The Role Of Human Resources In Strategic Planning

Final Project Milestone One

The success of any company lies in its ability to withstand economic change while balancing attrition. This makes the role of human resources a critical element to the longevity of any business and an important factor in its organization’s strategic plan. Before understanding how human resources affects strategic planning there must be an understanding of how human resources works. In general, there are four major functions of human resources: company direction, strategic hiring, workforce alignment, and performance management ().

The first step in aligning the human resource function with a company's strategic plan is to identify the direction of the company or the company vision. A vision, quite simply, is a picture

Furthermore The company are is an example of how good human resource practices can propel a company through dynamic global conditions. At the turn of the 21st century Maersk found itself nearly crippled by growing changes in the marketplace. Facing a high level of attrition, Maersk brings on Maria Pejter as director of Maersk Group Human Resources department and Bill Allen head of Human Resources.

Allen and Pejter were brought on to evaluate Maersk’s talent management and develop a more modern approach to the human resource problems faced by Maersk. Together Allen and Pejter rebuilt the companies company’s talent management process. In the process of rebuilding the companies company’s talent management program the two focused their efforts on attraction, identification, development, deployment, and scenario planning ().

Attraction was the first item targeted by Allen and Pejter. They delegated this process to the newly formed business-unit of the human resources department. Following this action, they then identified the top 120 positions inside the company, evaluating them for efficiency and company impact. After evaluating the positions Maersk developed a new plan of action for talent acquisition and positioning while deploying up to 70% of its executive branch internally. Finally The company began scenario planning. Introducing scenario planning was the final step in Maersk’s newly developed

The new training program became even more diverse as it slowly shifted the mindset of the company on all levels. In conjunction with the training programs the employees were encouraged to speak English at all meetings both, formal and informal. Allen and Pejter realized that building a corporate culture that would allow them to attract and retain talent from all over the globe was of paramount importance (Abbott, 2013). By changing the culture of the company new employees were able to assimilate into the organization as it became more incluse include. They quickly aligned themselves with the company’s visions and goals over