Purposefully Approaching 2021- Developing Your Organization's Strategic Plan

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Is your organization ready to kick off 2021 in an organized and directed fashion? Now is the time to be assessing the current state of business, defining your unique goals and developing concrete plans to get there!

What is a strategic plan?

Strategic Plans, or “stat plans”, generally refer to an organization’s goals and vision for the next 1, 3, and 5 years. We get it, times are crazier than ever with an unprecedented pandemic upon us and hurricanes happening in the Midwest of all places, but business must go on and defining a focus can help that!

Who participates in a strategic plan?

The beauty of a strat plan is it can include your whole organization. Many times, an executive team along with a board of directors participates in this interactive planning process to determine where the organization will be headed, but it doesn’t have to stop there! Many organizations include department heads, managers, team leads, and even front-line staff to ensure buy-in throughout the whole organization.

How does a strategic plan help?

Not only does it provide focus, but it will also keep you on track. If an organization decides to have a Strategic Plan that involves goals for each department head, they are then responsible for working with their team’s supervisors and direct reports to disseminate the information and work together to accomplish said goals together. With quarterly reporting and annual meetings, each department head presents their accomplishments and progress and before you know it, accountability is now organization-wide.

How is this different from a performance review?

Great catch with this question! Strat plans and goals can work with your performance reviews and provide metrics in which to measure an employee’s effort, commitment, and any outcomes. If you reevaluate compensation plans each year, or provide employees with a cost of living adjustment (COLA), the strat plan comes into play there as well.

How does a strategic plan play into our organization’s Values?

Strategic Plans work in congruence with your mission, vision, and values. In many cases, this is where the strategic planning session starts with many organizations. Does your mission outline your purpose? Does your vision depict the road ahead? And are your values living and breathing throughout your organization? It might be time to take another peek at these!

What are some examples of strategic plan goals?

These goals can really be anything from giving customers a better experience or product, to tightening up your internal practices. Really, the only thing a strategic goal must be is measurable. Examples include reducing employee injury rates by 2% each year, increasing the customer satisfaction rate by 10% in the next 5 years, or giving new employees a great experience by having 100% complete an onboarding program covering benefits, your employee handbook, on-the-job training, etc. When department heads share their progress with the whole organization, the whole team becomes involved in reaching success with each goal.

What if I have never done a strategic plan before?

Not a problem! Our HR Consulting team can schedule a workshop with you and your strategic participants and lead you through the interactive process of defining where you are, and where you want to be! This includes brainstorming sessions, a SWOT analysis (or strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and many more interactive functions designed to capture the driving spirit within your organization.

What if I already have a strategic plan and it’s not effective?

If you already have one, you are a step in the right direction! Each year take the time to re-evaluate if your goals are still relevant and if department heads are making progress or possibly, going backwards. Just because the usual timeline is from 1 to 5 years, that doesn’t mean we can’t pivot and adjust to meet the demands of life as things change. Need help getting back in the right direction? Your HR Consultant can help with that too!

How will my organization be held accountable for progress and reporting?

Your HR Consultant or an internal, designated officer will assist in holding all owners and department heads accountable with quarterly reporting. Not to worry, this need not be extensive. With that valuable time the key players in your organization have, it’s better to use that time reaching those measures of success rather, than building time-consuming reports on it. We work with your culture and timeline to get those metrics documented, schedule those quarterly meetings, and take your organization to the next level!

How else can Skywalk Group help?

Skywalk Group has the tools in place to help you with a suite of Human Resources services, facilitate a wide variety of training and development courses, and also help you effectively recruit with our OnRecruit program. For more information, contact us today!

By Samantha Rogers