How to Write an HR Strategic Plan, With a Template You Can Copy

Strategy vs. Tactics: Get This Straight First

Most weak HR plans are lists of tactics. The distinction:

A strategy is a choice between alternatives. "Grow from within" means deciding not to rely on external hiring, with the costs and risks that follow. If no reasonable person would choose the opposite, it is not a strategy. For background on the concept, see what strategic human resource management is, and for definitions of planning terms, our Glossary of Strategic Thinking Terms.

How to Write an HR Strategic Plan in Eight Steps

Step 1: Start with the business plan

Get the organization's strategic plan, budget, and any board presentation. Write down its three to five goals in the leadership team's own words. If no written plan exists, interview the CEO and the heads of finance and operations and ask the same three questions: Where will we be in three years? What could stop us? What do you need from the workforce that you are not getting today?

Step 2: Scan the environment

Two short analyses give the plan its evidence.

External scan. List the outside factors that will affect your workforce. A PEST framework (political and legal, economic, social, technological) is a simple prompt: pending employment legislation in your states, local labor market conditions, demographic shifts in your talent pool, and automation affecting your roles.

Internal SWOT. Assess the HR function and the workforce honestly.

Example SWOT for a fictional 600-employee distributor:

Keep it to a page. The SWOT is there to inform choices, and a twenty-item list in each quadrant informs nothing.

Step 3: Translate business goals into workforce needs

For each business goal, ask what it requires in headcount, skills, leadership, location, and cost, and compare that with what you have. The difference is the gap your plan addresses. This is the heart of workforce planning for future business needs.

Step 4: Choose three to five strategic priorities

You will identify more gaps than you can close. Rank them by impact on the business goals and by HR's ability to affect them, then choose. Write down what you are deliberately not doing this cycle and why. That list is as valuable as the priorities, because it is what you will point to when new requests arrive in March.

Telling an HR strategy from an HR tactic takes practice. The Strategic HR Leadership Certificate Program spends part of its strategic planning module on exactly that move, from HR tactics to HR strategies.

Step 5: Set objectives and measures

For each priority, write one to three objectives with a baseline, a target, and a date. Decide the measure before you design the program. These measures become the scorecard described in HR dashboards and scorecards.

Step 6: Plan initiatives, owners, timeline, and budget

List the initiatives under each objective with an owner, start and end dates, dependencies, and cost. Total the cost and compare it with your budget. A plan that needs funding you do not have should say so, with the case for it; see our primer on finance for HR for the numbers side.

Step 7: Test it with stakeholders

Before the plan is final, walk two or three business leaders through it and ask where it fails to help them. Adjust. Then secure executive approval; if significant investment is involved, prepare for presenting an HR business case to executives.

Step 8: Execute, review, and adapt

Assign each initiative to someone's goals. Review progress monthly within HR and quarterly with leadership. Revise the plan when the business plan changes. Initiatives that alter how people work also need a change plan; see leading change as HR.

A Worked Goal Cascade

Continuing the fictional distributor. All figures are examples.

Four priorities, each traceable from a business goal to a named owner. That table is the core of the plan; the rest of the document supports it.

HR Strategic Plan Template

Copy the outline below and replace the bracketed prompts. Aim for five to eight pages plus appendices.

HR STRATEGIC PLAN
[Organization name] | Plan period: [start] to [end] | Version/date | Plan owner

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (half a page)
• The business goals this plan supports
• HR's 3 to 5 strategic priorities
• Headline measures and targets
• Total investment requested

2. BUSINESS CONTEXT
• Organization mission, vision and values (one or two lines each)
• Business goals for the plan period, in leadership's words
• Key assumptions (growth, locations, budget, technology)

3. ENVIRONMENT SCAN
• External factors: legal/regulatory, economic, labor market,
  social, technological
• Internal SWOT of the workforce and the HR function
• Workforce snapshot: headcount by unit and location, turnover,
  tenure profile, critical roles, open positions

4. WORKFORCE NEEDS AND GAPS
For each business goal:
• Workforce requirement (numbers, skills, leadership, location)
• Current state
• Gap and its business consequence if not closed

5. STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
For each priority (repeat block):
• Priority statement and the business goal it supports
• Strategy: the approach chosen, and alternatives considered
• Objectives: measure | baseline | target | date
• Initiatives: description | owner | start | end | dependencies
• Cost: one-time | recurring
• Risks and mitigation

6. WHAT WE ARE NOT DOING THIS PERIOD
• Deferred items and the reason for each

7. RESOURCES AND BUDGET
• HR headcount and capability needed
• Technology and vendor needs
• Budget summary by priority; funded vs. unfunded

8. MEASUREMENT AND GOVERNANCE
• Scorecard: measure | definition | target | owner | frequency
• Review calendar: monthly HR review, quarterly executive review,
  annual refresh
• Decision rights: who approves changes to the plan

9. COMMUNICATION AND CHANGE PLAN
• Stakeholders, what each needs to know, and when
• Manager and employee communications
• Expected resistance and how it will be addressed

10. RISKS AND DEPENDENCIES
• Top risks to the plan | likelihood | impact | response

APPENDICES
A. Metric definitions
B. Detailed timeline
C. Succession and critical-role summary
D. Compliance calendar and legal changes to monitor

Notes on using the template

• Section 1 is written last and is the only page some executives will read.
• Section 5 is the plan. If time is short, do sections 2, 4, 5, and 8 well and keep the rest brief.
• Section 6 protects your capacity. Do not skip it.
• Compliance work belongs in the plan as an operating commitment or an appendix, not as a strategic priority, unless a specific legal change is material to a business goal.

Common Mistakes

• Starting from HR's wish list. The plan should begin with the business goals, as covered in Aligning HR Strategy With Business Goals.
• Too many priorities. Ten priorities means none.
• No measures, or activity measures. "Launch leadership program" is a task. "Internal fill rate for supervisors reaches 80%" is an objective.
• No budget. A plan without costs is a statement of hope.
• Writing it alone. Plans built without line leaders get polite approval and no support.
• Ignoring HR's own capability. If the plan requires analytics skills your team lacks, building them is part of the plan. See How to Build a Strategically Aligned HR Department.
• Forgetting employees. Plans that serve the business at the workforce's expense tend to show up later as turnover. Building a People-First HR Strategy discusses the balance.
• Filing it. A plan not reviewed quarterly is out of date by midyear.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

A usable HR strategic plan is short, starts from the business goals, makes real choices, and attaches a measure, an owner, and a cost to each priority. Use the eight steps to do the thinking and the template to write it down, then put the quarterly reviews on the calendar before you circulate it.

The Strategic HR Leadership Guide links to the companion articles on metrics, finance, and executive communication. If you would like to work through the process with an instructor and peers, the Strategic HR Leadership Certificate Program includes a module on strategic planning for HR leaders that covers the purpose of strategic planning and the steps in the process, with a SWOT analysis exercise, followed by a module on aligning HR goals, objectives, and tactics with the business plan. The two-day program is offered in person and by video conference and provides 12 SHRM and HRCI recertification credits.