Adding talent plans to 2023 planning processes

Steve Van Remortel

Guest Columnist

September 12, 2022

It is that time of year – summer is over and fall is in the air.

Kids are going back to school and cooler temperatures are on the way.

September also marks the time that some leaders evaluate and update their planning process for the coming year.

The first discovered use of strategy was way back in 200 B.C., which was based on the need for nations to defeat their enemies.

Strategy has been around for a long time, and as a result, many companies already have a strategic planning process in place, with a common objective of addressing the greatest obstacles holding a company back from fulfilling its full-growth potential.

A common hurdle that can limit that growth in an organization today are people shortages and issues.

However, many strategic planning processes do not address talent challenges.

As you prepare for the 2023 planning process, here are some potential steps to help add talent plans to that upcoming process.

Strategy/vision
Multi-year talent plans tie your talent decisions to your strategy and drive the growth of your people and business as you execute it.

Talent planning includes your strategic plan, talent plans and execution plan.

In order for you to know what talent you need, you first have to know where you are going through your strategy/vision.
Let’s say your company has annual sales of $30 million in 2022, and in your 2023 planning process you create your three-year vision to include annual sales of $45 million.

Once vision/strategy is in place, the next step in the process is for the planning team to design the functional structure that needs to be in place to support a $45 million company by the end of 2025.

It can help to split your planning team into three homework teams, with each team presenting their recommended functional structure/talent vision.

Plans can start at the leader position and work their way down through every department.

Once that is finalized, you can put a three-year talent plan in place for the leadership team, each department and for each team member – which can serve as a bridge that takes a team and structure from where it is today to that three-year functional structure and include all the actions to develop and retain high performers and prioritize new hires, promotions and succession plans.

If an organization doesn’t have a planning process in place but wants to implement one for the upcoming year, a good rule of thumb – keep it simple.

Define what you want your organization to look like in three years and then develop the three-year talent plans to make it happen.

If an organization already has a planning process in place, it could be time to evaluate and update it.

Though it’s an additional simple step, it can dramatically increase the return on investment from your planning process.

Talent planners can build high-performance teams and leaders across their organization and achieve their goals/vision.
A great process leads to a great process.