Your Business Plan Needs a People Strategy

Most organizations spend hours on financial and business planning but far less on their people. This article explores what a people strategy is and why it should come directly from your business strategy.

Every year, most businesses and organizations have a dedicated time to plan their financial strategies and general business plans. Hours are spent planning future spending, projected growth, new products or services, and other anticipated changes over a set period of time.

But what many organizations do not spend the same amount of time planning is their people strategy.

Just as an organization wouldn't wait until money was starting to run out to begin financial planning, businesses shouldn't wait until someone retires, a position suddenly needs to be filled, or a new skill is needed to start thinking about their people.

What Is a People Strategy?

People strategy is more than determining how many employees an organization will need, although that is certainly part of it. It means looking at where the organization is going and asking what its workforce will need in order to get there.

What skills will employees need to develop over the next several years? What knowledge currently sits with only one or two people and needs to be passed on? Who could potentially step into leadership positions as current leaders move on? Will a new product or service require skills the current workforce doesn't have? If the organization grows as projected, will the current structure still work?

These aren't questions that should first be asked when the need arrives.

Plan Before the Need Arrives

Imagine an organization knows that one of its key leaders plans to retire in three years. Waiting until six months before that retirement to identify a replacement may leave the organization scrambling. A people strategy asks much earlier whether someone internally has the potential to step into that role and, if so, what development they need between now and then.

The same applies to growth. If the business plan calls for introducing a new service two years from now, the organization should already be considering what skills will be necessary to provide it. Do current employees need additional training? Will new positions need to be created? Is there expertise the organization will eventually need to hire?

How the Pieces Fit Together

A simple way to think about how these pieces work together is:

• Business strategy tells us where we're going.

• Financial strategy helps determine how we'll fund it.

• People strategy determines how we'll have the people and capabilities to actually get there.

Your people strategy should come directly from your business strategy.

These shouldn't be three completely separate conversations. Your people strategy should come directly from your business strategy.

If your organization plans to grow, change, introduce new services, adopt new technology, or expand into new markets, there will almost always be a people component to making that happen. The question is whether you're planning for that component today or waiting until the need is already here.

We often say that people are an organization's greatest asset. If we believe that, shouldn't we be planning for our people with the same attention we give every other critical part of our business?

A strong business plan doesn't just determine where an organization wants to go.

It also considers whether it will have the people it needs to get there.

Whether your organization is here in Yuma or anywhere across the country, if you want support building a people strategy that comes directly from your business plan, I'd love to talk. Schedule a consultation.

Let's Talk!