, and see how you stack up against other businesses.
• Help your team shine: Find the talents in your team and give them training that matches your business goals.
• Make hiring easier: Improve your hiring process, make sure job descriptions are clear, and find people who fit your company culture.

Think of HRP as a magic map that guides your business through growth. It helps you make smart decisions about hiring, training, and managing your team. HRP is used to predict what skills and talents your business will need in the future. This way, you can find the right people for the right jobs at the right time. It also helps you avoid surprises by keeping an eye on your team’s strengths and areas that need improvement.

Like every adventure, HRP has its own challenges. One big challenge is predicting the future accurately. You’re not a fortune teller, but you need to guess how many people your business will need months or even years from now. Another challenge is keeping up with changes. As your business grows, things change fast, and you need to adjust your plans accordingly. And let’s not forget about finding the perfect people—hiring the right folks with the right skills can be a puzzle all its own.

Why is Human Resource Planning important?

Imagine building a house without a plan. It might fall apart or not turn out how you want. That’s why HRP is crucial. It helps you build your business with a solid foundation. It saves you from hiring too many or too few people, and it makes sure everyone knows what they’re supposed to do. HRP also boosts employee morale. When people know they’re part of a well-planned team, they feel valued and motivated to do their best.

• Know your goals: Understand your business goals and what kind of team you need to achieve them.
• Assess your current team: Figure out what skills your current team has and what they might need to learn.
• Predict the future: Guess how many people you’ll need in the future and what skills they’ll need.
• Find the gaps: Compare your future needs with your current team’s skills to see where you’re lacking.
• Recruit and train: Start hiring new people with the right skills and train your current team to fill the gaps.
• Keep watching: Continuously check how your plan is working and adjust it as your business grows.

17 tips for scaling your business

Whether it’s hiring, recruiting, training, orientating, onboarding, or providing benefits, planning your human resources is challenging. Now throw in a growing business and the need to scale for it.

That’s where this list comes in.

1. Plan for strategic staff growth

Maybe your business started out with just two on staff. Then four. Someday, hundreds.

Plan now. Think of the specific tasks and jobs that are going to be needed. Write down the jobs (and descriptions) you think you’ll need. Decide what order you’ll need those jobs to become a reality.

Sure, things might change and you’ll have to tweak those plans. Yes, early on you’ll have to cross-train your staff so fewer people can cover more of those jobs. But you should set up a plan that has benchmarks that indicate when a new position is needed.

Maybe that benchmark is a specific number of customers, or a certain sales volume. Maybe when customer complaints or support wait times reach a particular level you know you need to add staff. The point is to have a plan of what comes next in terms of human resources, and delineation as to when that plan kicks in.

2. Regularly assess your current workforce ability

Assessment is the foundation of pretty much anything else we’ll be talking about in this post.

It’s important to assess your workforce regularly, because it’s the only way you’ll know what you have, what you need, and what is changing both in your actual workforce and also what is changing in your industry that your workforce needs to adjust to.

Things to assess might include:

• Current employee skills and abilities. This includes technical, knowledge, interpersonal, and leadership.
• Trends spotted in employee reviews. Any trend is worth paying attention to, whether positive or negative, particularly responses regarding training and the ability to do the job before them.
• How your competitors compare. Find successful competitors, and consider how your workforce compares to theirs in terms of capability (skills, knowledge, training).

3. Cultivate talent to align with your business’s vision

Employees have inherent talents, but you need to encourage them to grow.

ConAgra studied the performance of both trained and untrained employees to determine what kind of effect training had on them. They learned that managers with training had half the employee turnover than those who did not receive any training. That discovery led to better training and the numbers to back up the cost of paying for training.

When it comes to scaling your business, you should know what direction you want to see it grow. Train and cultivate the talent of employees to take it in that direction. Looking for leaders? Provide leadership training. Looking for better customer service? Provide customer service training.

4. Streamline internal management succession planning

As your business grows, you’ll also see your need for management to grow.

Ideally, if you’ve been training your employees, you’ll have a good pool of potential managers to draw from in your own workforce so that succession and transition aren’t as jarring.

Your plan should include things like:

• Having a system that identifies employees with management and leadership abilities.
• Identifying personality and interpersonal strength and weaknesses in potential leaders.
• Knowing what your employees career goals are, and pinpointing those who wish to manage.
• A known system that alerts employees to the fact that they have the possibility of promotion and being a manager some day.
• Establishing training for management techniques, as well as decision-making techniques.
• Normalizing communication with employees regarding changes in management and other similar decisions that have an effect on them so they are used to being involved in such moments.

Not all of your management needs will come from within your growing business, but scaling means you’ll want to tap into those employees who have been with you from early on and who know your business better than a newcomer.

5. Improve your hiring process now

Getting your hiring process perfected when you are still on the smaller side is best.

This might include:

• Talking to current employees about the hiring process and what they liked or would change.
• Being serious about exit interviews and finding out if the hiring process was misleading and led to turnover.
• Improving the process of letting potential employees see what your work culture is really like before they sign on.
• Improving tools that assess whether an employee is a good fit for both the position and your business’s work culture.
• Improving how you advertise for job openings, both in the copy you use to describe them as well as where you place job advertisements.

Hiring new employees is extremely time consuming and expensive. You want that time and money well-spent. There will be no magic moment where, as your business grows, your hiring process smooths out and gets better on its own. The whole point of being aware of scaling is to consider that your successes and failures scale to the same degree as your growth. If your hiring process is in turmoil, that’s only going to increase to the same degree as you grow.

6. Establish an actual HR department

Smaller businesses often do not have an actual human resources department, and they may function completely fine without one.

Larger businesses, however, do not have that luxury. Remember, HR departments are dealing with benefits, training, and interpersonal relationships. The larger your business and the more management layers grow, the more disconnected or distant your employees can become from those making decisions. Even if your HR department starts as one dedicated employee, be ready to start it.

7. Budget for human capital growth

Your employees are your most important asset. They are your human capital.

Be sure you’re budgeting not just for business expansion, but also for employee growth, too. That means considering benefits, expectations of employees, and workplace culture.

It’s not terribly complicated, but remember: if it isn’t in the budget, it isn’t going to happen.

8. Get your best practices in line with your actions

Most businesses have best practices, but they don’t always do so great on the actual follow-through.

For example, you may say that team collaboration is a best practice, but you have actually incentivized individual rewards. Or, you reward employees on a quarterly basis but only do performance reviews twice a year.

When your best practices are out of sync with your actions, you will fail to meet the goals that the best practices are meant to achieve.

9. Perform a gap analysis

A gap analysis is where you locate current gaps in what your business has and what it currently needs. It’s a bit different than regularly assessing your actual employees. It takes other things into consideration that actually affect your employees

• Job descriptions. They should accurately reflect what the jobs are. Their accuracy, both in description and expectation, has an effect on employee retention.
• Current tools employees use. This includes all tools, from computers in offices to kitchenware.
• Employee benefits. This includes such things as retirement funds, health insurance, sick days, vacation days, and any other items your employees generally receive.

A gap analysis takes into consideration where your company is at now. It’s pretty common for a business to set their policies and benefits and not realize they are outdated in a few year’s time. Over time, your business changes. It grows, it needs to scale, and it needs to attract and retain great employees. A larger business, for example, can probably afford better benefits. You can’t rely on what you set up in the early days, and a gap analysis is set to specifically pinpoint what needs changing.

10. Leverage analytics for informed decision-making

Data is your friend.

It’s found everywhere, from employee interviews to your accounting department. The problem is that if you don’t make an effort to collect data regularly and with a consistent reason, that data goes unused in a file.

Knowing the numbers for what is happening in your business is the best way to make informed decisions. When it comes to Human Resource Planning, you’ll want data on:

• Productivity. Are your employees as productive as they were when you were smaller? Is productivity scaling correctly with your business growth?
• Retention. Are your employees staying or leaving, and at what rate? What direction is this trending?
• Managerial effectiveness. Are your managers effective or causing problems with how they lead employees?
• Benefit costs. Are your benefit costs in tune with goals and budgets, or are they overwhelming your profits?
• Training, recruiting, and onboarding expenses. Are training expenses as you expect, or have they become more than you bargained for? These costs will be closely tied to retention and hiring.

Tracking analytic data on HR-related issues is the only way to take the guesswork out of whether or not scaling your business will be a nightmare.

11. Take a customer-centric view of HR 

Take an outside-in approach to viewing your employees.

What kind of experiences are your customers having as your company grows? You want to be sure to look for areas where business growth can damage a great customer experience, such as:

• Personal interaction. Are your customers still having a personalized experience with your employees, or is business booming so much that your employees are trying to juggle too many customers at once?
• Customer support. When customers have questions or complaints, are your employees able to keep up with the increased demand?
• Service or product selection. As your business grows, are you adjusting what you offer to fit a growing and changing customer base?
• Knowledge of services or products. Do your employees have the necessary knowledge of what your growing business offers customers, or are there knowledge gaps?

Are your human resources where they should be? Are they ready to be what they’ll need to be for future customer needs?

12. Build a comprehensive employee handbook

You can’t “go by the book” if you never created one.

As a small business, a slim employee handbook and a casual approach to guidelines as rules might have worked. But as your business grows, you need, in writing, more to the plan.

An employee handbook that is as detailed as needed provides consistency. No employee feels as if they are being treated unfairly if the handbook is followed.

Using the assessments and other tips in this post should help you know to adjust your employee handbook. Reviewing your employee handbook at least once a year (preferably more) is ideal, and if changes are made, you will need to bring all of your employees together to inform them and get them to sign off on the new book.

13. Evolve and adapt your employee communication

Early on, you may have had more personal interaction with your employees because your business was smaller. As it grows, though, that interaction changes and lessens. You might not even realize that there are some employees who are used to more communication with you but aren’t getting as much of it since you are busier than usual.

The problem is that even if you feel like you’re just as busy and just as communicative, you have employees who are growing distant from you. So while you may not have needed formal staff meetings or communication in the early days, a business that is going to scale has to adjust for a different approach to communicating.

It might seem silly, but start with staff meetings when you are still small. Get staff used to the idea. Small staff meetings can scale to department or large staff meetings. Daily one-on-one conversation with every employee, however, does not scale.

14. Create mid-term employee goals

Growing your business means you have a big goal, and you are pushing for it.

That’s true enough. But the middle of that growth process requires mid-range goals.

Long-term vision and goals are at the opposite end of the playing field from where you started, but there’s a lot of game play between one end to the other. You need the structure of goals there, too.

Create goals for human resources for that middle time. These tend to be plateau or benchmark goals that indicate a step in the right direction or that trigger the next phase of a plan. Perhaps you want to see 100% of your employees trained in a specific skill set, but might set a goal of 50%  during the fast growth period.  Or maybe you’d like to see all of your employees hit a certain sales or productivity level, but it’s too difficult to get them all there while you’re in the growth process of hiring and onboarding, so you set a mid-range goal that helps you move forward without abandoning that larger, future goal.

15. Find a mentor

Scaling your business can be scary, particularly when dealing with human resources. Find other business owners who have already done what you are in the midst of, and see if they will mentor you.

16. Evaluate your leadership

If you have top-level management that are creating a problem now, they are certainly going to be just as difficult (if not worse) later.

Are there personality clashes? Leadership issues? Ethical or trust issues? Anti-authority problems? Are they able to self-start or do they need you to micromanage them or give them detailed instructions constantly?

And not only that, but your team of leaders needs to be…smarter than you. That’s how you grow.

17. Know when you need to subtract

The idea of growth necessarily brings to mind adding things.

Adding sales, customers, employees. Growing.

But scaling also means knowing when to subtract . There are processes (and even job positions) that you may have needed earlier on, but which now are slowing you down. It is critical to be able to look dispassionately at some business traditions and positions and determine which ones have no place in a growing business.

Do you see a common theme running through these tips?

It’s all about planning ahead now, before your business gets too big to make changes. Remember: scaling magnifies the foundation. You can scale the good or the bad just as easily.

Paving the path to success with When I Work

As we unravel the intricate art of human resource scaling, one solution stands out as a guiding light—When I Work. It’s an hourly scheduling software meticulously designed to harmonize and streamline your workforce management efforts. With benefits such as automated scheduling, real-time communication, and easy shift swapping, When I Work presents itself as a catalyst for successful business expansion. By harnessing this innovative tool, you can ensure that your scaling journey is marked by precision, efficiency, and seamless HR management, allowing you to focus on propelling your business to new horizons. Explore the potential of When I Work and revolutionize the way you scale your business today. Sign up for your free 14-day trial of When I Work today.

Q: Is Human Resource Planning only for big businesses?

A: Human Resource Planning is not limited to big businesses. It’s equally important for businesses of all sizes, especially those with hourly, shift-based teams. Imagine you’re running a café with waitstaff, cooks, and baristas. HRP helps you ensure you have the right number of people on each shift, preventing understaffing during busy hours or overstaffing when things are quiet. Tools like scheduling software, such as When I Work, can simplify this process by helping you plan shifts effectively based on your team’s availability and skillsets.

Q: Predicting the future accurately seems tough. How can HRP help with managing an hourly, shift-based team?

A: HRP can assist you in managing your hourly, shift-based team by giving you insights into historical patterns. Let’s say you manage a retail store with fluctuating foot traffic. HRP can help you identify peak hours when more staff is needed and adjust shifts accordingly. Scheduling software like When I Work can take this a step further, helping you create flexible schedules that align with demand. It ensures you have the right number of employees in each shift, avoiding staff shortages or surplus.

Q: Is HRP only about hiring? How does it impact the day-to-day operations of an hourly team?

A: HRP goes beyond hiring—it’s a comprehensive strategy that involves everything from recruitment to performance management. For businesses with hourly teams, like a customer service center, HRP ensures there’s a balanced distribution of skills among different shifts. This guarantees that no shift is understaffed due to a lack of specific expertise. Scheduling software, such as When I Work, plays a vital role here. It empowers you to assign the right people with the right skills to each shift, improving efficiency and delivering excellent service.

Q: Can HRP help avoid problems in managing an hourly, shift-based team?

A: Absolutely! HRP is a proactive approach that prevents issues like insufficient staff coverage during busy periods or overworking employees. Let’s say you’re managing a restaurant with peak dining times. HRP helps you anticipate these busy periods and schedule more staff to handle the rush, enhancing customer satisfaction. By incorporating scheduling software like When I Work, you can ensure a smooth operation by distributing shifts evenly among your hourly team members, minimizing burnout, and ensuring that everyone has a fair workload.

Q: Is HRP a one-time thing for managing hourly teams?

A: No, HRP is an ongoing process, especially crucial for businesses with hourly, shift-based teams. As customer demands fluctuate, you need to adapt your schedules accordingly. For instance, managing a call center with varying call volumes requires constant adjustments. HRP helps you align staffing levels with call traffic patterns. Scheduling software, like When I Work, simplifies this continuous process by allowing you to quickly modify schedules based on changing needs, ensuring your hourly team remains efficient and your customers stay satisfied.

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25 Human Resources Startup Business Ideas for 2024

The human resources (HR) field is rapidly evolving thanks to new technologies and shifting workplace trends. This creates exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups looking to disrupt traditional HR models.

In this post, we’ll explore 25 HR startup business ideas perfect for aspiring founders and innovators. From recruiting tools to wellness apps, these ideas can help you capitalize on changes in the HR landscape.

HR Tech Startup Ideas

HR tech continues to be one of the hottest areas for new startups. Here are some HR tech business ideas to consider:

1. Candidate Sourcing and Engagement Platform

A platform that helps companies source, engage and track potential job candidates throughout the hiring process. Features may include AI screening, automated scheduling, candidate CRM, and more.

2. Digital Onboarding Software

Onboarding is a crucial touchpoint for engaging new hires. Onboarding software centralizes and digitizes the process via guided workflows, task management, document signing, and rich media.

3. HR Chatbot for Employees

HR chatbots use natural language processing to answer common employee questions about benefits, time-off requests, company policies, and more. The bots can provide 24/7 self-service.

4. Talent Intelligence Platform

Leverage data and AI to provide deeper insights into your existing workforce. Features may include skills gap analysis, internal mobility recommendations, career path mapping, and more.

5. HR Knowledge Management System

A centralized platform that digitizes HR documents, policies, and institutional knowledge. This improves accessibility for employees while reducing burdens on HR teams.

6. HR Reporting and Analytics Dashboard

Advanced analytics dashboards empower HR leaders with data-driven insights about their workforce. Metrics may span demographics, retention, compensation, performance, and more.

7. Video Interview Software

Conduct asynchronous video interviews with candidates to save time and standardize early screening. Video interviews can integrate with your careers site and ATS.

8. HR Help Desk Software

An HR help desk provides employees with an easy way to get HR-related questions answered in real time via chat, phone, email, or a self-service knowledge base.

9. Anonymous Employee Feedback Platform

Secure, anonymous feedback gives employees a safe space to share constructive opinions about managers, executives, and the workplace. This facilitates two-way communication.

10. HR Case Management Software

Digitally track and manage employee relations cases like investigations, complaints, grievances, and disciplinary issues. This improves compliance and efficiency.

HR Consulting Startup Ideas

Consulting remains a viable startup opportunity within the HR space. Consider these consulting business models:

11. HR Compliance Consulting

Help companies navigate the complex patchwork of employment laws and regulations. Offer compliance audits, policy reviews, training, and ongoing advisory services.

12. Compensation and Benefits Consulting

Advise clients on optimizing compensation structures, benchmarking, pay equity analysis, benefits packages, and related performance incentives.

13. HR Technology Consulting

Provide strategic guidance and implementation support as organizations adopt new HR systems. Expertise may span core HRIS, ATS, onboarding, and more.

14. DEI and Belonging Consulting

Offer diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and belonging assessments, trainings, workshops, and advisory services to help organizations progress.

15. Leadership Development Consulting

Design and deliver customized leadership development programs for managers. Offer coaching and assessments to strengthen leadership capabilities.

16. Change Management Consulting

Help companies successfully navigate major business or HR transformations via change management models, training, and strategic communications.

17. Talent Optimization Consulting

Conduct deep dives into talent processes like performance management, learning, recruiting, and career development to optimize workflows.

18. HR Department as a Service

Provide outsourced HR services for small businesses, such as managing payroll, benefits, compliance, worker classification, onboarding, offboarding, and more.

19. Employer Branding Consulting

Help companies define and build an attractive employer brand that resonates with current and prospective employees.

20. Workforce Planning Consulting

Forecast hiring needs, skill requirements, and succession plans to optimize a workforce plan that aligns to strategic business goals.

Employee Wellness Startup Ideas

The recent focus on employee wellbeing creates an opportunity for wellness startups targeting HR buyers. Ideas include:

21. Corporate Wellness App

An app that engages employees with healthy habit trackers, fitness challenges, guided meditations, nutrition advice, preventative care, and more.

22. Physical Health Programs

Offer workplace health testing, digital physical therapy, ergonomic assessments, fitness classes, health coaching, and related programs.

23. Mental Health Resources

Provide access to mental health assessments, self-guided therapies, counselor matching, stress management tools, and other support resources.

24. Financial Wellness Programs

Offer workplace financial literacy courses, budgeting help, debt management, retirement planning, and related services to reduce money stress.

25. Substance Abuse Recovery Programs

Partner with HR to provide employees with access to addiction recovery resources like counseling, support groups, treatment programs, and ongoing community.

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Final Thoughts

The HR landscape is rapidly evolving thanks to new workplace trends and technologies. This opens up ample white space for innovative startups to disrupt traditional models.

The 25 HR startup business ideas covered in this article are just a subset of the possibilities. Other opportunities exist around remote work, employee engagement, learning and development, HR service delivery models, and more.

With the right combination of domain expertise, customer empathy, and disruptive thinking, aspiring founders can build breakthrough companies that reshape the future of HR. The time is now to turn your HR startup idea into reality!

Priyanka transitioned from being a trendsetting fashionista to an influential business blogger. With an innate passion for style and an astute entrepreneurial mindset, Priyanka carved her own path in the digital landscape, captivating audiences with her unique blend of fashion-forward insights and astute business acumen. Through her posts, she shares her expertise on emerging trends, fashion industry analysis, and valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

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5 Steps To Developing A Strategic HR Plan

by Amy Letke | Apr 18, 2018 | Blog

Amy Newbanks Letke, SPHR, GPHR, is the Founder of Integrity HR, Inc. Amy provides workplace solutions to improve performance, reduce liability and increase profits. She is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs and business owners achieve success. Contact us for more insights - 502-753-0970 or [email protected]

You’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again – every business needs a strategic plan.

The most successful companies develop and implement an effective strategic plan to help them pursue their organizational goals. But, even the best strategic plan won’t be very effective if the human resources function isn’t in alignment with it.

A Strategic HR Plan is a tool to help businesses align their organizational goals with their HR capabilities , and every business should have one in place to support the growth outlined in their strategic plan.

If you haven’t developed a Strategic HR Plan for your business (or if you’re still not quite sure what it is!), don’t worry!

Below we share our 5 Steps To Developing A Strategic HR Plan to help you effectively support and achieve your organization’s strategic goals.

If you’re interested in learning more about developing a  Strategic HR Plan  or a Strategic Plan for your business, schedule an appointment with one of our HR professionals or give us a call at 877-753-0970 .

What is a Strategic HR Plan?

A Strategic HR Plan helps organizations to align human resources to corporate strategy. It is an essential planning document built upon the corporate mission, vision, values, and goals established in the strategic business plan.

It provides information on how the HR function will support the goals and strategies of the organization, while also ensuring that HR planning and practices are consistent.

The ideal Strategic HR Plan outlines how the gaps between present and future capabilities will be addressed, enabling businesses to effectively pursue their company goals.

Why develop a Strategic HR Plan?

In most organizations, managers have a responsibility to fulfill expectations in the areas of corporate governance, transparency of policies, accountability, and economic efficiency.

For your business to be successful in these areas, you need to have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time to carry out the strategy.

A comprehensive Strategic HR Plan will ensure that you have the capacity to deliver on strategy and the ability to monitor progress towards your organization’s goals. It should also establish:

• HR practices that are consistent across the organization
• Training and skill development policies that are linked to strategy
• Succession planning processes that identify and minimize capability risks

How do you create a Strategic HR Plan?

The process for developing a Strategic HR Plan begins by identifying where your organization is now in the life-cycle of an enterprise: the start-up stage, the growth stage, the mature stage, or the decline stage.

Once you’ve decided where your company is today, formulate a clear picture of your company’s future along with ways to get there. Your Strategic HR Plan will be built upon the foundation of this strategic business plan.

Step 1: Identify Future HR Needs

Using your business’ strategic plan as a guide, identify the future HR needs of the organization. Ask questions like:

• What is the nature of our work?
• What type of culture will support productivity?
• What skills do we need to deliver results?
• Where are those skills and how are we tapping into them?
• How large is our organization?
• What systems and processes do we need?
• How are we making sure peoples’ skills match our needs?
• What risks are associated with this future?

Step 2: Consider Present HR Capabilities

Now consider your company’s present HR situation by asking questions like:

• With the future in mind, what is our current capability?
• How are we doing against benchmarks?
• What are our strengths and weaknesses?
• Are there legislative requirements we need to consider?
• What are we doing well now, that we need to do more of in the future?
• Where do the risks lie?
• What HR issues may prevent us from getting to the future?
• What current systems will support or hinder our progress?

Step 3: Identify Gaps Between Future Needs & Present Capability

Compare your future HR needs from step 1 with your present HR capabilities from step 2, and identify any significant gaps that appear.

Gaps can develop in a number of areas including policies and procedures, capability, and resource allocation. Start with these questions:

• Where do significant gaps appear between the present and future?
• How can these gaps be classified?

Step 4: Formulate Gap Strategies

Next, work to develop strategies that will address the gaps you identified in Step 3. These gap strategies may affect:

• Job/Work Design
• Selection/Staffing
• Performance Management
• Compensation/Rewards
• Training/Development
• Employee Relations
• Safety and Health
• Workforce Diversity

Not all gaps will be of the same strategic importance, so you will need to set priorities for addressing them.

For example, imagine you discovered a need to update your HR information system. Investing in a new system would provide you with employee progress data that you deemed essential for your future company goals.

The need for an upgraded HR information system should be prioritized as urgent because it’s necessary to succeed in your long-term strategic plan.

Questions you can ask to help you determine the priority of your needs include:

• What are the top priorities?
• Where can we experience rapid progress?
• How do these strategies work with our budgets?
• What is the degree of change needed?

Step 5:  Share & Monitor The Plan

Sharing the Strategic HR Plan with your senior leadership and those connected to the HR function of your organization is a crucial component of its success. The more your team understands and supports the plan, the more empowered they will be to help the company achieve its goals.

It’s also important to monitor the progress of the Strategic HR Plan you develop and to communicate successes or modifications to your team.

At the very least, you should review the plan on an annual basis to verify that the goals on which the plan was based are still accurate and to make adjustments as needed.

Developing Your Plan

Developing a comprehensive Strategic HR Plan is an essential investment in helping your company achieve its goals.

A Strategic HR Plan aligns your corporate mission with your business plan, ensuring you have the capacity to deliver on strategy as you pursue your organization’s goals.

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HR Consulting Business plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

HR Consulting Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Human Resources Consulting business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their HR Consulting businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Human Resource business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

HR Solutions is a startup human resources company located in Spokane, Washington. The company is founded by Tremaine Jackson, a former human resources manager in a large retail company. Tremaine led a team of twenty human resources employees in overseeing all aspects of human resources for the employer and developed a unique application that he has decided to introduce in his new company, HR Solutions.

HR Solutions will be the comprehensive leader in human resource training, management, negotiations, and solutions-finding company in the state of Washington. They will provide everything human resource personnel need to hire and effectively onboard new employees, as well as everything needed to maintain proper records, effectively cover communication and employee relations, and become proactive about potential conflicts.

Product Offering

The following are the services that HR Solutions will provide:

• Proprietary app that creates comprehensive HR management plans
• Training to maximize personnel potential
• Assistance in compliance with laws and regulations
• Curated HR solutions to solve employee issues
• Assistance in establishing productive work environments
• Onboarding from A to Z
• “Support Cadre” for HR management personnel
• Recruitment and talent acquisition training
• Organizational process-and-procedure manual

Customer Focus

HR Solutions will target small-to-large businesses in the Spokane, Washington region. HR Solutions will also target Washington state with select online training programs and sales of the proprietary HR app. HR Solutions will target C-suite executives in Spokane.

Management Team

HR Solutions will be owned and operated by Tremaine Jackson. He recruited his former administrative assistant, Sharlene Harris, to be his Administrative Manager in HR Solutions, where she will provide oversight of all personnel and HR responsibilities within the company itself. He also recruited Mason Wright, a former associate and HR manager, to be the Senior HR Advisor within the startup; he will lead the other HR managers in their roles as client-focused solution providers.

Tremaine Jackson is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, where he majored in Human Resource Development. He has been a human resources manager in a large retail company, where he led a team of twenty human resources employees in overseeing all aspects of human resources for his employer and he developed a unique application that he has decided to introduce in his new company, HR Solutions. Former clients and associates have indicated they will follow him when he establishes HR Solutions.

Sharlene Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Spokane College. She has been Tremaine’s administrative assistant for ten years and her new role will be the Administrative Manager in HR Solutions. She will provide oversight of all personnel and HR responsibilities within the company itself.

Mason Wright, a former associate and HR manager, developed a large following of loyal clients. He will be the Senior HR Advisor within the startup; he will lead the other HR managers in their roles as client-focused solution providers. His clients have indicated that they will follow him into the startup business.

Success Factors

HR Solutions will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team of HR Solutions

Financial Highlights

HR Solutions is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch HR Solutions. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for HR Solutions.

Company Overview

Who is hr solutions.

HR Solutions is a newly established, full-service human resource company in Spokane, Washington. HR Solutions will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and effective choice for HR managers and leaders in Spokane. Certain online programs and the proprietary app will also be the most effective and productive options for HR personnel throughout the state of Washington. HR Solutions will provide a comprehensive menu of training, recruitment, personnel, solution-finding services for any company to utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive set of training, management, and solution options.

  HR Solutions will be able to provide superior HR support and solutions to every business. The team of professionals are highly qualified and experienced in onboarding, training and creating solutions for every human resource quandary. HR Solutions removes all headaches and issues of the human resource personnel and ensures clients find the best answers to all their HR needs with the outstanding customer service found at HR Solutions.

HR Solutions History

HR Solutions is owned and operated by Tremaine Jackson. Tremaine Jackson is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, where he majored in Human Resource Development. He has been a human resources manager in a large retail company, where he led a team of twenty human resources employees in overseeing all aspects of human resources for his employer and he developed a unique application that he has decided to introduce in his new company, HR Solutions. Former clients and associates have indicated they will follow him when he establishes HR Solutions.

Since incorporation, HR Solutions has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered HR Solutions, LLC to transact business in the state of Washington.
• Has a contract in place for a 20,000 square foot office space within a downtown Spokane building.
• Reached out to numerous former clients and contacts to include those who will refer and recommend HR Solutions.
• Began recruiting a staff of ten HR managers and three office personnel to work at HR Solutions.

HR Solutions Services

The following will be the services HR Solutions will provide:

Industry Analysis

The human resources industry is expected to grow during the next five years to over $35 billion. The growth will be driven by an increased number of young employees who require extensive training and onboarding. The growth will be driven by an increased need for employees as the older demographic employee retires. The growth will be driven by an increase in the number of employees who are new to the U.S. and require assistance in onboarding and training. The growth will be driven by new technological advances that are not yet known. Costs will likely be reduced as new applications, such as the one created by HR Solutions, are created and introduced into the industry.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market, customer segmentation.

HR Solutions will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Small-to-large businesses in the Spokane region
• Small-to-large businesses throughout Washington (select programs/app)
• C-suite executives in Spokane

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

HR Solutions will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Human Resource RX

Human Resource RX was founded in 2005 by Reme and Janette Choux. As former human resource negotiators within a large firm, they developed distinctive programs that can help HR managers reduce conflicts in the workplace. In addition, the programs assist personnel in recuperating from workplace trauma and other difficulties or issues that arise in the office.

Human Resource RX, headquartered in Spokane, claims to be the “Best HR Prescription” for companies that require assistance in the form of management and oversight in trauma or difficulty. Human Resource RX also assists in compliance issues within the state of Washington, bringing expert advice into thorny issues that can potentially lead to litigation. The company has three offices throughout Washington, each with a staff of twelve “HR managers” who service local businesses. The company has maintained a good standing within the state of Washington, although there have been two separate issues of incorrect legal advice offered to clients. The matters were both brought by former clients to the court system and eventually resolved.

Premier Human Resource Associates

Premier Human Resource Associates is owned and operated by Tami Watson, an HR executive with over thirty years of experience. She is joined in the company by her daughter, Reyna Watson, a recent graduate of Spokane College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication. Premier Human Resource Associates is located in Spokane and offers an extensive onboarding and training program to support HR managers within local hospitals and medical clinics.

The bulk of services provided to HR managers includes various specific onboarding and training needs of nurses, LVNs, and other care providers. Attention is given in particular to the processes of sanitation and hygienic practices, along with the methods of communication used within these specific businesses. To date, the company has assisted in successfully onboarding over 5,000 nurses and other caregivers.

Transport HR Training

Transport HR Training was started in 1997 as a result of multiple difficult issues within the truck driving industry in Washington. In the decades since, Transport HR Training has established the full spectrum of services and products for HR associates in the long-haul and short-transport businesses. Specific practices and procedures relating to, in particular, medical issues of drivers, have been developed to smooth the HR process and align truck drivers with services they need. Transport HR Training offers a comprehensive package of services that includes negotiation in conflict, onboarding specifics, driver training, legal procedures and processes, and other truck driver-specific conditions.

Competitive Advantage

HR Solutions will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

HR Solutions will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for HR Solutions is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

HR Solutions has built up an extensive list of clients and contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to their clients. Associates will follow them to their new company and help spread the word of HR Solutions.

Professional Associations and Networking

HR Solutions will extensively network throughout HR association and industry events. They will take an active role in leadership wherever invited to do so and will work to support the efforts of all associates or members.

Website/SEO Marketing

HR Solutions will fully utilize their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services that HR Solutions provides. The website will also list their contact information and list their available times to make reservations during the week. This will allow HR managers to speak with HR Solutions when most beneficial to the client. The website presence will engage SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “Human Resources company” or “HR near me”, HR Solutions will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of HR Solutions will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for HR Solutions. Operation Functions:

• Tremaine Jackson will be the Owner and President of the company. He will oversee all staff and manage client relations. He has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:

Milestones:

HR Solutions will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the HR Solutions
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for new HR Solutions clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into HR Solutions office
• 7/1/202X – HR Solutions opens its office for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for HR Solutions are the fees they will charge to clients for their services, online training and proprietary app.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff HR Solutions. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

HR Solutions is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its human resources company. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and association memberships. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of Clients Per Month: 40
• Average Revenue per Month: $80,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, human resource business plan faqs, what is a human resource business plan.

A human resource business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your human resource business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your Human Resource business plan using our Human Resource Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Human Resource Businesses? 

There are a number of different kinds of human resource businesses , some examples include: Human Capital Strategy, Compensation & Benefits, Talent Management, and Professional Development.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Human Resource Business Plan?

Human Resource businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Human Resource Business?

Starting a human resource business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Human Resource Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed human resource business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your human resource business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your human resource business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Human Resource Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your human resource business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your human resource business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Human Resource Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your human resource business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your human resource business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

16 Human Resource Related Business Ideas You Can Start Today

Do you have experience or a passion in human resources and wondering what business can I start with a human resources degree?

The good news is there are several HR business ideas you can focus on and earn a decent income. From recruiting consultancy to a payroll specialist to employee training, the list is endless.

We put together a list of 16 HR entrepreneur ideas you can start today:

1. Start a recruiting agency

The global online recruitment market size was $29B in 2019 and is projected to reach $43B by 2027.

The best way to assess the success of a Recruiting Agency is to review what their clients say about them and the results achieved for those clients.

As a recruiter, you dream of landing your first client, but once you do, you realize it’s only the start of what you hope will be a successful business. Have you ever wondered how to start a recruiting agency business? There’s so much you can learn from books, but nothing beats getting real-world experience.

How much you can make: $100 — $320,000/month

How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)

DistantJob is a unique recruitment agency that specializes in finding full-time remote employees, and with $3 million in annual revenue, they offer small to medium-sized tech companies an edge over big competitors who are not willing to hire remotely.

2. Create an online course

An online course business involves creating and selling digital classes teaching specialized skills or knowledge to subscribed students.

As an entrepreneurial course creator, you identify educational gaps around topics you have expertise in and develop engaging video lessons and supplementary materials.

With flexibility around self-paced or cohort-based structures, building a student base provides passive income potential.

For founders who enjoy information-sharing, launching an online course platform presents a lucrative way to monetize your instructional talents with small startup costs by serving eager lifelong learners seeking convenient access to emerging subjects.

How much you can make: $350 — $3,735,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $1,700 (?)

Learn how one couple created a successful personal finance blog, The Savvy Couple, that now makes over $20,000 per month and has sold thousands of digital workbooks and courses, by focusing on purposeful content and optimizing their ROI with efficient time management.

3. Start a training software

Online learning software makes it easy for institutions to deliver course content to learners. The learners can be students, employees, or even business people who want to learn a new skill.

Starting an eLearning software can be a profitable investment. Industry experts project that the e-learning market will double in the next few years.

Your business can provide content, create supporting technology, and administer e-learning courses.

How much you can make: $8,696 — $450,000/month

Trainual is a software platform that helps small businesses effortlessly scale by capturing every process, role, and responsibility, creating a consistent, teachable, and scalable knowledge base. With over 15k users in over 80 countries, Trainual has grown to $2M ARR by catering to businesses looking for something more manageable than an enterprise learning system.

4. Start a human resource recruitment agency

A recruitment agency is a company that finds people looking for candidates and matches them with job vacancies on behalf of the employer.

When a company enlists the services of a recruitment agency, it pays the recruiting consultancy a fee to cover the initial search for candidates. Recruitment agencies have become popular because of their potential to access the best job-seekers and because they save companies time, helping them fill positions faster.

To start a recruitment agency, choose an area of expertise, create a recruitment agency where job seekers can submit their CVs and advertise or market your services to companies.

How much you can make: $1,816,666/month

How much does it cost to start: $1,250 (?)

How long does it take to build: 180 days (?)

Case study of CEO and creator of HR.com, the world's largest social networking and resource site for HR professionals, which is trusted by over 110,000 HR professionals and offers 5,900+ courses and 400+ webcasts every year.

5. Start a payroll business

The global HR payroll software market is expected to grow at 11.2% CAGR to reach $15.37 Billion . The growing workforce and the current trends in the job market led to increased demand for payroll systems.

To start a payroll system, identify a growing field and understand its practice. Then, start making connections with those you know need the payroll system. Establish the system, set new clients and service rates, and create a standard agreement for clients.

How much you can make: $5,000,000/month

How long does it take to build: 197 days (?)

Transformify, a global payroll and payments platform for international contractors, achieved 650% revenue growth in 2021 and reached profitability in 2019, offering social impact programs for various vulnerable groups, vendor management systems for temporary workforce management, and an AI-driven applicant tracking system to help job seekers switch careers amid Covid-19 outbreak.

6. Start a virtual human resources consulting business

Virtual HR consultancy is the practice of delivering all aspects of human resource management as an external provider. The areas include human capital strategy, compensation & benefits, organizational change, and others.

To start your virtual HR consultancy business, find a niche and determine whether the consultancy will provide general or specialized HR services. Then, find the target market and determine the legal structure before launching your operations.

How much you can make: $100,000 — $120,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $2,500 (?)

How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)

CloudDevs, a tech talent platform that sources and vets freelance tech talent and matches them with companies, has achieved $1 million in GMV in its first year, plans to achieve 100% growth year on year, and focuses on customer loyalty through its Net Promoter Score metric.

7. Start a resume writing service

A resume writing service offers professional assistance in crafting compelling resumes for job seekers.

With this service, your day-to-day activities revolve around collaborating with clients to gather their employment history, skills, and achievements, and transforming that information into well-crafted resumes that highlight their qualifications.

How much you can make: $2,000 — $42,857/month

How much does it cost to start: $35 (?)

Time commitment per week: Min. 8 hours/week

Recruiter Written, a resume and LinkedIn profile writing service founded by Alex Benjamin, successfully launched with a startup cost of $600 and has since generated an average gross profit of around $1940 per month primarily through referrals, and plans to expand to downloadable PDF Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writing guides.

8. Start an employee training business

Companies use different methods and programs to train and develop employees, hoping to boost their performance. A training program also helps build an employee’s confidence by providing a better understanding of the industry and the responsibilities of his role.

To attain this goal, companies hire trainers from private practice.

Starting an employee training and development program can be a great business opportunity for experts and professionals in different sectors like safety, security, cyber security training, etc. To start the employee training business, choose a niche, and develop the training curriculum and a training approach. Popular training methods include computer-based training and on-site and off-site lectures.

How much you can make: $3,000 — $40,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $2,650 (?)

How long does it take to build: 60 days (?)

Sustain Academy is an online sustainability academy that offers a 10-week LIVE online sustainability course followed by 1:1 mentorship, taught by the world’s best field experts; so far, more than 100 companies from over 10 different countries have trained their employees with them.

9. Start a career coaching business

A career coaching business involves providing personalized guidance, support, and strategy services to help clients navigate professional transitions and growth opportunities.

As a career coach, you design custom sessions to assist with resume building, interview prep, and workplace advancement goals tailored to each client’s aspirations.

With flexibility for in-person or virtual meetings, building a client base lets you empower breakthroughs through specialized advice and accountability.

Launching a coaching practice can be a great opportunity for those with speaking talents and human resources expertise to monetize their natural motivational abilities while setting their own schedule.

How much you can make: $1,000 — $500,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $750 (?)

Wall Street Oasis, the largest online community focused on careers in finance, has over 100 million visitors during its 14-year history and is currently receiving over 2 million visits per month, offering interview courses and mentorship services, in addition to building and investing in a thriving online community.

10. Write an ebook

An ebook is a digital book that can be read on a computer, tablet, or other electronic devices. Writing an ebook is a great way to communicate your message to the world. You can share your expertise and help people learn while doing something that you love.

Ebooks are a great way to build your personal brand, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and gain a following. It's also a great way to make money! This form of publishing allows you to publish your work for the world to see without having to go through a publisher.

You can make money by selling ebooks on platforms like Amazon and Apple Books.

How much you can make: $4,500 — $600,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $300 (?)

Praveen Malik shares how he started a $17k per month project management blog business in 2016 with negligible revenue, and grew his gross profit margin to about 80% by selling his own eBooks and marketing third-party training programs through his blog.

11. Develop an online survey tool

Online survey tools are a great way for businesses to gather customer feedback. They offer a convenient and cost-effective way to collect data from large groups of people. This service offers a variety of features, including a survey builder, a data collection tool, and a reporting system.

If you are interested in starting a business that helps businesses to gather customer feedback, then starting an online survey tool could be a great option for you. This business is growing in popularity as more businesses are using online surveys to collect data.

Typeform is a popular online survey tool that allows you to ask customers questions and get their feedback on the product. This can be used for many different purposes such as improving services or developing new products. Typeform told TechCrunch on the occasion of today’s funding announcement that its annual recurring revenue surpassed $70 million in 2021 after tripling over the preceding three years.

Building an online survey tool is a good business idea because there is a lot of demand for data collection. Businesses need to know more about their customers in order to be able to make better decisions.

How much you can make: $1,000 — $1,600,000/month

QuestionPro's Founder, Vivek Bhaskaran, shares the story of how he started the most robust survey software on the market, which has provided innovative technology to Fortune 100 companies, academic institutions, small businesses, and individual DIY researchers for over 12 years.

12. Start a health and safety training business

The health and safety business focuses on creating a safe workplace by instituting measures to prevent accidents and ensure employees' general wellness.

Health and safety professionals work with businesses to implement an employee health and safety program, ensuring compliance with the regulatory laws.

The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the demand for safety professionals will grow by over 11% in the coming decade. The statistics show a mushrooming demand for health and safety experts. In that regard, starting a health and safety business can be profitable.

How much you can make: $650,000/month

This case study follows the story of Brendan Torazzi, the CEO of AlertForce, a health and safety compliance training business that reached a peak turnover of almost $5 million per annum but currently remains highly profitable, and how he prioritized his lifestyle and leveraged technology to build a successful business, as well as lessons on the power of being the first and being agile.

13. Start a team-building consulting business

All organizations aim to achieve the best results possible. Two crucial factors affecting employee productivity in any organization are employee input and coordination. Team building activities help employees develop better coordination.

Therefore, companies hire team-building specialists to help their employees foster better coordination. Team-building companies organize retreats and corporate training services to provide employees with memorable and impactful team-building experiences.

If you are interested in starting a business within the human resource industry, a team-building company can be a profitable business idea. Identify potential companies within your area and advertise your business.

How much you can make: $15,000 — $2,110,000/month

This case study details how a veteran-owned leadership consulting company was started with one main coaching offer, which has now expanded to include video series, corporate training modules, and custom requests from clients, generating a profit and aiming to make leadership a more diverse and inclusive practice worldwide.

14. Become a labor relations consultancy

Labor relations consultant mediates employment contracts and disputes between employees and their companies. As a labor relations consultant, your role is to advise management on labor policies and inform employees of available labor union resources. Labor relations consultants also investigate grievances regarding potentially unfair labor practices.

To become a labor relations consultant, you must have experience in human resources, economics, management, labor laws, and strong negotiation and collaboration skills.

15. Become a labor & employment lawyer

Labor and employment lawyers represent employers and employees in disputes and negotiations. The professionals focus on industries with labor unions and specialized rules and regulations.

Employers/employees may want to consult a labor lawyer if they are threatened with a lawsuit based on mistreatment, unlawful overtime, discrimination, e.tc.

to become a labor lawyer, you must complete law school training and specialize in industrial / labor law. After the training course, you must work under an advocate to gain the skills and experience to serve independently.

16. Become an occupational psychologist

Occupational psychologists study how people behave at work to increase their productivity, job satisfaction, and overall effectiveness.

As an occupational psychologist, you will apply psychological knowledge, theory, and practice to workplace issues such as change and culture and individual and team problems. You aim to improve the effectiveness of the organization and employee job satisfaction by focusing on employee performance, behavior, health, and wellbeing.

To become an occupational psychologist, you must have at least a master’s degree in psychology or industrial organizational psychology.

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• Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Understanding HRP

What Is the Goal of Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

• Human Resource Planning FAQs

The Bottom Line

• Business Essentials

Human Resource Planning (HRP) Meaning, Process, and Examples

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

What Is Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

Human resource planning (HRP) is the continuous process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization's most valuable asset—quality employees. Human resources planning ensures the best fit between employees and jobs while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses.

There are four key steps to the HRP process. They include analyzing present labor supply, forecasting labor demand, balancing projected labor demand with supply, and supporting organizational goals. HRP is an important investment for any business as it allows companies to remain both productive and profitable.

Key Takeaways

• Human resource planning (HRP) is a strategy used by a company to maintain a steady stream of skilled employees while avoiding employee shortages or surpluses.
• Having a good HRP strategy in place can mean productivity and profitability for a company.
• There are four general steps in the HRP process: identifying the current supply of employees, determining the future of the workforce, balancing between labor supply and demand, and developing plans that support the company's goals.

Michela Buttignol

What Is Human Resource Planning (HRP) Used For?

Human resource planning allows companies to plan ahead so they can maintain a steady supply of skilled employees. The process is used to help companies evaluate their needs and to plan ahead to meet those needs.

Human resource planning needs to be flexible enough to meet short-term staffing challenges while adapting to changing conditions in the business environment over the longer term. HRP starts by assessing and auditing the current capacity of human resources.

Here, identifying a company's skill set and targeting the skills a company needs enables it to strategically reach business goals and be equipped for future challenges. To remain competitive, businesses may need advanced skills or to upskill their employees as the market environment evolves and changes.

To retain employees and remain competitive, HRP often looks at organizational design, employee motivation, succession planning, and increasing return on investment overall.

Challenges of Human Resource Planning (HRP)

The challenges to HRP include forces that are always changing. These include employees getting sick, getting promoted, going on vacation, or leaving for another job. HRP ensures there is the best fit between workers and jobs, avoiding shortages and surpluses in the employee pool.

To help prevent future roadblocks and satisfy their objectives, HR managers have to make plans to do the following:

• Find and attract skilled employees.
• Select, train, and reward the best candidates.
• Cope with absences and deal with conflicts.
• Promote employees or let some of them go.

Investing in HRP is one of the most important decisions a company can make. After all, a company is only as good as its employees, and a high level of employee engagement can be essential for a company's success. If a company has the best employees and the best practices in place, it can mean the difference between sluggishness and productivity, helping to lead a company to profitability.

What Are the Four Steps to Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

There are four general, broad steps involved in the human resource planning process. Each step needs to be taken in sequence in order to arrive at the end goal, which is to develop a strategy that enables the company to successfully find and retain enough qualified employees to meet the company's needs.

Analyzing labor supply

The first step of human resource planning is to identify the company's current human resources supply. In this step, the HR department studies the strength of the organization based on the number of employees, their skills, qualifications, positions, benefits, and performance levels.

Forecasting labor demand

The second step requires the company to outline the future of its workforce. Here, the HR department can consider certain issues like promotions, retirements, layoffs, and transfers—anything that factors into the future needs of a company. The HR department can also look at external conditions impacting labor demand , such as new technology that might increase or decrease the need for workers.

Balancing labor demand with supply

The third step in the HRP process is forecasting the employment demand. HR creates a gap analysis that lays out specific needs to narrow the supply of the company's labor versus future demand. This analysis will often generate a series of questions, such as:

• Should employees learn new skills?
• Does the company need more managers?
• Do all employees play to their strengths in their current roles?

Developing and implementing a plan

The answers to questions from the gap analysis help HR determine how to proceed, which is the final phase of the HRP process. HR must now take practical steps to integrate its plan with the rest of the company. The department needs a budget , the ability to implement the plan, and a collaborative effort with all departments to execute that plan.

Common HR policies put in place after this fourth step may include policies regarding vacation, holidays, sick days, overtime compensation, and termination.

The goal of HR planning is to have the optimal number of staff to make the most money for the company. Because the goals and strategies of a company change over time, human resource planning must adapt accordingly. Additionally, as globalization increases, HR departments will face the need to implement new practices to accommodate government labor regulations that vary from country to country.

The increased use of remote workers by many corporations will also impact human resource planning and will require HR departments to use new methods and tools to recruit, train, and retain workers.

Why Is Human Resource Planning Important?

Human resource planning (HRP) allows a business to better maintain and target the right kind of talent to employ—having the right technical and soft skills to optimize their function within the company. It also allows managers to better train the workforce and help them develop the required skills.

What Is "Hard" vs. "Soft" Human Resource Planning?

Hard HRP evaluates various quantitative metrics to ensure that the right number of the right sort of people are available when needed by the company. Soft HRP focuses more on finding employees with the right corporate culture, motivation, and attitude. Often these are used in tandem.

What Are the Basic Steps in HRP?

HRP begins with an analysis of the available labor pool from which a company can draw. It then evaluates the firm's present and future demand for various types of labor and attempts to match that demand with the supply of job applicants.

Quality employees are a company's most valuable asset. Human resource planning involves the development of strategies to ensure that a business has an adequate supply of employees to meet its needs and can avoid either a surplus or a lack of workers.

There are four general steps in developing such a strategy: first, analyzing the company's current labor supply; second, determining the company's future labor needs; third, balancing the company's labor needs with its supply of employees; and fourth, developing and implementing the HR plan throughout the organization.

A solid HRP strategy can help a company be both productive and profitable.

International Journal of Business and Management Invention. " Human Resource Planning-An Analytical Study ," Page 64.

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The ultimate 30 60 90 day plan for a new HR leader

• Post author: Shayanne Hill
• Post published: April 16, 2021
• Post category: Human Resources
• Reading time: 25 mins read

Congratulations on starting a new role of HR leader, HR Head or an HR Business Partner recently! But what all should you do right now to guarantee success? Here’s our expert curated 30 60 90 day plan for HR success. What’s  your plan? This is probably the first question you will get asked. I have written a detailed blog answering all your questions on this topic.

Starting a new job is never easy, especially when you’re the only HR employee at a start-up. All eyes will be on you . People will notice the smallest of things you do.

But you don’t need to worry, because this blog will help you prepare yourself well. I have included,

Why is it important to have a 30 60 90 day plan for an HR head?

• What are the main responsibilities to be carried out as an HR head at a start-up?

How do you prepare yourself for your first day as an HR leader?

How to approach the first 30 days in your new role, what should your first 60 days with the start-up look like, how to plan your third month as an hr leader, things to keep in mind throughout the first 90 days, what to avoid as you begin a new role at a start-up.

It is these 90 days that will show everyone at the company whether you are suitable for the role or not. This first impression is extremely important. You need to prove yourself as trustworthy and capable enough to manage in the new role.

This is your chance to create a strong foundation for yourself within the company and hence get the chance to develop and grow to the best of your ability. These first 3 months will set the tone for your experiences and work in the organization. While being a good fit for the role is extremely important, during these initial months, it is also important that you showcase your ability to work well with the founder as well as other employees.

You will also be noticed by everyone. Just like you are trying to figure out how to work well with everyone, they too are probably trying to figure out how to work with you. They too want to understand if the new HR will be easy to work with.

First 90 days are critical. By the end of 60 days, one usually becomes a veteran in fast growth organisation so from there its about building credibility and showing results.  This can happen only by having a steep learning curve in first 60 days especially in current remote work scenario.  Introducing oneself,  talking to people at multiple levels,  looking at business numbers, structure,  budgets, people numbers is a good place for me to start. Gives me the pulse. Towards the end of first month, I share my plan , invite inputs and start showing results on some quick wins.  Charu Purohit, Nykaa, Head Rewards, Top 40 under 40 HRs in India

What are the responsibilities to be carried out as an HR head at a start-up?

Very often people associate HR with a corporate structure that will end up threatening their start-up’s culture. However, every start-up no matter how small has some HR function or the other, be it payroll management, recruitment or even employee training and development. If you are starting off as an HR head and have no clue what has to be done, here’s a list of HR responsibilities that should be a part of your job.

• Recruitment- This was previously done by the founder. Now, you will have to take over or sit in for the interviews and manage all onboarding tasks as well
• Employee engagement – Left unchecked, the environment of a start-up can soon become negative and toxic hindering productivity. It is your job to ensure that the company maintains its work culture and keep employees happy
• Training and developing employees- This may not seem like a very big responsibility, however in a start-up, growth can be accelerated even further with an occasional training session
• Payroll management- This task can get tedious but it is also one of the most important HR functions
• Recognize the need for policies- within the organization without hampering the start-up culture

Now that you know the functions of HR in a start-up, let us move on to why having a 30 60 90 day plan is important.

You’re probably going to be nervous for that first day , not knowing what to expect in a new place of work. But there are a few things you could do to prepare yourself for day one.

Firstly, read up as much as possible about the company. Go through their website and check out the content uploaded on their social media channels. All this will give you a basic understanding of the culture of the company.

Secondly, you should figure out a way to get to know the different teams or departments within the start-up. Once you know this, you won’t be completely clueless when you reach the office.

Thirdly, you also need to start reviewing various HR software available to you well in advance. These will help you make a good impression in the company and also simplify your work drastically. 

You may have also received a certain amount of onboarding material, including an employee handbook or some kind of resources giving you information about the company. Go through it thoroughly. There’s nothing worse than showing up without going through the basic reference material and being absolutely clueless about everything.

Finally, have a view on the future of HR and what are the shifts happening in people management.

You should make sure that your find the time to have a sit down with the founder on the very first day. Clear out any doubts that you may have regarding the information you have gone through before starting the day. Also, try meeting the key employees, ones that will have to work with on a daily basis. Get to know the kind of work they do and how they function as individual professionals.

Download the 30-60-90 day plan template for the new HR leader

I have already spoken about the importance of having a proper 30 60 90 day plan for an HR head. So now, I’m going to dive right into what you should be doing during the first 30 days. 

Meet as many people as possible

It is needless to say that your main role as an HR professional is to be there for you people, your employees. In order to do that, you need to know your people. Get to know everyone in the organization over the course of the first month, especially people who are in key roles or team leads. This shouldn’t be too difficult if you’re at a start-up. Study the hierarchy within the organization, the teams that work together and also the different external stakeholders (investors). 

Most importantly, be attentive. It’s amazing how much you can pick up about people just by paying attention to small details. The way people behave after dealing with clients or their productivity levels after they’ve come back from a long weekend. While all these observations may seem redundant, they will help you drastically in the long run when you start looking at framing policies etc.

Develop credibility early

When you’re new in a company, people need to know they can trust you. It takes time to build that trust. The founder of the start-up needs to know that they can trust you with all types of employee-related decisions. But such trust needs to be nurtured from the very beginning.

Show the other employees that your HR knowledge is sound and that the points of view you bring to the table are important. Having said that, don’t come across as hard to work with or very opinionated. Appreciate everyone’s point of view.

You could also create an extremely positive impression by talking to people in the company about HR tech and how it can transform a workspace to a huge extent. Also, by doing this, when you adopt an hr software, employees will already be mentally prepared for it, making the transition that much easier.

Find out everything about the business

When I say this, I mean, by the end of the first month, you should be able to answer questions like

• How does our company make money?
• What are all the features of the product we sell?
• Have I incorporated details about the business in my plans for the company? 
• Have I had any direct experience with the product?
• Does the company already use an HRMS i.e. an HR software?

You having any knowledge about the business will only prove to other employees that HR is a valuable business partner and will benefit the business in the long run.

Adopt an HRMS, if your start-up doesn’t already use one

The full form of HRMS is Human Resources Management System. AI in HR plays a huge role in today’s day and age. It can help you drastically. It will help you automate and hence streamline all your jobs. Some of the many benefits of adopting an HRMS are

• Streamline payroll systems
• Generate payslips online with the help of the HRMS
• Screen candidates to help in recruiting
• Automate job offer letters generally
• Saves time . It will allow you to shift your focus from tedious tasks you might have more strategic decision making. This is important, especially in start-ups.
• Simplified onboarding with the help of AI
• Training and development with the help of artificial intelligence can help you provide each employee with a more personalized experience.

These are just some of the many benefits of adopting an HRMS. But how will you manage to transform all HR activities onto an HR software? Business transformation because of technology can be tricky. It’s up to you to choose the right software that bests suits the company you work for. Get started for free at Asanify.

Learn about the company’s culture, structure, vision and mission

A company’s work culture drives how teams and people within these teams interact and work together. A positive culture helps increase productivity to a large extent. As the only HR employee in your organization, it becomes your responsibility to ensure that the work environment remains positive and promotes teamwork. You need to be able to critique the employees and encourage them to do better at all times. More importantly, you need to do all this in tandem with the company’s overall vision and goals. 

Ask as many questions as possible

Now is your chance to ask as many questions as possible, no matter how stupid they may sound. After all, the only stupid questions you are the ones you didn’t ask. The first 30 days in the organization are a learning period for you and the best way to learn quickly is to keep asking questions.

Understand the public holidays that are considered as leave in the company or what are the things that motivate remote employees to work better (while stuck at home in a pandemic).

If you notice something that is being done a particular way and think you can get it done in a better way, question the approach. Being a new employee, you can really bring a whole new and fresh perspective towards things. Maybe no one has thought about doing that task in a better way because they’re so used to doing it in a particular way. 

Review employee surveys that were done in the last few months

If there were any employee reports and surveys done in the last few months, reviewing them will give you a brief understanding of how employees feel about the company and work. This will also give you an understanding of what policies could be implemented in the company. 

During this time, you should let your opinions emerge more. Try applying whatever you learnt and absorbed in the first month. Look for things you can improve or things that need fine-tuning.

Seek concrete feedback from your founder for your first month

Asking the founder of the start-up for feedback will really help understand how you’ve done in the last month, obviously. But also it’ll give you an idea if you have been living up to his or her expectations. You will also understand if you need to change your way of working or the next part of your 30 60 90 day plan accordingly.

Continue building relations with other employees

In the first month, you spent time getting to know the team leads, but now it’s time to understand the other employees as well. At this point, maybe you could organise one on one meetings with each member of the company. This will allow you and the employee to get to know each other for starters, but also will give you the opportunity to understand their skill level, motivators etc. as well.

You could also send out an employee survey of your own at this point, to get an overall understanding of all the employees.

Get some early wins

Remember in the previous section I spoke about asking as many questions as possible? I also said to notice things that you think need immediate change. For example, maybe you think you could improve productivity by starting an award and recognition system. It’s not a very big step, but it could go a long way in improving employee motivation and productivity. A small win like this will garner the respect and trust of other employees as well. 

This was just one simple example, but small changes like this will show your employees that you are here to make a positive change. However, you will only be able to make changes like this if you know the current scenario of the company. 

Understand the company’s current policies

By now, you should have started understanding what policies are enforced in the start-up. Try getting a deeper understanding of the policies that are already in place. Read up about them and see if you could modify them in some way. 

Identify key areas or policies you’d like to change in the coming months

At this point, you could also come up with some policies of your own. Brainstorm with the founder of your company. At this stage, you just need to ideate and think of potential areas that could be changed or potential policies to implement. Maybe your start-up doesn’t have a proper leave policy in place or maybe you realise there is no cybersecurity policy . For fast-growing companies, a robust hiring policy may be required. Because of the pandemic, you may need to create a work from home policy . When your team returns to work, you may need to create a relocation policy . Think about how you could implement such policies or even HR software. Find a way to get the employees are on board as well.

Keep a check on your personal values and priorities

It is very easy to lose sight of who you are in a new place. Make sure that while you are grasping as much as you can of this new place, you stay true to yourself. Don’t overburden yourself just because you need to make a good impression.

By now you would have spent 2 whole months in a new place of work. Great going! By now you should try to focus on shifting your time from the learning space to contribute more to the company. You also have a great understanding of the policies, work teams and employees. So, your next steps should include

Seek concrete feedback for your 2nd month in the company

Just like you did after the first month, you should also get constructive feedback after your 2nd month with the company. You can do so by speaking to the founder or even other senior employees.

Come up with strategic long-term goals

During the 2nd month, we researched the policies or other factors that we could improve in the company. Now is the time to make step-by-step plans to implement these changes. These policies could be based on anything from a maternity leave policy or even an improvement on the work from home policy that you have. It needs to be something you believe in and think will benefit the company in the long run. 

If the start-up is growing at a quick pace, put a recruitment plan in place

If the number of employees at the start-up is growing fast, you will eventually need more people on your HR team. You need to make a hiring policy not just for other departments, but also for an HR department so that once there are many employees to manage, all the workload doesn’t fall only on you. Consider using an ATS (applicant tracking system) when you start hiring.

Develop a system to track your own work

While keeping track of everyone else’s productivity levels, it can become difficult to manage your own tasks. When I say your own tasks I mean, policies that you started working on but got caught with other work and forgot about it. The use of a project management system can help keep track of your work tremendously. A project management tool can even help track the productivity levels of the other employees as well.

Create a seamless performance management system

As an HR it is your responsibility to ensure that the contributions of the people in your company are measured fairly and transparently. Conduct a performance review once every few months to make sure productivity levels are high. A great proven framework is a Balanced Scorecard . OKRs are also used especially in startups to monitor critical metrics.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind throughout your first 90 days. I have listed them below.

• Understand where you fit in with the other members of the organization.
• Ensure that your suggestions and changes are in line with who you are as a person and also in line with the company’s goals
• Learning the ‘lingo’ or work attitude
• The definition of success according to all the stakeholders and overall the organization’s definition of success.
• Set the right examples. Remember that all the employees will be watching every step you make. Lead by example- the right examples, and always remain on the ethical side of things.
• Have frequent conversations with senior members of the company. Ask them what they think of your work.

Below I have listed things that you shouldn’t do as an HR head. It’ll come across to other employees negatively and won’t put you in a very good light. The whole point of a 30 60 90 day plan for an HR head is to ensure the opposite. So do not

• Disregard rules and regulations of the company at any point in time
• Fall back into your old company’s way of doing things or assume that things are done in the same way as your previous company (with respect to culture or work styles)
• Be disrespectful or demeaning towards any employees while critiquing them for anything.
• Focus on building relations only with senior employees and not others
• Set un-realistic standards for yourself or your employees
• Act without thought or consulting with the founder (especially in the first couple of months)

To summarize briefly, I think the first month should focus on learning about the company as much as possible, asking as many questions as possible and getting to know the people. While all this continues into the next 30 days of your new role, the 2nd month should focus on bringing about small changes, understanding company policies etc. By the time you enter the third month, you should be contributing to the company a lot more as compared to the time spent on learning. 

While formulating a 30 60 90 day plan, it is important to take into consideration the company’s culture. While there is no fixed structure, you should ensure that the first month focuses largely on learnings much as possible, the 2nd month is a mix of learning and contributing. By the third month, you should be contributing to the company a lot more with your points of view and ability to work as an HR

A 30 60 90 day plan is a plan that helps people taking on new roles to formulate a way to begin their new role. It involves a plan for the first 30 days then the 2nd and 3rd month of working in an organization. It helps people create a strong foothold in the company and get accustomed to the new company culture and work.

It is extremely important to have a 30 60 90 day plan because the first few months in any organization can set the tone for the time you work in that company. It helps you set a good impression on your employees and specific goals and objectives show your employer that you are a good fit for the job.

Not to be considered as tax, legal, financial or HR advice. Regulations change over time so please consult a lawyer, accountant  or Labour Law  expert for specific guidance.

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Strategic hr: transforming human resources into a key pillar of organizational success.

Strategic HR transforms HR from an admin function to a strategic business partner. By aligning HR practices with business goals, organizations attract top talent, build a positive culture, and drive innovation for a competitive edge.

• Author: HRD Connect
• Date published: Mar 20, 2024

The rise of strategic HR

The gloves are off in today’s competitive marketplace. Human Resources (HR) is no longer a back-office function, but a strategic weapon for attracting, developing, and retaining top talent.

Strategic HR goes beyond the traditional by aligning HR practices with the organization’s overarching goals. This powerful alignment fuels business growth, fosters a high-performing workforce, and secures a sustainable competitive edge.

By strategically integrating HR with business objectives, organizations create a dynamic environment where employee potential flourishes and goals are achieved efficiently. Strategic HR is the key that unlocks HR’s potential, transforming it from an administrative role to a strategic partner driving organizational success.

HR: the architect of business strategy

Every organization needs a roadmap to navigate the competitive landscape. Strategic HR plays a critical role in translating grand visions into actionable plans.

HR partners closely with leadership to understand the organization’s strategic goals. They then translate those goals into tangible HR practices – designing programs and initiatives that propel successful implementation. This collaborative effort ensures the organization’s direction is not just set at the top, but actively supported by a workforce aligned with those goals.

Alignment: the secret weapon of strategic HR

For strategic HR to truly shine, seamless alignment between HR practices and business objectives is essential. Every HR initiative should directly contribute to the organization’s success story, driving performance, productivity, and profitability.

HR professionals must be not only fluent in HR best practices but also possess a deep understanding of the business. This collaborative spirit across departments allows HR to seamlessly integrate HR strategies with business objectives.

Winning the talent war: attract and retain top performers

The war for talent is real, and strategic HR is on the front lines. Organizations that excel in attracting and retaining top performers gain a significant competitive edge.

Strategic HR focuses on crafting recruitment and selection processes that not only identify candidates with the right skills and cultural fit, but also create an engaging employee experience that fosters loyalty and reduces turnover.

Understanding what motivates employees, from career development opportunities to a positive work environment, is key. Strategic HR implements strategies that address these needs, ensuring a skilled and motivated workforce that drives innovation and growth.

Investing in your people: the power of development and training

Investing in employee development and training is a cornerstone of strategic HR.

By providing ongoing learning and growth opportunities, organizations empower their workforce with the skills and capabilities needed to excel. Tailored training programs address specific skill gaps and align with the organization’s future needs, ensuring a workforce that is not only skilled but also adaptable to changing business demands.

This focus on development fosters a culture of continuous improvement, where employees are motivated to grow professionally. Organizations benefit from increased innovation, efficiency, and a future-ready workforce. Employee development and training are critical investments in the organization’s long-term success.

Performance management and rewards: driving results

Strategic HR recognizes the importance of robust performance management systems that connect individual goals to organizational objectives.

Setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback and coaching, and recognizing and rewarding high performance are all crucial elements. Effective performance management motivates employees, fosters accountability, and drives a performance-oriented culture. By implementing such systems, organizations ensure that employee efforts are directly contributing to achieving strategic goals.

Reward systems are another powerful tool. By reinforcing desired behaviors and outcomes, organizations further embed a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. Together, these strategies propel organizational success and sustainability.

Building a thriving culture: the heartbeat of success

Think of organizational culture as the heartbeat of any company. It directly impacts employee attraction, retention, collaboration, and innovation.

Strategic HR plays a pivotal role in cultivating a positive work environment where employees feel valued, empowered, and supported. This involves fostering open communication, promoting teamwork, and nurturing a culture of trust and respect.

When HR prioritizes these elements, they create a workplace where employees are not only happy but also deeply engaged with their work and committed to the organization’s goals. A positive organizational culture is a powerful driver of success, enabling companies to navigate challenges, inspire innovation, and achieve strategic objectives more effectively.

Agility and innovation: thriving in a dynamic world

The business landscape is constantly evolving. Strategic HR empowers organizations to build change management capabilities and cultivate a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. HR professionals play a key role in facilitating organizational change, promoting agility, and empowering employees to embrace new ideas and technologies.

In today’s dynamic environment, adaptability is key. Strategic HR equips organizations to thrive in a world of constant change.

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How to Actually Execute Change at a Company

• Tom Hunsaker

Four factors that will determine the success — or failure — of your initiative.

The author analyzed project teams across 257 firms to identify why only 60% of planned value is typically realized in change initiatives, focusing on four key factors: effective initial communication (“ACE the Memo”), ensuring resource accessibility and autonomy (“Master the Means”), employing mechanisms to align actions with goals (“Amplify with Mechanisms”), and strategic measurement to influence future outcomes (“Measure to Account”). These factors emphasize the importance of clear, credible, and emotionally resonant messaging, the necessity for teams to have the right resources and freedom, the use of mechanisms to increase transparency and precision, and the role of measurement in adapting and improving execution. This comprehensive approach underscores the significance of execution in turning the potential of an idea into realized value.

As important as it is to make great change decisions, equally important is to consider what happens after the decision to act is made. It is well documented that on average just 60% of planned value is realized . To what can be attributed the “lost” 40%?

• TH Tom Hunsaker is clinical professor of strategic leadership and former associate dean of innovation at ASU’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and advisor to senior leaders ranging from the Fortune 500 to rapid-growth private enterprises.

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