What are you planning this year 2016: How can you build Plan

What are you planning this year 2016: How can you build Plan?

It’s time for review of performance of the previous year interms of organization as well as the Individual employees. This task needs the review of current performance system, expectations from the last year, setting the course of action for review from April last year to current year march... The greater challenge is if you have KRA's set for employees you need to make sure they are reviewed effectively. If the KRA's (or expectations of performance) are not set you have a greater challenge to collate, create a meaningful performance review... have fun...

April is generally the Start of Business Year (Financial Year Start) for Indian Firms. Our Financial year starts on April 1st and ends at 31st March. This month is very significant for all the HR folks because the following activities are expected to be done/co-ordinate for a better future.

Organisational Objective Setting: 

HR to involve in building the organisational objectives for the year based on the mission and vision of the organisation. HR interacts and builds the clarity along with the CEO and the Heads of various Units/Function/Verticals... *Look for inputs for format at the end of this post.

Review of Performance:

Challenges of Transition from last year to this year: 

After the review of individuals and organisation... The greater challenge is to understand the future objectives and integrate into each employee/associate. Also the challenge of reviewing in rationalising the compensation, designations, roles etc.,

The Future:

Actually this is what you can't predict.. But, can you stop! No!!!! So let’s plan to have the details of organisational performance, future objectives, Understanding of each of the individual strengths, performance review data, Plan of action for the function for next year....

Time to Plan for year 2016; Budget Realistically

As you are coming closure to the close of the year 2015 financial year, it’s important that you focus on planning for the next year.  Here are the few steps suggest to ensure that you plan the most critical year ahead to beat the Recession Blues……

1- Define Organizational Objectives for year 2016

2- Identify the various matrices of organizational performance

3- Assign the basic assumptions based on Historical data for last year to future year and Make a tentative Manpower Plan (To be reviewed along the year)

4- Plan control mechanism every month for actuals Vs. Planned

Some of the Key areas of focus in execution of better next year:

1. Define Organisational Objectives for year 2016

a. If you have not done the Clear objective setting till date or did not bother because of the good market condition earlier.

b. It’s time that you tighten the basics of Objective setting & Communication to employees this year which would put you into the driver seat.

c. Some of the Inputs for Creating Objectives

i. Identify the most critical measurements for organizational performance.

ii. Define the objectives clearly using the SMART rule – Simple/Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Real-time & Timelines for completion.

iii. Do not take more than 6-8 objectives may include Revenue, New Investment, Business expansion geographies/verticals, Quality, People Development, Technology & specific organizational developmental objectives.

2. Identify the various matrices of Organisational Performance

a. This may include various ratios related to Revenue Vs. People (Month wise, Division Wise and Yearly)

• Revenue per person/employee
• Operational activities/logistics per Person/Employee
• Ratio of support function vs. the number of people in organisation

b. Based on the ratio’s create base assumptions for Manpower Planning ( Need to plan to stretch while assigning for better organizational performance).

3. Assign the Basic Assumptions for Manpower Planning

• Make division-wise revenue & operational flow expectations
• Assign the ratios to the future year
• Create a statement showing manpower requirements division wise/ month wise / year.
• Critical of this stage is to finalise the numbers & Various Cost implications based on the plan (Financial budget to be interlinked).

i. Map with each of the unit and finalise the realistic people requirements.

ii. Finalise the number of positions and the profiles to be tracked and hired during the next year.

iii. MOST IMPORTANT FOR THIS YEAR: You can list the activities which can be done at a back office create in any of the Institutes/colleges would help to reduce the budget. The Institutes can help you in Research for Business Development, Cold Calling, Creating Database, Identifying potential buyers/suppliers, create presentations and documentations etc., this is the most critical part in the times of recession… You would save atleast 60% of the cost using this model. Create a option for your to try as part of the plan.

4. Control the Plan

a. Identify the time lines to review the actual vs. projected every month

b. Identify the areas where you can tweak the plans to ensure that it goes with your business value

Example of an Objective Setting Format (The following is a suggested format and can be improved to accommodate more specific inputs and timelines for better tracking): Create a Table for Organisational Objective Setting

• Column1: Key Area of Focus: To achieve a goal of increasing the revenue by 2 folds to generate at least a revenue of 10 crores from all the existing Product/Service lines.  Add any new service lines if required. 

• Column2: Measurement of Output: To Generate revenues: Product 1 – 3 Crores, Product 2 – 2 Crores, product 3-5 crores

• Column3: Timelines: Q1 (Jun 2016) : 2 Crores, Q2 (Sept 2016): 3 Crores, Q3 (Dec 2016): 2 Crores, Q4 : 2 Crores *As per the seasonal expectations

• Column4: Responsibility:  Divisional/Product Heads for Revenue, Operations for Product Delivery. Overview by CEO

• Column5: Remarks: Comments related to objectives and clarifications if any.

The Other areas of Objectives for organization can be:

• New Products & Geographies   
• People Development   
• Financial Goals   
• Quality Goals   
• Technology Goals   
• Others...

(Suggested not more than 5-7 objectives to be focused in a year as corporate)

PLEASE DO ADD YOUR INPUTS AND QUESTION IF ANY, WHICH CAN BE ANSWERED AS PART OF IMPROVEMENT OF YOUR BUSINESS…..