Strategic Growth and Human Capital Planning

In the course book, Human Resource Management, it states that “the planning process begins with an assessment of the current state of the business and the environmental forces that may be important during the strategic planning

cycle. Analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) is a common starting point because it allows managers to consider both internal and external conditions that the business faces.” (Jackson, Mathis, Meglich, & Valentine 2019) The first meeting after the initial strategic meeting will be about the planning process. This will give my team the opportunity to gather the data and information from various departments to answer the questions that will come about. Some of the questions that will need to be answered are “How large will the facility be?”, “How many employees will need to be hired?”, “What will their skill set need to be?”, “Will we be transferring employees from other facilities to train new hires?”, “When is our forecasted start date?”, and “What is our budget?”.

I believe that before this planning process, I will need to build my HR team to hit the ground running. In my research of this topic, I came across the article, “Top Tips on Building an HR Department From The Ground Up”, written by the Forbes Coaches Council. The article discusses the need to “build your team from the top” and that “HR is the heart and culture of the organization, take it seriously! Network with experienced hires and look for mission-aligned leaders interested in developing the next generation.” (Crosby, Weekes 2017) This article stresses the importance of an HR with a solid foundation. The authors give thirteen tips about building your HR team and the value of each tip.

I would integrate my Biblical worldview by sharing the example of building a firm foundation within the company compared to building a firm foundation in Jesus Christ. In Luke 6:48, Jesus states, “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon the house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.” If we build our faith on a firm foundation as Christians, we cannot be moved. I believe that if we apply these principles in developing a new facility and HR team, we will be successful in working together to accomplish the goals and values of the company.

Reply 2.

Dawn Amato

Discussion Assignment 1

Wow! Expanding to four new facilities is a huge undertaking! I am so glad I have been asked to participate in these meetings because I believe that HR is the key element of organizational performance and having a presence and a voice at the strategic planning meetings can help my company face the challenges ahead as we begin this new and exciting expansion (Al-Qudah, Obeidat, &Shrouf, 2020).

I have read that for a strategic plan to be executed properly the process needs to be “inquisitive, expansive, prescient, inventive, inclusive and demanding (Wright, 2020). As the senior Human Resources representative at my organization I certainly have the “inquisitive” part of that down pat because I have a ton of questions!

My first step in this planning process is to fully understand the strategic goals ahead. In order to have a full comprehension of the task ahead of me, I need to be sure I come prepared to the meeting with my full list of questions I need answered to be able to proceed with my human resource planning to successfully start up these new facilities. These questions are:

1) What are the locations of these new facilities? I need this information to perform accurate external SWOT analyses.

2) Are we adding these facilities all at once, or one at a time? If it is one at a time, in which order?

3) What are the size of the new facilities? I need to know this to help in my internal workforce analysis and to determine how many employees will be needed to staff and operate these facilities.

4) Is the plan for these facilities to match the organizational structure and operational processes of our current location? If no, how will they be different? I need to know this because to know what kind of employees will be needed. For example, if the new facilities are going to be more like “satellite” facilities and current facility will be “headquarters” then perhaps less management roles are needed, and more supervisory roles are needed for the main employees.

5) Lastly, how soon do we want this to happen?  I need to know this to know how fast I need to work on this!

Additonally, I plan to come prepared to the meeting with a full understanding of our current staffing situation, especially in terms of management level employees as well as those with management potential who might be interested in relocations and promotions. I want to be prepared for questions that might be asked of me of where we are currently with our human capital. Once I have the answers to these questions, and maybe any others that may arise during our initial discussion, then I will proceed to the next step which will be to asses the external and internal workforce environments by performing a SWOT analysis to determine where challenges may arise as we forge on ahead with our expansion.

Reply 3

Andrew Willits

First let’s look at what Human Capital is. According to our text, “Human capital is not just the people in organizations—it also involves what individuals contribute to organizational achievements. Broadly defined, human capital  is the collective value of the capabilities, knowledge, skills, life experiences, and motivation of an organization’s workforce. It is important that workers have both the necessary competence plus the desire to perform effectively.” (Valentine et al., 2020)

Assuming we are a retail or direct to consumer business:

Once the strategy meeting is over and the planning begins the first thing, I would do would be find out the new locations and what the demand in those areas for our product. Once I have that information planning the human capital portion becomes easy. We want to ensure we have enough people on staff that we can meet the initial workload and customer demands. If we hire people with a high motivation and previous experience the number of employees needed to start could potentially be lower thus creating less initial cost.

Assuming we are a product manufacturer:

Upon completion of the strategy meeting first thing would be finding a space in the desired areas that would fulfill our production needs. Once that space has been found we would simply fill it, both with equipment and people to run said equipment. Again, we would want to leave room to grow as a company as demand for our product increases.

When hiring new employees regardless of the work being done the goal is always to hire people who are going to get the job done. Experience is a bonus but often times can lead to issue due to differences in processes. Motivated or driven employees who are willing to go the extra mile to get the job done is paramount. You can teach someone the skills necessary to complete the job, but you cannot teach motivation or dedication.

The Bible tells says “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29. What this verse is conveying is that an employee who is skilled in their craft is a valuable asset and should be treated as such.

Reply 4

Suave Darden 

In order to fully understand the human capital that’s needed, I would first need to know what areas are included in the expansion. My company could be taking over new territory meaning a new program or product that is not necessarily in line with our current business practices. Such as an automotive company expanding into the health care industry, if so, then labor categories will have to be identified. If the expansion is based on the current business practices, then it would possibly be easier because the labor categories are identified, and I would have a business model to use to get an idea of what is required to open a facility. However, as noted in the text, some of the most difficult positions to fill are teachers, nurses, engineers, and sales representatives, etc.[1]

Second, I would need to know the location of the facilities in order to understand the demographics of the location such as the age groups, businesses in the areas, education, pay, and competition.  As noted in the text, it has been very difficult to hire highly skilled employees in cities such as New York and Cleveland.[2] Also, it was noted that companies relocated from suburb areas to cities in order to attract millennials to their organizations.[3] Based on the demographics this will let me know if I will have the required skillset locally in order to open the facilities or if I will have to recruit candidates from different areas or states. If so, then I would have to include different incentives such as sign on bonuses, increased pay, or relocation incentives.

Third, I will need to know the number of positions required to open and operate the facility, the labor categories, required skill set, experience, and the education requirements. With this information I believe it would be a good starting point to begin strategizing an effective expansion plan.  In the Strategic Human Resource Planning in Academia article, it focuses on the importance of strategic plans because it enables management to make decisions based on the future of the business. Some of the questions asked were, where are we going and how will we get there?[4]  Those questions may sound very vague, but It’s vital for companies to always plan for the future so, they can always be ahead of the curve.

James 1 verses 4-5 says, Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.[5] Exploring new opportunities is exciting and it may be challenging, but it is nothing that God has not already prepared me or you for, he has given us all wisdom, confidence, and expertise in fields in order to excel in every aspect of our lives.

Reply 4.

Nathanael Farmer

I believe the way to start this HR Planning meeting would deal with physical assets. Since we are moving into 4 different states, we must scan each area for pros and cons. To go in depth, we must understand the economy demands of each of these states. For example, moving into the bigger cities of Texas, knowing the population is growing, it would be easier to find an inner city that our company would thrive in. Generation Y has shown promise to want jobs more in the inner city as opposed to the suburbs and this can have a pro and con. With most of the cities being close to overpopulated, the recruiting process may be more stressful. By that I mean, finding the quantity of workers may be easy but the quality will entail the recruitment process to be more rigorous. On the other hand, a city in the heart of a state like Missouri the recruiting process may be easier for quality but not quantity which could entail paying people more to do more.

I would ask the manager what the most important thing that he feels will make any transitions from moving into these states manageable. After we have gone through physical and financial assets, I would have the HR team use the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity model (AMO). The team would do research on the jobs on demand in the area we are moving too, cost of living and the commuting route to our facilities based on the research of where we’d believe most of our workers would come from. I would then advise us to look at financial advantage we could offer to the workers that would put us above any competitors in our area. The HR team would stress the importance of the motivation-enhancing portion of the AMO model. No matter where we move to, those we employ will want to know how joining our company can benefit them and if we do not take this into consideration we will not succeed in the long run.

The article that I found was called “Driving Strategic Success Through Human Capital Planning: How Corning Links Business ) .” I find this a key point for planning, because it involves taking lessons learned from the first generation and incorporating them into future plans. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”(Proverbs 21:5) The importance planning ahead and not being hasty to immediately believe our plans will take fruition is key.