the link between business planning and human resources

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The Essential Link Between Business Strategy and HR Management

Caroline Reidy

The hr suite.

The business of HR is an increasingly interesting and often complex environment. The level of time and resources allocated to the HR function within an organisation varies dramatically. This article explores a few different aspects around the connection between a company’s Human Resource Management policies and the organisations business strategy.

An increasing number of studies demonstrate the importance of linking business strategy with deployment of human resources within an organisation. A company’s pool of human resources and talent are arguably some of its most valuable assets. A company which links it HRM with its strategic business plan stands to gain a strong competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Strategic decision making is about considering both the internal and external factors and the context around them. The internal factors could be the company’s mission statement, the organisational structure and whether it is a large multi divisional organisation or a smaller single product company. This would usually impact on how the selection, appraisal and development of employees is structured. The external factors could be the political, cultural and economic force which may impact the business.

The human dimension of the Company’s strategy refers to the key subject of employees and employment relations. This resource represents the potential value of workers for achieving goals and gaining organisational success. Management of this includes decision making, implementation and taking actions aimed at employee attitudes and behaviours to achieve the organisational goals.

Strategic HRM can be very effective in organisations when implemented correctly. It benefits the organisation in several ways. It can be a very useful tool to help identify and analyse both internal and external threats as well as opportunities. It also helps to provide a clear business vision and strategy. It is an important influence in the approach to the recruitment and selection process to get the right people with the right skillset into the most effective positions to maximise their potential within the organisation.

A key component of linking business strategy to HRM is a culture of clear communication and trust within an organisation. When employees are encouraged to become involved in various aspects of the business strategy it develops higher levels of trust and respectability between employees and the management team. This trust is built on the knowledge sharing which allows employees to also share in the vision and goals of the organisation. The right strategy therefore helps to retain talent and develop highly competent employees.

The Michigan model is often referred to in discussion around strategic HRM. The model is based on strategic control, organisation structure and people management processes. While it focuses on reward systems for motivating employees it also concentrates on managing human resources to achieve strategic goals. Therefore, having the right structure in place ensures issues are addressed in a timely and effective manner. Most importantly it gets ‘buy in’ from employees as they feel involved in contributing to the overall strategic plan of the organisation. This can result in higher levels of productivity from a high performing workforce.

It takes strong leadership and commitment to consistently maintain the link between HR practices and the strategic plan of the business. There are some barriers such as varying levels of financial support towards the implementations and follow up of HR, development and training policies. There may also be market pressures due to economic difficulties which make it difficult to recruit the preferred talent for specific roles within the organisation. The presence of Trade Unions and threats of industrial action can also have an adverse effect on an organisation’s development and performance in relation to the implementation of Strategic HR Management.

A significant number of Multi-National Corporations base their operations in low cost economies to increase their profit margins. Therefore, the effect of globalisation is also a significant factor affecting business strategy and HRM. As both social and business relationships in distant regions are now instantly linked by advances in communication it is much more sustainable to manage a global workforce.  However, while multinationals often locate to economies which may have lower operating costs and an attractive corporation tax rate, the strategy will only be successful if the pool of talent with the relevant skillset is available.  In summary, this can result in an even more competitive market around recruitment for organisations which demonstrates the challenges around linking business strategy with HRM. It is important that an organisation builds and maintains a strong capacity to recruit and retain high performing employees. Through ongoing training and development these employees would acquire a broad range of knowledge, skills and attitudes throughout their careers.

The importance of strong teamwork and collaboration between various stakeholders at the senior levels within an organisation is crucial to the success of any strategy.  When leaders can demonstrate their willingness to buy in to the combined business strategy and HRM processes of their organisation and openly share this with their teams it can be a very powerful and dynamic tool in gaining competitive advantage in the marketplace.

If you would like more information about using mediation in your workplace, please do not hesitate to contact Caroline or one of the team on 066 7102887 or email The HR Suite on [email protected]

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The new possible: How HR can help build the organization of the future

Business leaders watching their organizations experience profound upheaval because of the COVID-19 crisis may find it difficult to understand what it all means until the dust settles.

But the pandemic hasn’t afforded them, or any of us, that luxury. It has created profound and immediate changes to how societies operate and how individuals interact and work. We have all witnessed an at-scale shift to remote work, the dynamic reallocation of resources, and the acceleration of digitization and automation to meet changing individual and organizational needs.

Organizations have by and large met the challenges of this crisis moment. But as we move toward imagining a postpandemic era , a management system based on old rules—a hierarchy that solves for uniformity, bureaucracy, and control—will no longer be effective. Taking its place should be a model that is more flexible and responsive, built around four interrelated trends: more connection, unprecedented automation, lower transaction costs, and demographic shifts.

To usher in the organization of the future, chief human-resources officers (CHROs) and other leaders should do nothing less than reimagine the basic tenets of organization. Emerging models are creative, adaptable, and antifragile . 1 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder , New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2012. Corporate purpose fuels bold business moves. “Labor” becomes “talent.” Hierarchies become networks of teams . Competitors become ecosystem collaborators. And companies become more human: inspiring, collaborative, and bent on creating an employee experience that is meaningful and enjoyable .

After the pandemic erupted last year, we spoke with 350 HR leaders about the role of uncertainty in their function. They told us that over the next two years they wanted to prioritize initiatives that strengthen their organization’s ability to drive change in leadership, culture, and employee experience.

How are they doing? In this article, we discuss ways that CHROs can continue to meet the moment by rethinking processes in three fundamental areas: identity, agility, and scalability.

How HR fits in the big picture

McKinsey has recently conducted research on how businesses can best organize for the future . The experimentation underway suggests that future-ready companies share three characteristics: they know what they are and what they stand for; they operate with a fixation on speed and simplicity; and they grow by scaling up their ability to learn and innovate.

HR can help propel this transformation by facilitating positive change in these three key areas, as well as with nine imperatives that radiate out from them (Exhibit 1).

Identity: HR can clarify the meaning of purpose, value, and culture

Companies that execute with purpose have greater odds of creating significant long-term value generation , which can lead to stronger financial performance, increased employee engagement, and higher customer trust.

Home in on the organization’s purpose

What is your company’s core reason for being, and where can you have a unique, positive impact on society? Now more than ever, you need good answers to those questions—purpose is not a choice but a necessity.

CHROs play a vital role in making sure the organization is living its purpose and values . HR can articulate and role-model desired individual mindsets and behaviors linked to purpose by identifying “moments that matter” in the company’s culture and translating purpose into a set of leadership and employee norms and behaviors.

For instance, commercial-vehicle manufacturer Scania holds an annual “Climate Day,” during which the company stops operations for one hour to hold sustainability training, in line with its purpose to “drive the shift toward a sustainable transport system.” 2 Scania Annual and Sustainability Report 2019 , Scania, scania.com.

HR can also ensure that clear changes are made to recruitment and capability-building processes by determining the characteristics of a “purpose driven” employee and embedding these attributes within recruitment, development, and succession planning.

HR can also incorporate purpose-driven metrics into compensation and performance decisions. Companies across industries have embarked on these metrics lately. For example, Seventh Generation, a maker of cleaning and personal-care products, recently built into its incentive system sustainability targets for the company’s entire workforce, in service of its goal of being a zero-waste company by 2025. Shell has plans to set short-term carbon-emissions targets and link executive compensation to performance against them.

Think deeply about talent

Organizations that can reallocate talent in step with their strategic plans are more than twice as likely to outperform  their peers. To link talent to value, the best talent should be shifted into critical value-driving roles. That means moving away from a traditional approach, in which critical roles and talent are interchangeable and based on hierarchy.

Getting the best people into the most important roles requires a disciplined look at where the organization really creates value and how top talent contributes . Consider Tesla’s effort to create a culture of fast-moving innovation, or Apple’s obsessive focus on user experience. These cultural priorities are at the core of these companies’ value agendas. The roles needed to turn such priorities into value are often related to R&D and filled with talented, creative people.

To enable this shift, HR should manage talent rigorously by building an analytics capability to mine data to hire, develop, and retain the best employees. HR business partners, who articulate these staffing needs to the executive management team, should consider themselves internal service providers that ensure high returns on human-capital investments. For example, to engage business leaders in a regular review of talent, they can develop semiautomated data dashboards that track the most important metrics for critical roles.

Create the best employee experience possible

Companies know that a better employee experience means a better bottom line. Successful organizations work together with their people to create personalized, authentic, and motivating experiences that tap into purpose to strengthen individual, team, and company performance.

The HR team plays a crucial role in forming employee experience. Organizations in which HR facilitates a positive employee experience are 1.3 times more likely to report organizational outperformance, McKinsey research has shown . This has become even more important throughout the pandemic, as organizations work to build team morale and positive mindsets .

HR should facilitate and coordinate employee experience. Organizations can support this by helping HR evolve, strengthening the function’s capability so that it becomes the architect of the employee experience. Airbnb, for instance, rebranded the CHRO role as global head of employee experience. PayPal focused on HR’s capability and processes to create a better experience for employees, including coaching HR professionals on measuring and understanding that experience, and using technology more effectively.

Strengthen leadership and build capacity for change

Culture is the foundation on which exceptional financial performance is built. Companies with top-quartile cultures (as measured by McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index ) post a return to shareholders 60 percent higher  than median companies and 200 percent higher than those in the bottom quartile.

Culture change should be business-led, with clear and highly visible leadership from the top, and execution should be rigorous and consistent. Companies are more than five times more likely to have a successful transformation  when leaders have role-modeled the behavior changes they were asking their employees to make.

To strengthen an organization’s identity, HR should ask the following questions:

• How can we develop an energizing sense of purpose that has a tangible impact on our strategic choices and ways of working?
• How can we identify key talent roles and focus them on creating value?
• How can we build a data-driven, systemic understanding of our organizational health?

Agility: HR’s role in flattening the organization

Organizational agility improves both company performance and employee satisfaction . HR can be instrumental in shifting an organization from a traditional hierarchy to a marketplace that provides talent and resources to a collection of empowered small teams, helping them to achieve their missions and acting as a common guiding star.

Adopt new organizational models

For instance, as a part of a multiyear agile transformation, a large European bank worked to establish an in-house agile academy led jointly by coaches and the HR function to drive capability building for the transformation.

To be successful, a transformation should touch every facet of an organization—people, process, strategy, structure, and technology. HR can help create an iterative approach by developing core elements of the people-management process, including new career paths for agile teams, revamped performance management, and capability building. It should lead by example as well, by shifting to agile “flow to work” pools  in which individuals are staffed to prioritized tasks.

Create a flexible—and magnetic—workforce

Because many roles are becoming disaggregated and fluid, work will increasingly be defined in terms of skills . The accelerating pace of technological change is widening skill gaps, making them more common and more quick to develop. To survive and deliver on their strategic objectives, all organizations will need to reskill and upskill significant portions of their workforce over the next ten years.

According to a 2018 McKinsey survey , 66 percent of executives said that “addressing potential skills gaps related to automation/digitization” within their workforces was at least a “top ten priority.” HR should help prioritize these talent shifts.

In a more recent survey McKinsey conducted with global executives  about the postpandemic workforce, more than a third of respondents said that their organizations were unprepared to address the skill gaps exacerbated by automation and digitization. The shift to digitization has accelerated during the pandemic: 85 percent of companies have picked up the pace of their digitization (including a 48 percent rise in the digitization of customer channels). In light of these trends and the need to shift skills, there is a clear business rationale behind workforce strategy and planning.

HR should be a strategic partner for the business in this regard, by ensuring that the right talent is in place to deliver on core company objectives. HR can also drive workforce planning by reviewing how disruptive trends affect employees, identifying future core capabilities, and assessing how supply and demand apply to future skills gaps.

Moving to a skills focus also requires innovative sourcing to meet specific work-activity needs (for example, the gig economy and automation), and changing which roles companies need to source with traditional full-time-equivalent positions and which can be done by temporary workers or contractors. In the survey with global executives, about 70 percent said that two years from now they expect to use more temporary workers and contractors than they did before the COVID-19 crisis.

During the pandemic, we’ve seen how organizations have come together to utilize talent with transferable skills. For instance, McKinsey has supported Talent Exchange , a platform that uses artificial intelligence to help workers displaced by the crisis.

Make better decisions—faster

Companies that make decisions at the right organizational level  and that have fewer reporting layers are more likely to deliver consistently on quality, velocity, and performance outcomes and thus outperform their industry peers. The pandemic has trained the spotlight on the power of fast decision making, as many organizations have had to move dramatically more quickly than they had originally envisioned. For example, one retailer had a plan for curbside delivery that would take 18 months to roll out; once the COVID-19 crisis hit, the plan went operational in just two days.

HR can help with strong decision making by empowering employees  to take risks in a culture that rewards them for doing so. McKinsey research revealed that employees who are empowered to make decisions and who receive sufficient coaching from leaders were three times more likely to say that their companies’ delegated decisions were both high quality and speedy .

Introduce next-generation performance management

Companies are experimenting with a wide variety of approaches to improve how they manage performance. According to a McKinsey Global Survey , half of respondents said that performance management had not had a positive effect on employee or organizational performance. Two-thirds reported the implementation of at least one meaningful modification to their performance-management systems.

We identified three practices—managers’ coaching, linking employee goals to business priorities, and differentiated compensation—that increase the chances that a performance-management system will positively affect employee performance. HR plays an important role in embedding these practices in performance management by supporting the goal-setting process, decoupling the compensation and development discussion, investing in manager’s capability building, and embedding technology and analytics to simplify the performance-management process.

To strengthen an organization’s agility, HR should ask the following questions:

• Can we enable more effective decision making by pushing decisions to the edges of the organization, creating psychological safety  that empowers people, and building capabilities?
• How do we accelerate the shift to a more diverse and deeply motivated talent base, one that is supported through a human-centric culture that enables outperformance and superior experience?
• Which organizational areas or end-to-end value-creation streams would most benefit from a shift to new ways of working and organizing?

Scalability: How HR can drive value creation

The new normal of large, rapidly recurring skills gaps means that reskilling efforts must be transformational, not business as usual or piecemeal.

Lean into a learning culture by reskilling and upskilling

Effective reskilling and upskilling will require employees to embark on a blended-learning journey that includes traditional learning (training, digital courses, job aids) with nontraditional methods (enhanced peer coaching, learning networks, the mass personalization of change , “nudging” techniques).

For instance, Microsoft shifted from a “know it all” to a “learn it all” ethos, incorporating open learning days, informal social learning opportunities, learning data for internal career paths, and new platforms and products for its partner network.

Memo to HR: Look in the mirror

To drive and facilitate these workforce initiatives, HR must transform itself first. Talent is consistently ranked as a top three priority for CEOs, yet many lack confidence in HR’s ability to deliver. 3 Dominic Barton, Dennis Carey, and Ram Charan, “People before strategy: A new role for the CHRO,” Harvard Business Review , July– August 2015, Volume 93, Number 7–8, pp. 62–71, hbr.org. The HR function is often overburdened with transactional work and not well equipped to create value for the enterprise.

Yet people-first organizations look at business problems from the perspective of how talent creates value, and HR is well positioned to bring data-driven insights to talent decisions. HR can arm itself with data-driven insights and people analytics to support talent-driven transformation, and HR business partners can then consistently make talent decisions based on data.

Create a value-enhancing HR ecosystem

McKinsey analysis has shown that a preponderance of executives recognize how much external partnerships help companies differentiate themselves. Increased value can be created through ecosystems where partners share data, code, and skills. Success now requires “blurry boundaries” and mutually dependent relationships to share value. The need of the hour is for HR to collaborate on and leverage the landscape of HR tech solutions across the employee life cycle—from learning, talent acquisition, and performance management to workforce productivity—to build an effective HR ecosystem.

To strengthen an organization’s scalability, HR should ask the following questions:

• How can we set up platforms spanning multiple players in the ecosystem and enable new sources of value and employee experience through them?
• How can we become the best company to partner with in the ecosystem? How can we set ourselves up for fast partnering and make the ecosystem accessible?
• What are the critical skills that drive future value creation and how can we upskill our talent base accordingly?

Looking ahead: How transformation happens

As the organization of the future takes shape, HR will be the driving force for many initiatives: mapping talent to value; making the workforce more flexible; prioritizing strategic workforce planning, performance management, and reskilling; building an HR platform; and developing an HR tech ecosystem. For other initiatives, HR can help C-suite leaders push forward on establishing and radiating purpose, improving employee experience, driving leadership and culture, and simplifying the organization.

Given the magnitude of the task and the broad portfolio of value-creating HR initiatives, prioritization is critical.

In May of 2020, HR leaders attending a McKinsey virtual conference indicated that over the next two years, they wanted to prioritize initiatives that strengthen agility and identity. That included 27 percent who said that they would focus on responding with agility and 25 percent who prioritized driving leadership, culture, and employee experience. Next came mapping talent to value and establishing and radiating purpose, each at 13 percent (Exhibit 2).

At a second conference for HR leaders, 4 Survey of human-resources leaders at “Reimagine: Organizing for the future,” a McKinsey virtual conference held in June 2020. about half of the assembled CHROs said that they were focusing on reimagining the fundamentals of the organization and rethinking the operating model and ways of working in the next normal.

We see organizations making this shift. Throughout the pandemic, HR has played a central role in how companies build organizational resilience and drive value . CHROs and their teams can continue on this path by connecting talent to business strategy and by implementing changes in the three core areas of identity, agility, and scalability, as well as the nine imperatives that flow from them.

A more flexible and responsive model will also help organizations meet coming demographic shifts and other workforce changes. Millennials are becoming the dominant group in the workforce (with Gen Z close behind), creating novel challenges for organizations to meet their needs. The prominence of the gig economy and alternate models of working will only grow, with 162 million workers in the European Union and the United States working independently— 70 percent of them by choice . And the rapid spread of digital technology and automation is dramatically reshaping the global economy, with half the tasks people perform already automatable today.

These trends are not new, but they are approaching tipping points, placing organization at the top of the CEO agenda. CHROs can help leadership by transforming their own HR organizations: developing and reinforcing clear priorities; embracing new ways of working, including rapid iteration and testing with the business and seeking explicit feedback; and revamping the HR skill set by embracing agility and digital capabilities.

While clearly a trial by fire, the pandemic also provides an opportunity for HR to accelerate its shift from a service to a strategic function, helping to shape a more dynamic organization that is ready to meet the postcrisis future.

Asmus Komm is a partner in McKinsey’s Hamburg office, Florian Pollner is a partner in the Zurich office, Bill Schaninger is a senior partner in the Philadelphia office, and Surbhi Sikka is a consultant in the Gurugram office.

The authors wish to thank Talha Khan for his contributions to this article.

This article was edited by Barbara Tierney, a senior editor in the New York office.

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How Is Human Resource Planning Integrated With Strategic Planning?

All businesses, no matter how small, have three categories of resources available to them: the technology they use to create a product or service; the finance they use to operate and grow the business, and the people whose talents they use to accomplish the company’s goals.

Strategic planning is the process of figuring out why the organization is in business and what long-term goals it wants to achieve with its available resources. Human talent is one of those resources, so there’s a direct link between strategic and human resources planning – neither one can exist without the other.

What Is Strategic Planning?

The purpose of strategic planning is out figure out what a company wants to do and why it is in business. For example, an organization might decide that it wants to diversify into new markets because it has gone as far as it can go in its current markets. The strategic options here include:

Developing new products to sell to its existing customers.

Also Read: How Is Human Resource Planning Integrated With Strategic Planning?

Selling the same products to a completely new group of customers, such as people in a different country.

Buying a company that operates a different business model that may or may not complement the company’s business model.

The process of strategic planning would involve investigating all of these options and deciding which one represents the company’s vision of the future. From there, the company’s leadership team would start drilling down into the specific strategies that can enable the company to meet its big-picture goals.

What Is the Strategic Planning Process?

Businesses typically look three to five years ahead when formulating a strategic plan, and the process results in a document that articulates the company’s vision, mission, big-picture goals and the broad strategies it will use to reach those goals. This planning document is intended to guide leadership in its decision-making.

A key part of strategic planning is assessing the company’s resources. It’s easy for any company to dream big and have stratospheric ambitions, but what the company can realistically achieve is limited by the number and type of resources it has at its disposal. For most businesses, those resources fall into three main categories:

Technology resources: This includes all the equipment, processes and infrastructure the business uses to create the products and services that it brings to market.

Financial resources: Finance comprises all the liquid resources the company can use to carry out its business operations – namely cash in hand, short-term and long-term bank deposits, liquid financial investments like stocks and bonds, and approved bank loans.

Human resources: This resource comprises the people whose talents, skills and personal characteristics the business can use to accomplish its strategic goals. While technology and money are important assets, human resources are the most important, because technology and money need people to manage them.

As you can see, human resources are an integral part of any strategic plan. If the business does not have the right skills and talent in place to achieve its goals, then the strategic plan will fail due to a lack of knowledge and manpower. Similarly, if talent is acquired and deployed without reference to the company’s strategic goals, then you’re going to end up with a lot of people doing jobs that don’t add value to the business, and which don’t move the company closer to where it wants to be.

What Is Human Resource Strategic Planning?

The purpose of human resource planning is look into the future and decide what skills, knowledge and competencies the business is going to need in one, three or five years’ time to meet its strategic goals. For example, if the company is currently outsourcing its marketing function but intends to bring this function in-house, then an obvious early strategy is to recruit a full marketing team, from a senior manager all the way down to a junior marketing associate or intern.

Whatever the mission of the business, one of the major objectives of human resource planning is to dig into the talent pipeline and answer the following questions:

How can the business attract the right type of people in the right numbers? What kind of training and development can it offer to its current employees, to close any knowledge gaps? How can it balance projected labor demand with supply so there is no labor surplus or understaffing? Who are its key people, and how can it incentivize them to stay?

Answering these questions ensures the business has the right people in the right numbers in the right job roles to ensure the company’s profitability.

What Is the Relationship Between Human Resource Planning and Business Strategy?

Strategic planning and human resources planning basically have a symbiotic relationship, in that each function is dependent on the other. Here are some examples of how the relationship works in practice:

Impact assessments

When leaders start developing a strategic plan, they will liaise with different department heads to see how the proposed business strategies might affect them. The human resources planning team will figure out the financial impact of the initiative based on the recruiting, training and retention strategies that may be necessary to support the plan. If the initiative involves downsizing, for example, then human resources managers must look at the various options for decreasing the labor supply through dismissals, retirements, transfers out of the department, sabbaticals and voluntary quitting.

Invariably, there will be a time cost associated with a new initiative. It’s up to HR to feedback how long it will take to hire or upskill permanent staff members and whether the company can work with contractors in the interim. This helps senior leaders develop a timescale for the new initiative.

Executing the plan

As soon as a strategic initiative receives the green light, the human resources team must ready the company’s employees for the changes that are about to ensue. This might include changing people’s job descriptions, moving people between job units, policy making, motivation strategies, developing training programs, and pinpointing and eliminating labor shortages through recruitment and outsourcing.

Feedback and monitoring

Once the strategic initiative is implemented, HR will monitor the changes that are being made to the workforce to establish whether the policies are sufficient, affordable and sustainable. Because the strategic plan is a long-term plan, it is crucial for the business to keep monitoring its talent pipeline, and keep updating its demand forecast, to ensure that the business always has the right people in place to meet its objectives.

Which Comes First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Because strategic planning and HR planning are interdependent, it really doesn’t matter which plan the leadership team begins to develop first. In fact, they probably should be developed in conjunction with each other. That’s because the strategic plan cannot be finalized until there are supporting talent strategies in place from human resources, and the human resources plan cannot be finalized until the long-term goals of the company are clear.

The most effective organizations are those that achieve alignment between the technology, finance and human resources of the business and the formulation and implementation stages of the strategic plan. It should be an integrative activity, rather than a leader-follower process.

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Module 2: Human Resource Strategy and Planning

Putting it together: human resource strategy and planning.

The essence of management and strategy is making sense of reality: human, organizational, and situational. And, more critically, to be able to act on that insight. From both an executive management and human relations management standpoint, strategy is about alignment: alignment of the mission, core values, culture, competitive strategy and supporting infrastructure, including policies and practices.

As Jim Collins and Jerry Porras phrase it in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies : “Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.” Alignment also requires an understanding of human motivation and how to inspire a belief in and commitment to that vision. To quote Simon Sinek: “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”

The following table summarizes both the strategic planning process and the implications for human resource strategy: [1]

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• Bawany, Sattar. " The Role and Future of HR: Today's Challenges & Tomorrow's Vision. " HR.com. January 6, 2015. Accessed July 30, 2019. ↵
• Putting It Together: Human Resource Strategy and Planning. Authored by : Nina Burokas. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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• Human Resource Planning (HRP)
• Understanding HRP

What Is the Goal of Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

• Human Resource Planning FAQs

The Bottom Line

• Business Essentials

Human Resource Planning (HRP) Meaning, Process, and Examples

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

What Is Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

Human resource planning (HRP) is the continuous process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization's most valuable asset—quality employees. Human resources planning ensures the best fit between employees and jobs while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses.

There are four key steps to the HRP process. They include analyzing present labor supply, forecasting labor demand, balancing projected labor demand with supply, and supporting organizational goals. HRP is an important investment for any business as it allows companies to remain both productive and profitable.

Key Takeaways

• Human resource planning (HRP) is a strategy used by a company to maintain a steady stream of skilled employees while avoiding employee shortages or surpluses.
• Having a good HRP strategy in place can mean productivity and profitability for a company.
• There are four general steps in the HRP process: identifying the current supply of employees, determining the future of the workforce, balancing between labor supply and demand, and developing plans that support the company's goals.

Michela Buttignol

What Is Human Resource Planning (HRP) Used For?

Human resource planning allows companies to plan ahead so they can maintain a steady supply of skilled employees. The process is used to help companies evaluate their needs and to plan ahead to meet those needs.

Human resource planning needs to be flexible enough to meet short-term staffing challenges while adapting to changing conditions in the business environment over the longer term. HRP starts by assessing and auditing the current capacity of human resources.

Here, identifying a company's skill set and targeting the skills a company needs enables it to strategically reach business goals and be equipped for future challenges. To remain competitive, businesses may need advanced skills or to upskill their employees as the market environment evolves and changes.

To retain employees and remain competitive, HRP often looks at organizational design, employee motivation, succession planning, and increasing return on investment overall.

Challenges of Human Resource Planning (HRP)

The challenges to HRP include forces that are always changing. These include employees getting sick, getting promoted, going on vacation, or leaving for another job. HRP ensures there is the best fit between workers and jobs, avoiding shortages and surpluses in the employee pool.

To help prevent future roadblocks and satisfy their objectives, HR managers have to make plans to do the following:

• Find and attract skilled employees.
• Select, train, and reward the best candidates.
• Cope with absences and deal with conflicts.
• Promote employees or let some of them go.

Investing in HRP is one of the most important decisions a company can make. After all, a company is only as good as its employees, and a high level of employee engagement can be essential for a company's success. If a company has the best employees and the best practices in place, it can mean the difference between sluggishness and productivity, helping to lead a company to profitability.

What Are the Four Steps to Human Resource Planning (HRP)?

There are four general, broad steps involved in the human resource planning process. Each step needs to be taken in sequence in order to arrive at the end goal, which is to develop a strategy that enables the company to successfully find and retain enough qualified employees to meet the company's needs.

Analyzing labor supply

The first step of human resource planning is to identify the company's current human resources supply. In this step, the HR department studies the strength of the organization based on the number of employees, their skills, qualifications, positions, benefits, and performance levels.

Forecasting labor demand

The second step requires the company to outline the future of its workforce. Here, the HR department can consider certain issues like promotions, retirements, layoffs, and transfers—anything that factors into the future needs of a company. The HR department can also look at external conditions impacting labor demand , such as new technology that might increase or decrease the need for workers.

Balancing labor demand with supply

The third step in the HRP process is forecasting the employment demand. HR creates a gap analysis that lays out specific needs to narrow the supply of the company's labor versus future demand. This analysis will often generate a series of questions, such as:

• Should employees learn new skills?
• Does the company need more managers?
• Do all employees play to their strengths in their current roles?

Developing and implementing a plan

The answers to questions from the gap analysis help HR determine how to proceed, which is the final phase of the HRP process. HR must now take practical steps to integrate its plan with the rest of the company. The department needs a budget , the ability to implement the plan, and a collaborative effort with all departments to execute that plan.

Common HR policies put in place after this fourth step may include policies regarding vacation, holidays, sick days, overtime compensation, and termination.

The goal of HR planning is to have the optimal number of staff to make the most money for the company. Because the goals and strategies of a company change over time, human resource planning must adapt accordingly. Additionally, as globalization increases, HR departments will face the need to implement new practices to accommodate government labor regulations that vary from country to country.

The increased use of remote workers by many corporations will also impact human resource planning and will require HR departments to use new methods and tools to recruit, train, and retain workers.

Why Is Human Resource Planning Important?

Human resource planning (HRP) allows a business to better maintain and target the right kind of talent to employ—having the right technical and soft skills to optimize their function within the company. It also allows managers to better train the workforce and help them develop the required skills.

What Is "Hard" vs. "Soft" Human Resource Planning?

Hard HRP evaluates various quantitative metrics to ensure that the right number of the right sort of people are available when needed by the company. Soft HRP focuses more on finding employees with the right corporate culture, motivation, and attitude. Often these are used in tandem.

What Are the Basic Steps in HRP?

HRP begins with an analysis of the available labor pool from which a company can draw. It then evaluates the firm's present and future demand for various types of labor and attempts to match that demand with the supply of job applicants.

Quality employees are a company's most valuable asset. Human resource planning involves the development of strategies to ensure that a business has an adequate supply of employees to meet its needs and can avoid either a surplus or a lack of workers.

There are four general steps in developing such a strategy: first, analyzing the company's current labor supply; second, determining the company's future labor needs; third, balancing the company's labor needs with its supply of employees; and fourth, developing and implementing the HR plan throughout the organization.

A solid HRP strategy can help a company be both productive and profitable.

International Journal of Business and Management Invention. " Human Resource Planning-An Analytical Study ," Page 64.

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People Management

Human resource planning (hrp): a guide for hr professionals.

ClickUp Contributor

March 21, 2024

In the business world of sameness, your employees are your true differentiator.

And that’s where HR teams come in—meticulously planning every step of the employee lifecycle to ensure your business’ success. Whether you’re a seasoned HR professional or a new member of an HR team, brush up on the must-haves for optimal human resource planning (HPR).

What Is Human Resource Planning?

Understanding human resource planning, steps to effective human resource planning, the role of hrp in boosting organizational performance, challenges of human resource planning, utilizing technology in human resource planning, future trends in human resource planning.

Companies need to ensure their human resource goals match their business goals. Businesses use human resource planning to evaluate their current workforce and predict its alignment with future needs.

In this process, you and the rest of your HR team identify skill requirements and formulate recruitment, training, management, and succession planning. Meticulously planning for future needs enables companies to optimize staffing levels while staying prepared for upcoming challenges and opportunities.

Human resource planning is often the unsung hero in a company’s strategic framework—the behind-the-scenes MVP deserves a closer look.

HR planning must align human resources with the broader organizational strategy and business goals to be effective. To do this, the HR planning process must be comprehensive, accurately assessing current employees and forecasting future needs so that any gaps can be filled at the appropriate time.

Different roles of human resource planning

Because a strategic human resource plan aligns with organizational goals, it encompasses everything from workforce planning to employee retention. To fully appreciate the benefits of HR planning, let’s zoom in and see the different hats it wears in a company.

The most obvious role human resource planning plays is in determining how many employees are necessary for the company to operate. To do this, HRP must also rely heavily on performance management, where past reviews are assessed to understand the current workforce’s strengths and weaknesses. Employee self-evaluations can be helpful in this regard.

Next, human resource planning plays a critical role in gap analysis. It lets companies know when and where they lack specific skills, not only for the present but also for future needs. Through this gap analysis, a business can more effectively plan for training current employees and hiring new employees.

“Hard” vs. “soft” human resource planning

There are two approaches to HRP: “Hard” and “soft.”

In “hard” human resource planning, a quantitative approach is taken. The focus is on workforce capabilities and resource planning. Supply forecasting and skills inventory data is used to predict future workforce requirements. 

The sole mission is getting that sweet alignment between human resources and the business’s needs.

“Soft” human resource planning flips the script, prioritizing the qualitative side of the process. It’s all about company culture, employee satisfaction, and fine-tuning those essential soft skills. 

Soft HRP aims to create a supportive work environment that fosters employee retention while aligning with organizational objectives. It’s accomplished through employee training programs, building skilled employees from within who can meet the organization’s strategy.

To understand the process more deeply, let’s break down the key steps of human resource planning and unlock its secrets.

Analyzing organizational objectives and plans

The HR planning process must align with the overall business strategy for human resource planning to be effective. The organization must carefully lay out its long-term goals so the human resource department has a roadmap.

HR professionals must work closely with department leads to understand the business objectives comprehensively. Only through this collaboration can the human resource plan strategically align with where the company wants to go.

Evaluating the current state of the workforce and uncovering gaps

The current workforce status must be assessed in the second step of the HR planning process. This involves a detailed analysis of their skills, capabilities, and performance, vividly showing the team’s strengths and areas for improvement.

HR teams use tools like performance management systems to build a comprehensive skills inventory. Try conducting employee self-evaluations to get a broader picture of where gaps may be.

The next steps hinge on how effectively the current employees align with the present and future needs of the business.

Forecasting future HR requirements

Once the HR manager knows the company’s future goals and the workforce’s current state, they can begin forecasting future HR requirements. They’ll use the data to predict the need for new employees.

This is a complex process—changes to the business environment, company culture, and market trends must all be considered to forecast future demand accurately. As markets shift, the pool of available quality employees changes, too. Supply forecasting helps HR human resource planners factor this in and initiate the hiring process at an optimal time.

Developing and implementing a plan

Now that we understand the the gaps between current staffing and future needs, let’s move on to developing and implementing a strategic HR plan. 

The HR team should create talent strategies for recruiting and retaining new hires while developing the skills of existing employees to keep pace with changing business needs. Creating detailed job descriptions, refining the hiring process, and planning for benefits administration are vital during this step.

Monitoring, reviewing, and reassessing the plan

The final step is more of an ongoing HRP process. The team must continually monitor and reassess the needs of the company. 

HR software and analytics tools help track the effectiveness of human resource planning over time. Continuously monitoring employee performance and the impact of training programs ensures that strategic human resource management stays aligned with the changing business environment.

A company’s performance depends heavily on how well-staffed it is. It isn’t just about the number of employees on the payroll but how well those employees meet the organization’s needs. The human resource planning process is the best way to ensure that alignment.

Strategic human resource planning effectively identifies the number of employees required, their needed skills, and the optimal hiring times to maximize the chances of securing qualified individuals when they’re needed.

HR professionals identify gaps in the ability of current employees as they go through the HRP process. These gaps degrade the overall performance of the business. A good human resource plan will weigh the ability to train the existing workforce to meet demand vs. the need to hire new employees.

Because HR managers must work closely with department heads for this alignment to occur, they’re always acutely aware of where performance issues are arising and can adapt the planning process to mitigate those problems.

Another area where HRP can boost a company’s performance is by facilitating organizational innovation. A business must have a skilled and dynamic employee pool to be innovative. With a well-developed HR plan, the company can identify potential employees who can fulfill those needs.

While the human resource planning process is vital to organizational management, it doesn’t come without challenges. Without a plan to overcome these challenges, they can derail the plan’s effectiveness.  Strategic planning must anticipate the challenges an HR team will encounter during HRP, ranging from market fluctuations to internal workforce dynamics.

Business objective alignment

We’ve talked quite a bit about the need to balance a human resource strategy with the objectives of the business. This, essentially, is the core of HRP and one of the biggest challenges HR managers face when developing a plan. The ever-evolving market conditions and organizational priorities add a layer of complexity to the already challenging task of strategic human resource planning.

To counter this, HR departments must maintain a continuous approach to HRP and constantly consult with department heads to update the direction of the company and the needs of individual departments.

Accurate forecasting

A big part of human resource planning involves forecasting the demand for current employees and future talent. Business growth can be unpredictable, technological advancements can change needs rapidly, and economic changes can shift priorities.

Investing in HR software such as data analytics and forecasting tools will help HR plan more accurately for these changes. These tools used advanced machine learning and large amounts of data to create forecasts more accurately than humans alone can.

Maintaining balance

There’s a delicate balance to be maintained between the current workforce needs and future requirements. This planning process can be overwhelming, especially for small HR teams. Teams at larger companies may struggle to stay connected with the needs of frontline employees.

Smaller teams especially must rely on talent management software that will automate much of the work in predicting when new employees or skills will be needed. Larger companies must create and maintain a direct line of communication between HR and frontline employees so their concerns are always a part of the human resource planning process.

Integrating the planning processes

Human resource planning must not only consider the business’s goals but must be tightly integrated with the company’s overall planning process. This ensures that actions taken by HR aren’t just reactive but that a proactive approach to hiring and training employees is taken.

This requires a strategic approach to resource planning. HR managers should be a part of every discussion about the company’s future so they can provide input that shapes the company’s direction and receive input that shapes HR’s approach. 

We’ve seen several instances where HR planning software will help teams better prepare for the business’s staffing needs. Technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, making it a vital part of strategic human resources planning. Chief among these advancements has been the growth of artificial intelligence , revolutionizing how companies manage their workforce through machine learning.

The rise of remote work has further driven the adoption of new technologies. An HR department must emphasize a flexible and dynamic human resource planning process with a dispersed workforce. Innovative tools and workforce planning software can help support these growing HR needs.

ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform. In addition to comprehensive project planning tools , the software has useful features for human resources planning. Its capabilities extend to various HR functions but also work well for every department in the company, making it ideally suited to keeping HR departments on the same page as other departments and the overall company direction.

As you can tell, it’s obvious how vital performance management is for strategic human resource planning. ClickUp provides a robust set of performance management tools, helping HR staff give and receive continuous feedback and set employee goals. By taking advantage of these features, your company can foster a constant learning and development culture that better prepares it for changing needs.

One of ClickUp’s biggest strengths is the extensive set of available templates. For nearly any productivity task your company needs to accomplish, a template shows you exactly how to put the software’s features to work on it.

 ClickUp’s HR Standard Operating Procedures template is handy for identifying skill gaps and developing a plan to close them. To keep existing employees up-to-date and prepared for changing requirements, the ClickUp HR knowledge base template shines.  

Technology has rapidly changed the landscape of human resources and shows no signs of slowing down. Changing attitudes and shifting priorities will also affect how strategic human resource planning evolves over the coming years.

Companies will no doubt find that artificial intelligence and data analytics tools will emerge that further refine processes and increase the accuracy of forecasts. As these tools improve the ability of an HR team to forecast staffing needs and identify skill gaps, smaller HR teams will be able to better compete with their larger counterparts.

We’re also seeing significant shifts in the way companies approach employment. More focus than ever is being placed on employee well-being and work-life balance. These priorities pay dividends by reducing burnout and improving productivity. 

Human resources departments will increasingly shift from mere recruitment and training to working on building an inclusive and supportive workplace culture. 

The trend of remote work and the gig economy will likely continue. The gig economy could provide opportunities for HR teams to rely on independent contractors for temporary surges in staffing requirements to keep the in-house staffing optimized during slow times but not overwhelmed during the busy ones.

Wrapping It Up

While many challenges are involved in keeping a company’s workforce as tightly tuned to its actual needs as possible, doing so provides the most efficient use of human resources and a substantial competitive advantage.

Thankfully, there are many tools available to help companies achieve this. Several free HR planning templates can help keep your staff organized and their processes streamlined. By combining this with effective employee management software , like ClickUp, even small teams can develop comprehensive human resource plans.

ClickUp is free to try. Sign up today to see how this powerful productivity tool can benefit your company.

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4 steps to strategic human resource planning

Reading time: about 6 min

4 steps to strategic human resources planning

• Assess current HR capacity
• Forecast HR requirements
• Develop talent strategies
• Review and evaluate

It’s easy to understand the importance of the human resource management planning process—the process by which organizations determine how to properly staff to meet business needs and customer demands. But despite its obvious importance, many organizations do not have a strategic human resource planning process in place, with many HR professionals reporting their departments need to improve strategic alignment.

If you’ve considered developing an HR planning process, you’re in the right place. This article will explain what human resource planning entails and how to document your strategic plan. With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be filling positions and growing as a company in no time.

Introduction to strategic human resource planning

In order to improve the strategic alignment of staff and other resources, it’s essential to understand how to create a strategic HR planning process. At its most basic level, strategic human resource planning ensures adequate staffing to meet your organization’s operational goals, matching the right people with the right skills at the right time.

It’s important to ask where your organization stands currently and where it is going for your plan to remain flexible. Each company’s plan will look slightly different depending on its current and future needs, but there is a basic structure that you can follow to ensure you’re on the right track.

The strategic human resource planning process begins with an assessment of your current staff, evaluating whether it fits the organization’s needs. After that, you can move on to forecasting future staffing needs based on business goals. From there, you’ll need to align your organization’s strategy with employment planning and implement a plan to not only to hire new employees but also to retain and properly train the new hires—and your current employees—based on business changes.

Read on to understand human resource planning in more detail.

1. Assess current HR capacity

The first step in the human resource planning process is to assess your current staff. Before making any moves to hire new employees for your organization, it’s important to understand the talent you already have at your disposal. Develop a skills inventory for each of your current employees.

You can do this in a number of ways, such as asking employees to self-evaluate with a questionnaire, looking over past performance reviews, or using an approach that combines the two. Use the template below to visualize that data.

2. Forecast HR requirements

Once you have a full inventory of the resources you already have at your disposal, it’s time to begin forecasting future needs. Will your company need to grow its human resources in number? Will you need to stick to your current staff but improve their productivity through efficiency or new skills training? Are there potential employees available in the marketplace?

It is important to assess both your company’s demand for qualified employees and the supply of those employees either within the organization or outside of it. You’ll need to carefully manage that supply and demand.

Demand forecasting

Demand forecasting is the detailed process of determining future human resources needs in terms of quantity—the number of employees needed—and quality—the caliber of talent required to meet the company's current and future needs.

Supply forecasting

Supply forecasting determines the current resources available to meet the demands. With your previous skills inventory, you’ll know which employees in your organization are available to meet your current demand. You’ll also want to look outside of the organization for potential hires that can meet the needs not fulfilled by employees already present in the organization.

Need advice on calculating your staffing needs and developing a staffing plan?

Matching demand and supply

Matching the demand and supply is where the hiring process gets tricky—and where the rest of the human resources management planning process comes into place. You’ll develop a plan to link your organization’s demand for quality staff with the supply available in the market. You can achieve this by training current employees, hiring new employees, or combining the two approaches.

3. Develop talent strategies

Recruitment

In the recruitment phase of the talent development process , you begin the search for applicants that match the skills your company needs. This phase can involve posting on job websites, searching social networks like LinkedIn for qualified potential employees, and encouraging current employees to recommend people they know who might be a good fit.

Once you have connected with a pool of qualified applicants, conduct interviews and skills evaluations to determine the best fit for your organization. If you have properly forecasted supply and demand, you should have no trouble finding the right people for the right roles.

Decide the final candidates for the open positions and extend offers.

Bring clarity to the hiring process to find the best candidates for your company.

Training and development

After hiring your new employees, it's time to bring them on board. Organize training to get them up to speed on your company’s procedures. Encourage them to continue to develop their skills to fit your company’s needs as they change. Find more ideas on how to develop your own employee onboarding process , and then get started with this onboarding timeline template. 

Employee remuneration and benefits administration

Keep your current employees and new hires happy by offering competitive salary and benefit packages and by properly rewarding employees who go above and beyond. Retaining good employees will save your company a lot of time and money in the long run.

Performance management

Institute regular performance reviews for all employees. Identify successes and areas of improvement. Keep employees performing well with incentives for good performance.

Employee relations

A strong company culture is integral in attracting top talent. Beyond that, make sure your company is maintaining a safe work environment for all, focusing on employee health, safety, and quality of work life.

4. Review and evaluate

Once your human resource process plan has been in place for a set amount of time, you can evaluate whether the plan has helped the company to achieve its goals in factors like production, profit, employee retention, and employee satisfaction. If everything is running smoothly, continue with the plan, but if there are roadblocks along the way, you can always change up different aspects to better suit your company’s needs.

Why document your strategic HR plan

Now that you know the steps to strategic human resource planning, it's time to adapt those steps to your own organization and determine how to execute.

There are a number of reasons to document your strategic human resources plan, particularly in a visual format like a flowchart. Through documentation, you standardize the process, enabling repeated success. Documentation also allows for better evaluation, so you know what parts of your plan need work. In addition, a properly documented plan allows you to better communicate the plan throughout the organization, including how everyone, from the top down, can contribute to make sure the plan works. 

Document every step of the process, from beginning to end, and find room for improvement in your human resources process along the way.

Start creating your own strategic human resource plan with this template.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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The Relation between Business Strategy and Human Resource Management: Conceptual Review

whilst there has been increasing interest concerning the relationship between business strategy and human resource management, limited research attention has been paid providing evidence in support of them. This study investigates business strategy and human resource management. The findings indicate a strong relationship between business strategy and human resource management. Further, the results provide support for the assertion that business strategy and human resource management fit can significantly assist a firm in improving performance. Therefore, support is obtained for the efforts at aligning business strategy and human resource management.

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What is the correlation between hr strategy and business strategy.

HR is an integral part and the essential department of an organization. The level of resources allocated to the HR functions varies for different organizations. The human resource department is considered one of the most valuable assets of the company. When linked with a strategic business plan helps the company gain a competitive advantage in the market.

In a business setting, Strategic decision-making has to be done by considering both the internal and external factors and their context. The internal factors can be the organizational structure and the company’s mission statement. 

These factors usually affect the structure of selection and appraisal of employees. The external factors include the political, cultural, and economic forces that may impact the business.

The human dimension of an organization’s strategy involves managing and fostering employee relations. The human resource represents the potential value of workers to achieve organizational goals. 

Employee relations management includes implementing specific policies and taking necessary actions regarding employee’s behavior and attitudes to achieve organizational goals. 

Relationship Between HR Strategies And Business Strategies

When implemented correctly, Strategic Human Resource Management can be very effective in an organization. HR strategies and business strategies, when combined, can be very beneficial to the organization.

It acts as a valuable tool to help companies identify new opportunities and analyze internal and external threats. In addition, it also helps to provide a clear business vision and strategy. To maximize employee’s potential within the company, it is vital to implement a strategic selection process of employees to get the right people with the right skills into the most influential positions. 

Aligning HR Strategies With Business Strategies 

The following are few steps to be followed to align HR strategies with your business strategies:

• Define Success 

To make more efficient business decisions, the HR department needs to understand the business’s strategic goals. When the organizational objectives are not clear, it can be challenging for the HR department to align with these objectives or strategies and support them. 

When the HR strategies align with your business strategy with clear set goals, they help increase productivity and reduce cost, thereby moving the business towards success.

• Align And Set Your HR Strategies 

After setting clear organizational goals, the next step is to articulate the HR goals. HR strategies need to be planned to increase retention rate while decreasing the turnover and increasing productivity with a more efficient onboarding process. 

As the HR department plays a crucial role in promoting a company’s success, setting proper strategies and aligning them with business strategies is crucial. 

• Formulate Actions To Achieve These Goals 

Developing a proper plan of action is the next step in aligning your HR strategies with business strategies. Companies must create specific targeted actions to actualize objectives and achieve organizational goals.

It can be done by creating employee surveys to understand the employee satisfaction rate and then take necessary actions to improve their satisfaction level. It is crucial because satisfied employees are motivated to be more productive, thereby making it easier for companies to achieve organizational goals.

• Measure The Effectiveness 

The final step is to focus on the effectiveness of the campaign. With the alignment of the human resource department and including data-driven goals, it is easy to ensure that decision-making aligns with business goals and helps meet these goals. 

The HR team can measure the performance by analyzing data from marketing, sales, and accounting teams to ensure the departmental strategies align with overall business strategies.

One of the vital components of linking business strategy to human resource strategy is to develop an organizational culture of clear communication and build trust within the company. 

In addition, higher levels of trust and respectability between employees and the management team can be developed when employees are encouraged to become involved in various aspects of the business strategy. This trust is built with knowledge sharing, which allows employees to share in the organization’s vision and goals. 

The right strategy, therefore, helps organizations retain talent and develop highly competent employees.

Various factors affect the relationship between human resources strategy and business strategy. Therefore, Executive leaders must first understand the importance and benefits of aligning HR strategies with overall business strategies. 

Therefore, business owners should develop forward-thinking concepts and build a strong relationship with employees for effecting change in your organization and achieving your organizational goals.

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Why hr is key to executive success: how the human resources function impacts business growth.

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Joey Price is CEO of Jumpstart:HR , a workplace culture-focused HR consulting firm and host of the While We Were Working weekly podcast.

In my years as a professional consultant, I've learned to spot the difference between thriving organizations and underperforming ones rather quickly. Sometimes I can tell from the first interaction on a call. Other times it becomes apparent once we're in a rhythm with the full team. At some point in our engagement, corporates tend to show me and my team "how they really are" and if they want to build a winning workforce culture.

What's the secret behind high-performing organizations? They are most keenly aware of the critical role that their organization's human resources function plays in activating its overall success. If you think human resources is just a support system (*cough* "back office" *cough*) for your business, it's time to reimagine your relationship. HR is a key driver of growth and competitiveness.

Here are five key reasons why HR is essential to organizational success and how leveraging its full potential can impact your business in a positive way.

1. Attracting And Retaining Top Talent

Attracting and retaining top talent is essential for the growth and success of any business. An older study found that organizations with a strong talent recruiting strategy saw 3.5 times the revenue growth than those without. Building a diverse and skilled workforce is crucial for meeting the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment. A team of motivated and highly skilled employees can lead to increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and a competitive edge in the marketplace.

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Reducing turnover is another key benefit of effective recruitment and retention strategies. The cost of replacing an employee "can range from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary ," according to Gallup. Investing in effective recruitment and retention strategies can help businesses attract and retain the best talent, which is essential for long-term success. The HR function plays a vital role in this process, by finding not only candidates with the right skills and experience but also those who align with the company's culture and values. By building a strong and diverse workforce, organizations can better equip themselves to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment and retain top talent.

2. Building A Positive Workplace Culture

Building a positive workplace culture is essential for the success of any business. This aspect of growing your organization is truly the sweet spot of effective HR. No one is thinking about the entire organization except the HR function. According to a study by Gallup, organizations with high employee engagement have 23% higher profitability . A positive culture not only improves employee morale, but it also has been shown to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and improve customer satisfaction. By fostering a culture of trust, respect and inclusivity, businesses can create an environment where employees feel valued, respected and motivated to contribute their best efforts. This not only benefits the employees but also makes the company an attractive destination for top talent, which is essential for long-term success. The HR function plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining a positive and engaging workplace culture.

3. Managing And Mitigating Risk

Managing and mitigating risk is a critical need for thriving businesses as it is essential for protecting the organization's reputation, stability and long-term success. Sadly, not every organization relies on risk management procedures, and while the data is older, one survey gives a glimpse into what the practice of these procedures can look like. A 2017 survey from PMI showed that 26% of respondents used risk management practices "sometimes" and 34% of respondents used risk management practices "often." The HR function plays a vital role in this process by ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations, identifying potential areas of liability and implementing procedures to mitigate them. This not only helps to protect the organization from costly fines and lawsuits but also helps maintain trust with customers, shareholders and other stakeholders. By effectively managing and mitigating risk, organizations can ensure their long-term stability and success.

4. Driving Business Strategy

Driving business strategy is a critical need for thriving businesses as it helps align the organization's human capital with its overall business goals. According to Gartner, " 38% of HR leaders state that their HR strategic planning process is not aligned to the business strategic planning calendar , and changes are not triggered by shifts in the business plans." The HR function plays a crucial role in this process by identifying the skills and capabilities that the organization needs to achieve its goals and developing and implementing programs to acquire and develop those skills. By aligning HR initiatives with the business strategy, organizations can ensure that they have the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, to achieve their goals. This not only helps organizations stay competitive in a rapidly changing business environment but also creates a clear direction and vision for the organization that all employees can work toward.

5. Improving Organizational Performance

Improving organizational performance is not only essential for achieving goals and increasing efficiency, but it also has a direct impact on the bottom line. According to The People IQ study, 13% of managers and workers expressed the belief that their organization's PM system is useful . The HR function plays a critical role in driving this performance by managing and motivating employees, creating systems and processes to measure and improve performance and providing development opportunities. By implementing effective performance management systems and providing development opportunities, organizations can improve the performance of individual employees, teams and the organization as a whole. This can ultimately lead to improved productivity, increased revenue and greater success in achieving organizational goals. Additionally, effective performance management can also help organizations identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes, allowing them to stay competitive in the long term.

In conclusion, the HR function is a critical driver of growth and competitiveness for any organization. By leveraging the full potential of the HR function, organizations can attract and retain top talent, build a positive workplace culture, manage and mitigate risk, drive business strategy and improve organizational performance. Remember, investing in the HR function is not just a cost, but an opportunity for your business to thrive and succeed.

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Increasing Integration Between HRM and Business Strategy

Interested in human resource management.

In today’s fast-paced business environment, the integration between human resource management (HRM) and business strategy is gaining more attention. The link between HRM and business strategy is crucial as it helps businesses achieve their goals and objectives. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of integrating HRM with business strategy.

The Link Between Business Strategy and Human Resource Management

Human resource management plays a crucial role in the success of a business, as it involves managing everything from recruitment and training to employee retention and performance management. An effective HR strategy ensures that a company has the right people in the right positions, with the right skills and knowledge to achieve the company’s goals. On the other hand, a business strategy outlines the long-term goals and objectives of a company, and how it plans to achieve them. It includes decisions on product development, market positioning, and financial management. The HR strategy must align with the business strategy to ensure that the company’s goals are achieved.

One way that HR management supports business strategy is through talent management. A company’s workforce is its most valuable asset, and HR plays a key role in identifying and developing talent that can help the company achieve its goals. This includes recruiting individuals with the right skills and experience, providing training and development opportunities, and ensuring that employees are motivated and engaged.

Another way that HR management supports business strategy is through organizational design. An effective organizational structure ensures that the company can achieve its goals efficiently and effectively. HR plays a key role in designing the structure of the company, including job roles and responsibilities, reporting lines, and communication channels. This helps to ensure that the right people are in the right roles, with clear responsibilities and accountability.

Benefits of Integrating Human Resource Management with Business Strategy

Integrating HRM with business strategy has several benefits for businesses. Firstly, it helps businesses achieve their goals and objectives. HRM plays a critical role in ensuring that the business has the right people in the right positions, with the right skills and knowledge to achieve its goals and objectives. Secondly, it helps businesses to be more competitive in the market. The alignment of HRM policies and practices with the business strategy ensures that the business can respond effectively to changes in the market. Thirdly, it helps businesses to improve their performance. HRM policies and practices affect employee performance, and when aligned with the business strategy, they can improve the performance of the business as a whole.

Business Management and Human Resources – How the Two Are Interconnected

Business management and human resources are two essential components of any organization. While business management focuses on the overall management of the organization, human resources are responsible for managing the workforce. The two are interconnected in many ways, and their effective integration can lead to the success of the organization.

One of the most significant roles of human resources is to ensure that the organization has the right talent. Business management relies on human resources to recruit, train, and retain employees who align with the organization’s goals and objectives. It is the responsibility of human resources to ensure that employees are equipped with the necessary skills to perform their duties efficiently. The employees’ performance, in turn, affects the organization’s overall performance, which is managed by business management.

Another way in which business management and human resources are interconnected is through employee engagement. Employee engagement is critical to the success of an organization, and it is the responsibility of human resources to ensure that employees are motivated and engaged. Business management relies on human resources to create a work environment that fosters employee engagement, as engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and committed to the organization’s goals.

Business management also relies on human resources to ensure that the organization is compliant with labor laws and regulations. Human resources are responsible for ensuring that the organization’s policies and procedures are in line with the laws and regulations governing labor practices. This helps to mitigate the risks associated with non-compliance, such as legal penalties, negative publicity, and damage to the organization’s reputation.

Business management and human resources are two interconnected components of any organization. The success of the organization depends on its effective integration. Human resources play a critical role in managing the workforce, ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations, and fostering employee engagement. Business management relies on human resources to recruit, train, and retain employees who can contribute to the organization’s success. By working together, business management and human resources can create a work environment that promotes productivity, innovation, and employee satisfaction.

Related post: 3 Surprising Benefits of HRM Careers

Examples of successful integration between hrm and business strategy.

Effective integration between Human Resource Management (HRM) and business strategy is critical for the success of any organization. A well-designed and executed HR strategy aligned with the overall business strategy can provide a competitive advantage, enhance employee engagement, and drive organizational performance. There have been numerous examples of successful integration between HRM and business strategy, and some of these are discussed below.

One of the most prominent examples of successful integration between HRM and business strategy is Google. Google’s HR strategy is built around the company’s core values, which include innovation, collaboration, and a focus on the user. The company’s HR practices are designed to attract, retain, and develop top talent who share these values. Google’s HR team also plays a critical role in developing and executing the company’s business strategy. For instance, Google’s HR team was instrumental in developing the company’s “20% time” policy, which allows employees to spend one-fifth of their working hours on projects of their choice. This policy has been credited with fostering innovation and creativity within the company.

Another example of successful integration between HRM and business strategy is Marriott International. Marriott’s HR strategy is built around the company’s core values of putting people first, pursuing excellence, embracing change, acting with integrity, and serving our world. Marriott’s HR practices focus on attracting, retaining, and developing top talent who share these values. The company’s HR team also plays a critical role in executing the company’s business strategy, which is focused on growth and expansion. For instance, Marriott’s HR team has been instrumental in developing and implementing the company’s “Spirit to Serve” program, which is designed to enhance customer service and employee engagement.

Successful integration between HRM and business strategy is critical for the success of any organization. Examples such as Google and Marriott International demonstrate how a well-designed and executed HR strategy can contribute to the overall success of the business. By aligning HR practices with the company’s core values and business goals, organizations can attract, retain, and develop top talent, drive employee engagement, and enhance organizational performance.

Future Trends in Human Resource Management and Business Strategy

The world of Human Resource Management is constantly evolving, and it is important to stay ahead of the curve to remain relevant and competitive in today’s business landscape. As organizations continue to grow and expand, HR professionals are being challenged to find new and innovative ways to attract, retain, and develop top talent. This has led to a shift towards a more strategic approach to HR management, where HR professionals are playing a more prominent role in shaping business strategy.

One of the most significant trends in HR management is the use of technology to streamline processes and improve efficiency. HR professionals are leveraging tools such as AI, machine learning, and automation to reduce manual workloads and free up time for more strategic initiatives. This technology is also being used to improve the candidate experience, with many organizations adopting virtual interviewing and assessment tools to be more effectively screen candidates.

Another trend in HR management is the increased focus on employee well-being and work-life balance. With burnout and stress becoming more prevalent in the workplace, organizations are investing in programs and initiatives to support employee mental health and wellness. This includes everything from flexible work arrangements and mental health resources to on-site fitness facilities and healthy eating options.

Finally, HR management is becoming more data-driven, with an increased emphasis on analytics and metrics to measure the effectiveness of HR initiatives. This data is being used to identify trends and patterns in employee behavior, which can be used to inform decision-making around recruitment, retention, and development.

Overall, the future of HR management is exciting, with new technologies and approaches emerging all the time. By staying on top of these trends and embracing a more strategic approach to HR, organizations can ensure they are attracting and retaining the best talent, while also driving business success.

If this is an area of interest, you may be interested in the Learnful Professional Diploma in Human Resource Management or the Learnul Professional Diploma in First Line Management .  Both programs examine the increasing integration between Human Resource Management and Business Strategy.

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The Link Between Strategic Planning and Human Resource Planning

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• February 14, 2011

By Andrea Soberg, CHRP

All organizations, no matter how large or small, have three critical resources that must be used effectively for the organization to be successful. These critical resources are:

• the technology that is used to create the product or deliver the service;
• the finances the organization uses to pay for whatever it requires; and,
• the people whose skills and talents are utilized to do the work that is needed.

The main driver in the use of its resource is the mission and vision of the organization; these identify the reason for the use of the resource. Successful organizations have strategic and business plans that are specific to how these three critical resources are managed and utilized.

The Technology Resource The technology resource refers to the tools or objects used to create and/or deliver an organization’s product or service. This resource could be as simple as a pen used to write invoices or as sophisticated as a computer system that is used to design a product. The management team within an organization identifies the appropriate technology that is needed to achieve the mission of the organization. The type and amount of technology is determined by how much of a service or product the organization wants to create or deliver. An amount is identified by the goals outlined in the vision statement of the organization and in the strategic plan. The type is identified by what is currently used in the industry and what would be most effective for the organization and its mission.

There are three areas where strategies are developed for the technology resource. The technology strategic plan is the plan that identifies how to: obtain the technology; maintain the technology; and adapt the technology. Once the type and amount of technology is identified, plans on where to purchase them or build them are developed. Once obtained, this resource must be maintained to provide optimum performance. As an organization competes in the marketplace, products and services change. In addition new methods are created that are more efficient. To effectively manage these new requirements, some technology may need to be adapted to deliver the product or service in the new way. If adaptation of the technology does not sufficiently address the need, organizations may resort to obtaining new technology.

The Finance Resource The finance resource refers to the money or capital that is used to pay for or fund all the organization’s activities. This resource includes money that is generated by sales, loans, grants, or donations. It also includes any capital assets that could be sold or used as collateral toward further loans or grants. Just like the technology resource, there are three areas where actions are identified for the finance resource. The finance strategic plan is a plan that identifies how to effectively: generate the money; manage the money; and, forecast the revenue and expenses.

The amount of money required to successfully run an organization is calculated by the managers as they determine their needs for the accomplishment of their departments’ goals and objectives. This typically includes identifying the costs of running the business and developing a budget for the ongoing expenses of the department. These expenses include all those required for purchasing, maintaining and adapting technology and compensating all employees for the time spent working.

The Human Resource The human resource refers to the people whose knowledge, skills, and abilities are utilized to create and deliver the product and service. This resource is considered to be an organization’s greatest resource. This is due to the fact that an organization could not be managed or products and services created and delivered without the use of the KSAs of people. Technology and money are also required to achieve the goals of the organization, but these resources cannot be utilized without some assistance from people.

There are three areas where plans are developed for effectively utilizing the human resource. The human resource strategic plan identifies how to: attract the right types and numbers of people; develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees; and, retain the employees within the organization.

Successful organizations have the right types and amount of people to perform the required duties to achieve the organizations’ objectives. Initially this involves finding the right type and amount of people in the market place. Once these people are working for the organization, their KSAs need to be kept current for the technology they are using or the clients with whom they are interacting. Time and money is spent on regularly developing the KSAs. Since organizations don’t usually want to lose a resource in which they have made an investment, they develop and implement systems that retain this resource. These systems include identifying appropriate human resource management techniques to motivate the performance of the employees.

Strategic Planning When developing strategic plans, the management team ensures that the plans for each of the resources are developed in conjunction with each other. This is due to the fact that the resources are interdependent of one another. The interdependence means that the result of whatever is planned for and acted upon with one resource will have an influence on the plans of another resource. The management team and the HR professional must understand the link between the three resources and how best to develop strategic plans for each resource. Figure 1 shows a pie chart of the three critical resources. This picture shows that each resource is equal in importance and is connected to each of the other. The outside circles demonstrate that each is driven by its own operational plan which in turn is driven by the organization’s strategic plan which is driven by the organization’s mission and vision.

It doesn’t matter which resource the management team begins to develop first. Each could be developed separately, but before a strategic plan is finalized there needs to be a matching of the requirements of each to the other. Organizational effectiveness is achieved when there is alignment between the technology, finance, and human resource strategic plans, and these plans are focussed towards achieving the mission. The management team is responsible to the organization’s stakeholders to utilize and manage the three critical resources in a responsible manner. As the management team identifies the extent to which the technology, the money, or the people will be used the impact on one another is calculated. This impact analysis is included in the development of the strategic plans for each resource. The final strategic plan for the organization culminates in an integrative outcome.

3 Critical Resources: Interdependence and Influence on Strategic Planning

Andrea Soberg completed a Masters in Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto in 1984 and has been a Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP) since 1999. She is currently Dean of the School of Business at Trinity Western University and also leads the HR specialization for the School. For the last 25 years she has also operated a consulting business that specializes in strategic human resource planning. Andrea has regularly volunteered for BC HRMA as a mentor, delivered workshops on HR planning, and was on the national team developing the exam questions for the National Knowledge Exam (NKE).

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What is pet dental insurance?

Coverage details, choosing the right dental insurance, benefits of pet dental insurance, how to get pet dental insurance, understanding pet dental insurance.

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• Pet insurance with pet dental coverage can be affordable while protecting your pet's health.
• The best pet insurance plans include coverage for periodontal disease.
• Scheduling regular pet dental cleanings can help you avoid lapses in coverage.

Just as brushing and flossing are essential for people, regular dental care is vital for pets, especially cats and dogs. The American Veterinary Medical Association recommends that pets get proper dental care annually (which can be part of their yearly physical).

"Dental health is an integral part of a pet's overall health and should be a key part of their preventive care routine," says Dr. Ari Zabell , a veterinarian with Banfield Pet Hospital.

Dental treatments for periodontal disease, broken teeth, or tumors can be costly. So, more pet owners are looking into pet dental insurance. If you shop carefully, pet dental insurance and other pet insurance protections for all your pet's needs can be open to you.

Some of the best pet insurers , like Embrace Pet Insurance offer comprehensive coverage to care for your pet's pearly whites. Read on to learn more about picking a plan and using it when the time comes.

In most cases, pet dental insurance can't be bought as a standalone policy, according to Dr. Brian Evans, clinical director at the online veterinary clinic, Dutch.

Zabell expands on this point, saying, "Dental insurance for pets is almost always part of a larger pet insurance plan." Pet dental is a natural part of the conversation after you answer the question of whether pet insurance is worth it with a yes.

Definition and scope of coverage

Pet insurance provides reimbursement for unforeseen or emergency care. Since dental pet insurance is typically a feature of your pet insurance policy, you'll receive coverage for dental care related to accidents and illnesses. The following are examples of dental conditions and treatments covered under a pet insurance policy:

• Periodontal disease
• Tooth abscesses
• Cancerous oral growths and tumors
• Fractured tooth 

Your pet insurance coverage is based on a reimbursement model. You pay for services upfront then submit your claim to your insurance company for reimbursement. It might seem like a hassle as we're used to human medical providers taking care of the claims process for us. However, there is a silver lining. You won't need to worry about in-network vs. out-of-network providers for your pet's healthcare.

"Vets do not have a concern about which insurance plan you have as they are not a part of that process," Evans says.

Difference between dental insurance and wellness add-ons

Dental insurance comes with your standard accident and illness policy. Dental insurance is also available through a wellness plan at an additional fee. 

Pet wellness plans cover the cost of preventative dental care, such as routine cleanings or checkups. In contrast, pet insurance policies cover medically necessary treatments and procedures like tooth extractions or root canals. 

Depending on your insurance policy, pet dental insurance will cover emergency procedures and routine care. However, it excludes coverage for pre-existing conditions and certain types of pets. 

Routine dental cleanings

Routine dental cleaning prevents severe dental illnesses in the long run. Wellness plans are typically purchased as add-ons to your regular insurance policy. These plans have their own premiums and coverage limits. Unlike your base policy, they generally don't require deductibles or co-pays. 

Emergency dental procedures

Emergency dental procedures are covered under your base pet insurance policy. Some of these procedures and treatments include: 

• Tooth extractions
• Root canals
• Prescription medicine

Exclusions and limitations

Most pet insurance plans won't cover pre-existing conditions. Since an astounding 80% of dogs have dental disease by the time they're three years old, getting coverage early is critical.

"The best way to ensure your pet's periodontal disease will not be considered pre-existing is to purchase the pet insurance while they still have their puppy teeth," Evans says.

Another exclusion to be aware of is your pet's breed and age. Insurance companies may deny coverage to certain breeds and older pets because they are more prone to health conditions. If your insurer doesn't restrict a high-risk pet, your insurance premiums will likely increase. 

The right dental insurance policy offers coverage that aligns with your pet's needs at a price point comfortable for you. Comparing insurance providers can help you sift through the market and find a policy that meets your criteria.

Factors to consider

When choosing a pet insurance policy, you'll want to consider the following factors: 

• Coverages: Know your pet's health needs and find a policy that covers them. The best pet dental insurance plans should cover periodontal disease, inflammation of the gums, and tissue around the teeth. This is the most common dental condition in cats and dogs.
• Premiums: The average cost of an accident-only pet insurance policy is $10.18 per month for cats and  $16.70 for dogs. The average cost for a comprehensive policy is $32.25 per month for cats and $53.34 for dogs. But it varies widely based on your pet's type, breed, age, and where you live
• Deductible: The amount you need to pay toward your pet's care before the insurance kicks in. Usually, this is deducted from the first reimbursement.
• Reimbursement level: This is the percentage of the vet's invoice your insurer will cover. Usually, reimbursement levels range between 70% and 90% of the procedure costs.
• Coverage maximum: This max is the highest dollar amount your pet insurance will pay for a claim. 

For the most comprehensive pet medical coverage, look for a pet insurance plan with unlimited coverage and a reimbursement rate of 80 to 90%  (you pay 10-20% of your vet bills after the deductible).

"Some pet insurance companies will also say they cover dental cleanings but limit the reimbursement to a small portion of the actual cost," says Evans. "The entire dental cleaning procedure may cost $700, but the pet insurance will only reimburse you $150."

Comparing insurance providers

Shopping around for pet insurance helps you get the lowest price on the coverages you need. To compare insurance policies, get quotes for your pet from a few different insurance companies. Make sure each quote has a similar deductible, coinsurance, and policy limit for the most accurate apples-to-apples comparison. 

Dental care insurance for your pet ensures that your pet's teeth are taken care of without the financial burden. Here are a few of its benefits: 

Preventing costly dental problems

Preventative care is the best way to avoid complicated and costly dental problems as your pet ages. But routine cleaning isn't cheap. According to Spot, an examination, removal of plaque and tartar, and polishing cost between $150 to $350. Meanwhile, the monthly premium of a basic wellness policy can be as little as $9.95 for hundreds of dollars in coverage. 

Enhancing overall pet health

Many pet owners avoid the vet or avoid certain treatments because they can get expensive. Whether you have a sizable emergency fund or wiggle room in your budget, every pet deserves quality healthcare. Pet insurance is a financial tool you can leverage to ensure your furry friend lives a long and healthy life. 

Peace of mind for pet owners

Dental procedures come at a hefty price tag. According to Spot, a pet insurance company, a single tooth extraction will run you about $50 to $200. Extractions for multiple teeth can cost $1,000 or more. More complex procedures like a root canal or surgery for a fractured jaw can amount to thousands of dollars. Pet dental insurance allows you to pay only a fraction of that price. 

You get pet dental insurance the same way you'd get a pet insurance policy or a wellness add-on.

• Step 1: Apply for a policy — After finding a policy that meets your pet's coverage needs and budget, fill out an application with the pet insurance company. The insurer will request personal information such as your location and contact information and your pet's details, such as their name, gender, and breed. This information will be used to assess your premiums. 
• Step 2: Customize your coverages — Most insurance companies let you choose between an accident-only policy and an accident and illness policy. You may also have the option to add a wellness plan. Adjust factors such as deductibles, reimbursement rates, and coverage limits to your specific needs and financial situation. 
• Step 3: Read the fine print — Review your policy's terms and conditions to understand any exclusions, limitations, waiting periods, or other important details that may apply. 
• Step 4: Purchase your policy — At checkout, you'll have the option to pay an annual or monthly premium. Once you've made your decision, proceed by entering your payment details and confirming your payment to secure your coverage. 
• Step 5: Provide requested documentation— Your insurer may ask for additional documentation, such as your pet's medical record or a physical exam to check for any pre-existing conditions. 

How to file a pet dental insurance claim 

After your pet has its teeth taken care of, you must pay the invoice from the veterinarian out-of-pocket. Next, submit the invoice and a pet insurance claim form to your insurer. You'll also need to provide your pet's medical records to prove the treatment wasn't for a pre-existing condition. After that, you'll get a check or direct deposit with the reimbursement. Usually, plans have a time limit for claims submissions.

Although pet dental insurance is relatively new, it can be a powerful tool for your pet's oral health.

"Pet dental health is one of the most important indicators of long-term health and should be a priority for your pet," Evans says. "Choose a pet insurance partner that will assist you in keeping your pet's mouth from being a source of chronic pain and inflammation."

Pet dental insurance covers emergency dental procedures like extractions, root canals, prescription medication, and more. Most wellness policies cover routine dental cleanings and checkups. 

It depends. The standard pet insurance policy covers emergency dental procedures and treatments. If you want coverage for preventive dental care, you'll need to purchase a wellness policy. 

The best way to choose pet dental insurance is to compare policies from multiple companies. Evaluate how each policy stacks up in terms of coverages, coverage limits, deductible amounts, reimbursement rates, and premiums.

Dental insurance helps manage the costs of dental care, which can be expensive, especially for emergency procedures. Additionally, routine dental care, which is covered by a wellness plan, prevents uncomfortable oral diseases like periodontal disease or tooth decay. 

Start by researching insurance providers that offer dental coverage, either as part of their standard policies or as an add-on. Then, get a quote from the insurer through their website or by calling them. If you're happy with the price,  review the terms carefully and finalize your policy. Your insurer may require updated medical records as well as a physical exam to check for pre-existing conditions, which are excluded from coverage.

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards .

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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What Is Climate Change?

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term.

Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the mid-20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising Earth’s average surface temperature. Natural processes, which have been overwhelmed by human activities, can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the Sun’s energy output , variations in Earth’s orbit ).

Scientists use observations from the ground, air, and space, along with computer models , to monitor and study past, present, and future climate change. Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels; ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes.

“Climate change” and “global warming” are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings. Similarly, the terms "weather" and "climate" are sometimes confused, though they refer to events with broadly different spatial- and timescales.

What Is Global Warming?

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. This term is not interchangeable with the term "climate change."

Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a number that is currently increasing by more than 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The current warming trend is unequivocally the result of human activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over millennia.

Weather vs. Climate

“if you don’t like the weather in new england, just wait a few minutes.” - mark twain.

Weather refers to atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short periods of time—from minutes to hours or days. Familiar examples include rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods, or thunderstorms.

Climate, on the other hand, refers to the long-term (usually at least 30 years) regional or even global average of temperature, humidity, and rainfall patterns over seasons, years, or decades.

Find Out More: A Guide to NASA’s Global Climate Change Website

This website provides a high-level overview of some of the known causes, effects and indications of global climate change:

Evidence. Brief descriptions of some of the key scientific observations that our planet is undergoing abrupt climate change.

Causes. A concise discussion of the primary climate change causes on our planet.

Effects. A look at some of the likely future effects of climate change, including U.S. regional effects.

Vital Signs. Graphs and animated time series showing real-time climate change data, including atmospheric carbon dioxide, global temperature, sea ice extent, and ice sheet volume.

Earth Minute. This fun video series explains various Earth science topics, including some climate change topics.

Other NASA Resources

Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio. An extensive collection of animated climate change and Earth science visualizations.

Sea Level Change Portal. NASA's portal for an in-depth look at the science behind sea level change.

NASA’s Earth Observatory. Satellite imagery, feature articles and scientific information about our home planet, with a focus on Earth’s climate and environmental change.

Header image is of Apusiaajik Glacier, and was taken near Kulusuk, Greenland, on Aug. 26, 2018, during NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) field operations. Learn more here . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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