Human Resource Management (HRM) strategic planning is defined as an integrated process of identifying present and future needs of stakeholders and employees for the achievement of general strategies and missions of an organization (Condrey 2010). It is the direct link between the Human Resource management, organizational systems and the strategic plans to ensure that the future organizational goals and missions are attained. The strategic HR planning meets the operational plans and strategic goals of an organization by recruiting people with right qualification in due course; keep up with legislative, social, technological and economic trend that affects human resource in an organization; and adjust adequately to the future organization changes (Snell & Bohlander 2012). The Human Resource Management (HRM) planning process contains four steps namely: assessment of current HR capacity, Gap Analysis, HR requirement forecast and development of Human Resource strategies in support of organizational strategies. The most crucial step of the HRM planning process is the assessment of current organizational HR capacity.
The skills, knowledge and abilities of all the existing staff will be assessed for the purposes of meeting various organizational needs. It also involves staff capacity development so as to perform additional duties necessary for the future development of the organization. Additionally, HRM strategy plays an important role in the forecasting of HR requirements. The process seeks to project the number of staff required to meet the organizational goals in the future. All the future job placements and required skills or qualifications will be considered.
Gap analysis will determine all the new employees, skills, expertise and practices that the company will require, besides the existing ones, for its future development. Finally, the HR strategic planning process will ultimately formulate HR strategies to meet the future organizational needs. The commonest strategies include restructuring, recruitment, outsourcing, training and development and restructuring.
