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A complete guide to effective HR strategy planning (& a free template!)

Businesses are beginning to recognize the strategic value of human resources. In fact, our State of People Enablement Report found that 79% of people ops leaders felt their C-suite saw them as important.* They no longer viewed HR as an administrative or supportive department, but as vital to the organization’s success.

As the role people teams play expands and grows in importance, taking a more systematic, data-driven approach is essential. Effective, intentional strategies ensure your human resources department stays aligned with overarching company goals while positively impacting the employee experience and making your organization a truly enjoyable place to work.

To that end, this article covers the essential steps you need to take for successful HR strategy planning. We’ve also included a best practice HR strategy template you can customize or use as inspiration for your own team.

* Leapsome’s State of People Enablement Report , 2023 ‍

🤿 Dive right into HR strategy development Our customizable HR strategy template includes all the essential stages and action points you need to structure and flesh out your ideas. 👉 Download template here

What is an HR strategy & why does it matter?

An HR strategy is a comprehensive plan that aligns team management with organizational goals. By integrating the two, companies can ensure that they recruit and retain the right talent to keep their initiatives and long-term objectives on track.

However, an HR strategy goes beyond hiring and keeping positions filled — it can help you engage, empower, and develop employees in a way that supports sustainable growth and fosters a positive work environment. 

When human resources plays a more strategic role, the company can also take a more proactive stance in its industry and build workplace resilience . People teams can forecast staffing needs and spot potential gaps and issues before they escalate into larger problems. For instance, you might anticipate turnover and escalate or adjust hiring efforts instead of scrambling to bring people on board as team members leave. ‍

💭 “In the future of HR, the People function continues to be a strategic partner to the business that is highly integrated into company performance and no longer seen as just a support and administrative function. Well-supported People functions and teams will result in better business results, deeper engagement, high employee enablement, and happy customers.” ‍ — Luck Dookchitra , VP People at Leapsome

Last, remember that while HR managers may take the lead, the best strategies are a collaborative effort between leaders, team leads, and team members. Including stakeholders from every area of your business gives you a more holistic perspective, ensuring that your plan will benefit the entire company. ‍

Free download: Our actionable HR strategy template

Human resources strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all. It’s best to tailor them to your company’s unique needs, goals, and culture rather than adopting a generic blueprint.

That said, having a detailed template can provide you with a structure and save you time on planning. You can check that you haven’t missed any essential steps and customize the strategy to suit your context. 

That’s why we’ve provided this free, downloadable template based on Leapsome’s own strategies and values. ‍

🏆 Create a winning HR strategy Streamline your HR planning processes with our comprehensive template that covers every step and checkpoint.  👉 Download template here

8 steps to creating an effective HR strategy plan

Whether you’re working off a template or starting from scratch, there are some essential steps that should go into the development of any great human resources strategy . Here’s everything you need to consider at each stage. ‍

1. Establish your HR strategy’s aims

Setting clear goals is essential as they will guide all the future decisions you make about your HR strategy. This step involves understanding your organization’s broad objectives and determining how you can support them, ensuring your plan contributes directly to the company’s aspirations and long-term success.

For example, your leadership team might clarify that their long-term objective is to enter the European market and establish a strong presence within the next two years. HR and the C-suite could collaboratively decide on the following aims:

• Hire 80% of the team for the new branch locally
• Relocate the remaining 20% of team members from existing branches

Speaking to other departments allows you to assess where your interests align and how you can support each other most effectively. In the example, HR might work alongside legal and accounting to find potential regulatory roadblocks to hiring in Europe.

When you’re developing cross-departmental aims and sharing them across the organization, tracking them can be challenging. Using goal-setting software like Leapsome allows you to establish complex objectives and track your progress toward them. Choose a platform that accommodates various methodologies, such as OKRs and SMART goals , so you can easily tailor your workflow to your company’s needs and preferences.

2. Review your industry

Staying up-to-date with industry happenings is essential to keeping your HR strategy relevant and competitive. You need to research the current state of recruitment, retention, and team management to understand what’s realistic before you develop any plans.

Going back to the example in step one, imagine you’re investigating the current European job market. You discover that there’s a talent shortage in your industry, which means that you may struggle to hire locally.

Look at official sites like Eurostat , the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the most recent information. HR thought leaders such as SHRM and the Harvard Business Review also report on job market trends.

Evaluating your position within the market can give you extra insights into developing a realistic strategy. You can see where you need to improve, where you already shine, and where competitors outmatch you. For instance, while looking into European expansion, you may notice that another company already has a strong foothold in the job market.

During your research, see where you can update your current HR tools and resources to support your strategizing. People enablement platforms like Leapsome can automate time-consuming parts of your workflow, such as distributing surveys, data collection, and scheduling meetings, so you can prioritize the planning itself. Automation also has the power to make you more adaptive to changes during the strategizing process — 63% of companies said it helped them to pivot. ‍

3. Analyze & check in with your team

Consider your team’s composition to evaluate the talent you’ve got and look for gaps. You might look into:

• Employee demographics
• Tenure and experience levels
• Job performance
• Salary and benefits

Let’s say you’re considering which team members would be ideal candidates to relocate to your new European branches. You might note that a high percentage of the team are digital nomads who are highly likely to be interested in traveling and living abroad.

To conduct an effective analysis, you need to go deeper than superficial numbers to uncover your team’s needs and wants. Running engagement surveys can help you measure employee sentiment about upcoming company initiatives. Use a flexible tool like Leapsome’s Surveys module so you can come up with questions that are specific to your organizational goals and strategy or customize a ready-to-implement template. Setting up an anonymous suggestion box also creates a space where employees can share concerns that you haven’t covered in your survey.

To keep employees at the forefront of your initiatives, use their feedback to create action points for your strategy. For example, you might discover that team members would be willing to relocate to head an expansion abroad if it meant they were getting a promotion. Tools like Leapsome’s AI-powered sentiment analysis can help you summarize written responses while our post-survey action plans can analyze them to give you quick suggestions. 

🎯 Put employees at the center of every plan Our engagement surveys can help you uncover your team’s concerns and align your strategies with their best interests. 👉 Learn more

4. Consider development opportunities 

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of your current team, see whether your company has the skills and expertise it needs to meet its objectives in-house. If not, determine how quickly you can fill any gaps through learning and development initiatives.

Start by conducting a skills gap analysis to compare the talent you need against your team’s current capabilities. Visualizing the knowledge and expertise you need for your company initiatives on a competency framework can help you spot areas for development. You’ll also see how many steps employees need to take to reach an optimal skill level. Leapsome’s AI-powered competency framework can help you get started — just input your department name, number of competencies, and number of levels to generate a framework in minutes.

Let’s say that you’re looking for employees to manage payroll for new branches in the United Kingdom. While no one in the existing accounting department is familiar with British regulations, one person has experience in international finance.

Once you’ve got a clearer idea of your talent needs, explore how effectively you can meet them by developing existing team members. For instance, you might:

• Ask managers to hold career development talks and report on which team members would be open to learning new, critical skills.
• Assess your current learning and development programs to see if you can adjust them to include the desired expertise.
• Research which training courses on the market cover the competencies you need.
• Explore the possibility of creating personalized courses to equip team members with the specific skills they need.

5. Explore pathways for career progression

As you develop your HR strategy, decide how roles should change to align with organizational goals and employee needs. You may need to create new positions if your current team structure doesn’t support your plans, especially if you’re growing or expanding.

Again, a competency or career progression framework could help you determine which employees can be upskilled or are ready to move into the positions you need. Leapsome’s Compensation and Reviews modules could save you time here by providing you with relevant data on all your internal candidates. You can also use the platform to collaborate with each employee’s team lead to make informed, well-rounded decisions.

For example, your company might need a sales manager to head a new branch in another country. After looking at your employee data, you might identify a salesperson who’s got experience heading a team, and a quick chat with their team lead may reveal that they’re eager to advance professionally. You can then see how to support them and upskill them to move into the new role.  ‍

6. Examine recruitment & turnover

Hiring and retention are often at the heart of human resources initiatives. For example, reducing turnover can help businesses maintain a knowledgeable and experienced team while they launch new ventures. A stable team is also vital to protecting employee well-being and company culture during changes. When colleagues are constantly coming and going, surveys show that team members are up to 25% more likely to resign .

Using the following steps, you can get clarity into how hiring and retention may play into your HR strategy:

• Measure your recruitment and turnover levels
• Filter the results by department and role
• Benchmark your results against the industry standard
• Review reasons for job offer rejections and resignations
• Consider whether you can expect these numbers to change
• Estimate how many positions you’ll need to fill

A people analytics tool like Leapsome can help you implement many of these steps. Our platform not only collects and analyzes your HR data, but gives you AI-driven actionable insights . For instance, Leapsome can sort your information to indicate the biggest impact drivers and filter out less relevant details. You can also benchmark this data against competitors and use predictive analysis to uncover future trends in turnover.

Ultimately, you can see how to solve potential turnover issues at the same time as you discover them, saving valuable time. ‍

7. Design HR initiatives & strategies

Now, you should be ready to translate all the aims and the insights you’ve collected into actionable steps. Write objectives that relate to both the overarching business goals and your team’s needs. If you’re using a cascading goal framework like OKRs, you can tie them directly to each of your company’s aims. 

If you find the OKR methodology tricky to implement correctly, consider using Leapsome’s AI-powered OKR generation feature: Simply provide a descriptive objective as a prompt, and allow the AI tool to generate key results and initiatives tailored to your overall goal. You can then refine your choices from the generated list by selecting the most suitable key results, and include relevant and realistic deadlines and metrics for your organization.

Let’s return to our example of the organization that’s looking to expand abroad. You might establish the following objectives and key results:

Company-level

• Objective: We operate in the EU within the next two years to diversify our market presence and increase our resilience. 
• Key result: We have five teams of 750 local hires and 250 relocated employees working across offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome.
• Objective: We have full teams with the best skills, experience, and culture add to run our European offices to ensure the success of our expansion.   ‍
• Key result: There are ten managers from our existing offices working in our new European ones who have successfully undergone our relocation program.  ‍
• ‍ Initiative: We arrange meetings to discuss career opportunities with the top 30 candidates.

Any key results should be measurable so you can track your progress and see whether you’re staying on course. For instance, the metrics in the examples above are the number of people hired and successful relocations.

Once you’ve written your objectives, finalize them with leadership, department heads, and employee representatives. You’ll need to double-check that everyone is aligned on the strategy. Returning to our example, perhaps the C-suite has agreed that ten managers can relocate and employees are on board, but department heads fear that it’ll leave them short-staffed. It’s essential to address these concerns: In this instance, you could consider implementing a transitional plan that outlines how the company will manage workload and resources during the relocation period. ‍

8. Monitor progress & review 

Your HR strategy plan doesn’t end with implementation — you need to decide how you’ll monitor how it’s going and potentially adjust your approach as your needs change and evolve. ‍

💭 “We’ve emphasized continuous improvement since our first HR strategy. Our approaches evolved as we gained insights from experiences and integrated more comprehensive training and development programs. We also honed our communication channels: Fostering transparent dialogues with staff proved essential in understanding their changing needs. By adopting the right technology, we’ve made HR processes more efficient and user-friendly. Our HR strategies have ensured we attract the right individuals who align with our company ethos and contribute meaningfully to our mission. We’ve seen significant benefits: increased productivity, improved teamwork, and a notable boost in our quality of service.” — Sarah Jeffries, Managing Director, First Aid Course Leicester

Using data analytics, you can continue to observe trends in:

• Recruitment and retention
• Onboarding, training, and development
• Engagement levels
• Punctuality and absenteeism

Looking at the data, you can determine whether you’re seeing the expected results. For example, if you’re expanding your organization abroad, you should see changes in recruitment levels and employee demographics. You might be interested in investigating your onboarding times if you’re hiring a lot of candidates to check that training is running smoothly.

You can also use the data to evaluate how well your company has managed the changes. Retention and engagement levels are often telltale signs — if the initiatives have improved job satisfaction, you can expect an increase in both.

You can run surveys to get a clearer idea of employee responses toward the initiatives. When you’re managing hundreds of people over different locations, reading every answer won’t be feasible. Instead, turn answers to Likert and multiple choice questions into data to gauge your team’s overall sentiment using data analytics.

If you ask open-ended questions, you could use a tool like Leapsome’s AI survey comment summaries . Our Natural Language Processor interprets qualitative survey results to give you a deep analysis of written responses.

How Leapsome enables HR professionals

‍ Human resource teams should be a vital part of any business’s big-picture strategies. With their input, organizations can strike an ideal balance between working toward ambitious company objectives and supporting team members.

To enable HR professionals to thrive as they take on more strategic roles within your organization, you need the right tools. Our people enablement platform is ideal for creating HR plans that are tailored to your specific business needs. We allow you to manage:

• Company-wide goals and OKRs
• Employee feedback and surveys
• Career advancement processes
• Onboarding, learning, and development
• People analytics

With Leapsome, you can easily collaborate on any human resources strategy and get data-driven insights to make the best possible decisions for your organization’s future.  ‍

🖼️ Focus on the big picture, not the fine print Leapsome automates data collection, survey distribution, and review cycles so you’re free to strategize. 👉 Book a demo

Leapsome Team

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Download : Free HR business plan template

Every success story starts with a plan. Using this template, you can help flesh out a business plan for your HR function with: 

Best practices for HR business partnerships 

A helpful template to realise your people team’s goals

Tangible ways to action and activate an HR strategy

Download for free here

HR Business Plan Template: Everything You Need to Know

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce. 4 min read updated on September 19, 2022

With an HR business plan template, you can help your company recruit new employees, retain existing employees, and guide the development of the workforce so that you collectively meet your business objectives, regardless of any changes in the industry or economy.

When creating your HR business plan, you need to perform a needs analysis of your workplace to tailor the plan to your company's requirements. You'll also need to learn about the industry standards for your field to make sure you're competitive.

Without such a plan in place, your workers will feel unprepared and won't know how to work towards your company's overall goals.

Steps for Developing a Human Resources Department Business Plan

There are several steps to creating an HR business plan. They include:

• Clarify the requirements . While you might be tempted to create a detailed plan that encompasses the entire company's next 10 years, hold off. Always talk with your boss to see how much detail he or she would like in the plan. This will save you time and help streamline the process. However, there's no harm in creating your own personalized strategic plan for your specific department.
• Read through the HR job descriptions . The HR department typically has employees such as HR assistants, HR generalists, and an HR director . Read through the job descriptions for each worker in the department and see what kind of duties are missing. Brainstorm additional functions that each job role could provide to the company.
• Curate your list . Take the different functions you've brainstormed and compare them to what each member of the HR department is already doing. Are there functions you could add or subtract from each employee for more productivity? You don't have to go into detail here, but just think about how you could improve each role.
• Schedule a meeting with the executives . Before you make any changes, you'll obviously need to get input and approval from the company's executives. They may have more feedback on how the HR department can provide additional services and support the company's overall goals and mission.
• Create a feedback form . Come up with a list of questions to ask leadership about HR's role in the company and provide it to them in advance of the meeting so they have time to think it over and talk with their staff. You may even want to provide a rating and ranking format for the questions, as this will make their responses easy to understand and implement. Overall, this is a key process to understanding what management and employees want and need from the HR department.
• Look at external resources . While the internal information you're collecting is the most important, it also doesn't hurt to take a look at data from professional organizations and websites, such as the Society for Human Resource Management , The Balance , or HR Magazine . You can also ask colleagues from other local organizations for tips on creating your business plan.
• Use this information to make a plan . With your ideas, feedback from executives, and tips from external resources, you should have a clear idea of what your plan should look like. The things that are missing from the HR department should now be clear, and this should guide you on what to focus on to improve HR's contribution to the company.
• Identify goals for this year and next . While your plan can have long-term goals, keep the majority of them a little bit shorter in scope to see how things work out. This gives you the chance to reorganize and restructure if things aren't going right. Consider creating a list of accomplishments you can reach for the end of this year and into the next.

A Real Life Example

If you're seeking more guidance on how to create a successful HR business plan, look to Starbucks as an example.

As the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks had $21.3 billion in sales in 2016.

Despite these massive numbers, Starbucks maintains the same approach to their human resources department. All of the HR planning is guided by the company's organizational strategy and brand.

Their strategy is to use specific interview techniques when hiring new employees. This lets them identify potential leaders and place them in a "New Partner Orientation and Immersion" training program. With this system, Starbucks has achieved the lowest employee turnover rate in the quick-service restaurant industry.

Starbucks also offers numerous employee perks and dedicates a lot of time to employee training through an online portal that teaches employees essential job skills.

If you need help with your HR business plan template, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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HR Strategic Plan

There are many aspects of business that you have to get right consistently. Due to the number of people that will be involved in your company, human resources should be among the top of those aspects. Flip through almost any corporate magazine and you should see successful HR strategies examples clear as day. They may not always spell it out, but read between the lines and you should find them. With that said, any company can make good use of a HR strategic plan. If you want to get your own sample of HR strategic plan templates and learn more, you best scroll on.

HR Strategic Plan Example

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Recruitment Strategic Plan Template

Construction HR Strategic Plan Template

Possible Human Resource Management Strategies Template

Free Sample HR Strategy Plan Template

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HR Strategic Plan Template for Retail Business

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HR Strategic Plan Template for Small Business

Size: 34 KB

Hospital HR Strategic Plan Template

Size: 24 KB

Healthcare HR Strategic Plan Template

Size: 33 KB

Five Year HR Strategic Plan Template

Size: 36 KB

Free Simple HR Strategic Plan Template

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Free University HR Strategic Plan Template

Size: 23 KB

HR Strategy Plan Template

HR Strategic Action Plan Template

HR Strategic Communications Plan Template

Size: 37 KB

HR Strategic Business Plan Template

Human Resource Strategic Implementation Plan Example

Size: 107 KB

New Human Resource Management Plan Example

Size: 73 KB

Basic Human Resource Strategic Plan Example

New HR Workforce Plan Example

Size: 172 KB

Project HR Strategic Plan Example

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Sample Human Resource Strategic Plan Example

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Process Human Resource Strategic Plan Example

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HR Planning Model Example

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HR Strategic Plan Chart Example

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HR Warn Decision Matrix Example

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The Importance of a Human Resource Department

There are various reasons why a human resource department is important to a company’s success and survival. First, there’s its responsibility as far as recruitment is concerned. This is the most basic task of any individual working in a human resource department. Anybody looking to find and edit an HR strategic plan template should always keep recruitment policies in mind. Another important function of a HR department is employee engagement . Together with management, HR officers formulate policies to keep employees motivated and productive. Lastly, there is counseling. HR departments must also aim to create a positive working environment for all employees in the company. To achieve this, HR people do counseling and discuss with employees their issues or other problems being encountered in the office.

Tips for Creating an HR Strategic Plan

Acquiring an HR strategy template or a downloadable HR strategic plan PDF sample is easy. Coming up with your own strategic plan from scratch is hard. However, it doesn’t have to be too difficult. Below are some tips that are bound to come in handy down the line.

Tip 1: Always Think of Your Future Needs

Being proactive and thinking of the future is often the right way to go whenever you develop any kind of strategic plan. The same goes for HR-related issues. When planning, ask yourself specific questions like ‘what skills will we require in the future?’ or ‘how large do we want our company to be?’

Tip 2: Consider What Your Company is Presently Capable of

Although thinking of the future is a must, you must also not neglect to look into what your present needs and capabilities are. You can even perform a SWOT analysis of your overall workforce to determine your strengths and weaknesses. Consider the risks and look for where your future opportunities are realistically. In learning both your present and future needs, you can better bridge the gap.

Tip 3: Lay Out Specific Plans

Having assessed what you need and what you are capable of, the next thing we can advise you to do is to lay out your specific plans. Keep them as detailed and realistic as possible. This should be easier for you to do now that you are better aware of your present capabilities. Another tip would be to keep the SMART acronym in mind: make sure everything is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

Tip 4: Re-evaluate as Often as Needed

Even when you think you already have the most well-thought-out plan, there may be parts of it that still require tinkering in the future. Or perhaps new developments will arise that make your plans less than ideal. Since no action plan can be accurately called foolproof, then you must prepare to adapt to any new circumstances that you and your company find yourselves in.

What are the essential components of a human resource strategic plan?

A developed vision-mission statement for your company is one. Without that component, your strategies won’t be guided in a proper manner. Then there is the intimate knowledge of what your HR department has at its disposal.

What role does HR play in a company’s overall planning process?

HR professionals often contribute to a company’s plans in various ways. One, they often formulate tactics designed to encourage greater interaction within the company. Their recruitment tasks also lead to the right people entering into the company’s plans as those professionals get slotted into key roles in the organization.

What are the two types of strategies employed by HR departments?

HR departments often employ two general kinds of strategies: one is called overarching strategies and the other is called specific strategies. The latter hones in on particular HR strategies and tactics while the latter branches off and involve the other departments of the company.

Any human resource strategic plan sample is always going to be better than having no plan at all. HR is a nuanced department with several pitfalls to navigate away from. Do it right and you set your company on the path of greater success. Do it wrong, and you should see yourself riddled with excruciating problems to solve. Which situation do you prefer? Take what you’ve learned from this article, along with any human resource strategic plan template or human resource strategic plan sample, and act on them today!

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Create a study plan for final exams in high school

Develop a project timeline for a middle school science fair.

Free HR Project Plan Templates

By Kate Eby | September 22, 2022

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We’ve rounded up the most comprehensive list of human resources project plan templates for HR managers, HR staffing coordinators, project managers, diversity officers, information specialists (HRISs), and recruiters. 

Included on this page, you'll find a sample HR project plan template , an HR project action plan template , an HR staffing plan template , an HR onboarding plan checklist template , and an HR employee training plan template , among others. You’ll also get tips on what to include in your HR project plan.

HR Project Plan Template 

Download a Sample HR Project Plan Template for Excel | Google Sheets

Download a Blank HR Project Plan Template for Excel | Google Sheets

Use this visually dynamic HR project plan template to document every detail of your HR project plan. Within the template, you can list and manage tasks, assign them to HR personnel, set priorities and status for each, and track the percentage of task completion for the entire project. The template includes visualizations of your HR project data, including an Overall Task Status pie chart, a horizontal Budget bar chart, and a Pending Items vertical bar chart. This template is available as a blank document or with sample data, and both versions are completely customizable.

For more helpful HR templates and resources, see our article on top Excel templates for human resources .

HR Onboarding Plan Checklist Template

Download an HR Onboarding Plan Checklist Template for  Excel | Google Sheets

Use this all-encompassing HR onboarding plan checklist template to ensure that all new hires’ onboarding proceeds successfully and they’re happy they decided to accept your offer. The template includes columns for Preparatory, Orientation, and Integration onboarding tasks, under which you can list each to-do item to make every new hire’s transition to your company as seamless as possible. Use the Process Monitor / Mentor column to assign personnel for each stage in a new employee’s development so that they get up to speed in no time.

For additional project plan tips and resources in Excel format, see our article on top Excel project plan templates .

HR Staffing Plan Template

Download an HR Staffing Plan Template for Excel | Google Sheets  

Proactively staff organizational initiatives with this comprehensive HR staffing plan template. Under the template’s Recruiting Source column, list your recruiting source (e.g., Online Recruiting, Vendor Agencies, Campus Recruiting, Job Fairs ), and then itemize the recruiting plan’s budget, hire goal (i.e., number of desired candidates), funding, and status details. The template enables you to assign each staffing-plan item to a team member, and note any lessons learned that could help you with future staffing efforts. 

For more details on HR staffing and capacity planning, see our article on human resource planning and forecasts , which includes free templates.

Employee Training Plan Template

Download an Employee Training Plan Template for Excel | Google Sheets 

Use this employee training plan template to manage your employees’ career and skills development to ensure that everyone is maturing in their current role and benefitting the organization. Tailor the template to each employee’s skill level or pace, and use it to create training plans for employee development, so that team members increase their capabilities and continue to enrich your workplace.

HR Project Action Plan Template

Download an HR Project Action Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Docs   

Whether your HR plan of action is tactical, operational, or strategic, this HR project action plan enables you to state project goals, list required actions, assign each item to a team member, and set a due date for each action-plan item. Whether you need to create a performance improvement plan (PIP) with definitive steps that an employee must take, plan next year’s recruitment efforts, or create some other HR plan of action, this template ensures that all action items are completed and the project is a success. 

Check out this article for templates and resources for creating the perfect project plan in Microsoft Word .

HR Strategic Plan Template

Download an HR Strategic Plan Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Sheets    

Keep your HR team members, sponsors, and other stakeholders apprised of your HR plans with this HR strategic planning template. Reiterate your HR mission statement and your company’s guiding principles, and then document the benefits of the HR strategy (mission, objectives, future implications, etc.), the state of employee relations, and the strategic plan’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This template helps ensure that any strategy you implement takes all factors into consideration and sets you up for success.

HR Capacity Planning Template

Download an HR Capacity Planning Template for  Excel | Google Sheets | Smartsheet

Use this human resources capacity planning template to make sure that you properly allocate resources for a project or as a tool to ensure that you meet staffing requirements for a project to be successfully completed. Ensure timely project delivery by entering all individual task data, start and end dates, and hours required from each resource to complete the project. A pivot table provides a summary of your resource capacity planning data, so any team member or project sponsor can track resource and task status data at a glance.

HR Work Breakdown Structure Template

Download an HR Work Breakdown Structure Template for  Microsoft Word | Google Docs    

Keep your department apprised of your project plans and strategic developments with this HR work breakdown structure (WBS) template. The template provides a simple, hierarchical outline of the key tasks required for successful project completion. This easily shareable and presentation-friendly template is a great tool for HR teams looking for a simple structure and a visually compelling outline for their project’s planned activities.

HR Transition Plan Template

Download an HR Transition Plan Template for  Excel | Google Sheets    

Reduce the risk of “brain trust” lost when an employee transitions from one role to another or leaves the company with this HR transition plan template. The template is instrumental in ensuring that you successfully transfer knowledge and training from an employee who is leaving to their backfill. Set to-do tasks, assign sponsors or subject matter experts, and list helpful training the employee should undertake to succeed in their new role.

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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HR Strategic Plan Template

Customize, design, and edit this HR Strategic Plan template to effectively communicate your HR goals. With a vibrant design and clear layout, this template is ideal for outlining leadership development, employee wellness, and company culture initiatives. Perfect for internal presentations. Explore more business plans templates on Venngage to meet your diverse communication needs.

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• File type PNG, PDF, PowerPoint
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This HR strategic plan template is a great starting point for visualizing and communicating your own HR strategic plan. An HR strategic plan allows HR to communicate how HR operates and identify areas of improvement. HR Strategic Plan Template HR personnel should look at the HR strategy every year, maybe more than once a year. An HR Strategic Plan Template can be used to guide short and long term planning. HR must complete an HR strategic plan template for HR management purposes HR must conduct research before developing this HR strategy because it will help with specifying goals and outlining HR initiatives. HR may also use HR research to identify HR hiring methods and HR skills that will be needed in the future. HR needs this HR strategic plan template to increase organizational success and improve HR procedures among its employees. To get started you won't need any design experience. Venngge's online editor and professionally-designed HR strategic plan template is perfect for non-designers. Just click on ""create"" to begin customizing the template. To start, make your own content. You can stick

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Hr business plan, 10+ sample hr business plan, what is a hr business plan, areas of human resources, tips to improve human resource management , how to create a hr business plan, what is a hr business plan, how do you write a human resources business plan, what are the 7 major hr activities.

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HR Strategy Plan Template

What is an HR Strategy Plan?

An HR Strategy Plan is a systematic approach to managing employee performance and addressing issues that may arise. It is designed to help HR departments of all sizes and industries create objectives, set measurable targets, and implement projects to achieve their goals. By having a clear plan, HR departments can create a long-term strategy for success and navigate their company's growth.

What's included in this HR Strategy Plan template?

• 3 focus areas
• 6 objectives

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the HR Strategy Plan template for?

This HR Strategy Plan template is designed for Human Resources teams of all sizes and industries. It can be used to create a comprehensive plan to manage their employees and ensure their long-term success. It is an effective way to create a plan that is tailored to the needs of the organization and can be easily implemented and tracked.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

A focus area is a broad concept that encompasses the goals and objectives of a HR strategy plan. Examples of focus areas include employee retention, diversity, and employee recruitment. Each of these focus areas should be broken down into objectives, actions, and measurable targets that are specific to the organization's needs.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are specific goals that should be achieved in order to meet the focus areas. These objectives should be clearly outlined and measurable, so that they can be tracked and evaluated. Objectives should be realistic and achievable in order to ensure success. Examples of some objectives for the focus area of Employee Retention could be: Increase Employee Retention, and Increase Employee Engagement.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are metrics that are used to measure the success of objectives. They can be quantitative or qualitative, and should be set in order to measure progress towards the objectives. KPIs should be set for each objective in order to track progress and ensure success. An example of a KPI for the focus area of Employee Retention could be: Increase Retention Rate from 20% to 40%.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects are specific actions that are implemented in order to achieve the objectives and KPIs. Projects should be tailored to the needs of the organization and should be realistic and achievable. Projects should be tracked in order to ensure that they are meeting their goals, and should be adjusted if needed. An example of a project related to Employee Retention could be: Develop Employee Retention Programs.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

The Cascade Strategy Execution Platform is an easy-to-use tool that helps Human Resources teams create and track their plans. With this platform, teams can easily set objectives, measure progress, and adjust their plans in order to meet their goals. By utilizing this platform, teams can see faster results from their strategies and ensure success.

Business Plan

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A great business plan is essential for any successful business. Whether you're launching a new venture or growing an existing one, having a well-thought-out plan gives you the roadmap and clarity to make smart decisions.

Creating a comprehensive business plan doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming. ClickUp's Business Plan Template helps you quickly and easily create a detailed plan to cover all the bases:

• Define your goals and objectives
• Develop your strategy and execution timeline
• Track progress, identify risks, and measure success

Make your vision come alive with the right business plan - ClickUp's template will help get you there!

A business plan template is an invaluable tool for any entrepreneur or small business owner. It can help you:

• Clearly define your business goals and objectives
• Identify your target market and customer segments
• Outline your competitive advantages
• Develop a strategy for success and growth

ClickUp's Business Plan Template is designed to help you create and track a comprehensive business plan. This List template includes:

• Custom Statuses: Create tasks with custom statuses such as Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do to keep track of the progress of each step in the business plan
• Custom Fields: Categorize and add attributes such as Reference, Approved, and Section to manage your tasks and easily visualize the steps of a business plan
• Custom Views: Open 5 different views in different ClickUp configurations, such as Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide so that you can hit the ground running
• Project Management: Improve business plan tracking with tagging, nested subtasks, multiple assignees, and priority labels

Creating a business plan is an important first step when starting a business. A good business plan should outline your goals, strategies, and objectives. It should also include a timeline of when you plan to accomplish each step. With ClickUp, creating a comprehensive and effective business plan is easy. Here are five steps to get started:

Your business plan should start with a strong statement of your objectives. This will provide an overview of what your business is all about and what your goals are. Use a Doc in ClickUp to brainstorm ideas for objectives and collect feedback from your team.

Your business plan should also include a description of the products or services you offer. Describe the features and benefits of each product or service and explain how it meets customer needs.

Create tasks in ClickUp to list out the features and benefits of each product or service.

In order to make sure your plan stays on track, create a timeline of when you plan to accomplish each step of the plan. Use a Gantt chart in ClickUp to plan out tasks in chronological order and track your progress over time.

Your business plan should include measurable goals that you can use to track your progress. These goals should be specific, realistic, and achievable.

Create Goals in ClickUp to set measurable targets and track your progress.

Once your business plan is complete, share it with your team and review it regularly. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Set a recurring task in ClickUp to review your business plan and make any necessary changes.

Entrepreneurs and business owners can use this Business Plan Template to help everyone stay on the same page when it comes to planning and organizing business goals.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a successful business plan:

• Use the Topics View to organize tasks by area of focus
• The Status View will help you keep track of progress and update statuses as tasks are completed
• The Timeline View will help you create a timeline for each task and ensure that deadlines are met
• The Business Plan View will give you a space to store all of your business plan documents
• The Getting Started Guide will help you get up and running quickly and efficiently
• Organize tasks into four different statuses: Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, To Do, to keep track of progress
• Set up notifications to stay up-to-date on progress
• Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure maximum productivity

Get Started with Our Business Plan Template Today

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Creating your strategic HR plan

What is an HR plan?

An HR plan provides a clear roadmap for HR professionals to deliver on their organization’s business goals. It encompasses the programs and plans around things like culture, tools, internal comms, hybrid/remote work, and benefits that the HR team owns. The introduction of an HR plan helps modern businesses prevent staffing shortages and surpluses—and ensures the best fit between employees and jobs.

HR plans consider your organization’s people today and forecast future work demands. With a clear HR plan, companies can remain productive and profitable. An HR plan supports the company’s business strategy for the coming year by ensuring a steady stream of skilled people is in place to keep everything on track.

Why is a strategic HR plan important?

Developing a strategic HR plan that connects your HR strategy with your broader business initiatives is invaluable. A strategic HR plan is a document that drives your business forward by evaluating where your workforce is at and comparing it to future needs. It sets out your organizational goals—and outlines how your HR team will help achieve them. 

A strategic HR plan requires your company’s HR department to act as a strategic rather than an administrative business function. And it demands HR’s active involvement in wider discussions throughout your business. In short, strategic planning for HR demonstrates how the HR function can support broad organizational initiatives and help your company thrive.

Planning your HR activity in this way and being proactive rather than reactive enables HR professionals to solve significant business challenges—from costly employee turnover to productivity pitfalls. And it helps to achieve organizational goals with strategic recruitment, compensation, talent management, and succession planning.

How to plan your HR strategy

Want to get HR a seat at the table? You need to be strategic. Set aside time to plan out your biggest goals for the year. This way, you can hit the ground running with all the facts, figures, and strategies you need to succeed.

Here’s a checklist to help you structure your strategic HR plan. You’ll need to block out some time to do this effectively, so make sure you allow yourself a few focused hours.

1. Ask the relevant questions

This first step is when you’ll define your priorities for creating an effective strategy that helps you reach your goals. Build a thorough overview of the organization’s challenges, opportunities, and capability gaps to plan how to overcome them during the year.

Ask yourself:

• What capabilities in the business need to be strengthened?
• Will these capabilities be improved through development or by hiring new talent?
• How does culture impact your HR goals ?
• What elements of your culture require bolstering?
• What tools, programs, comms, and strategies will be required to engage the organization at every level?

Gather as many facts and figures as you can, getting specific about teams, job roles, and territories

2. Do research

It’s also important to consider the world beyond your organization, including trends and factors to take into account when considering your strategic plan. This will involve some research via third-party organizations such as government, independent research bodies, and consultancies.

• Any new legal requirements or regulations to consider
• Demographic trends in your territories
• Social and technological changes in the short- and mid-term
• Political movements within your business footprint
• Salary expectations for business-critical roles

3. Plan your initiatives

Based on your priorities and the micro and macro trends, it’s now time to start planning what strategies, projects, and initiatives you’ll put into place to achieve your goals for the year:

• What hiring strategies, development , pipelining, training, and compensation will be required to achieve your goals?
• What external and internal resources will be required to implement your strategies and projects?
• What is the anticipated budget requirement?

4. Check-in with your stakeholders

Often you’ll need buy-in from different parts of the organization to achieve your goals. This means you need to represent to the C-suite what your team’s contributions will be to achieving business goals.

5. Measure and analyze

HR strategies live and die by their data and analytics, so it’s important to rigorously plan out how you intend to capture, measure, and analyze the effectiveness of your strategies to report back to stakeholders.

It could be useful to compare this data to any external data you can find from other organizations, for example, via case studies. Measurement metrics can be collected through the following steps:

• Identifying and measuring KPIs
• Determining the different kinds of data that will need and compare it with? to be gathered, such as qualitative, quantitative, and self-reported from employees and team leaders.
• Establishing how your statistics will be measured. What software or platforms will you gather, measure,and compare it with?

What are the benefits of strategic human resources planning?

Strategic planning for HR syncs your HR strategy with your broader business initiatives.

As an HR professional, taking a strategic approach to planning offers many benefits, like improving levels of engagement within your organization, attracting superior talent, and reducing turnover.

Strategic analysis helps you determine if your people have everything they need to be productive—and identify the need for added resources to enhance productivity where necessary.

Assessing your existing talent and auditing compensation , benefits, work environments, and levels of engagement helps you enact better policies and retain valued talent. And introducing development plans can further support people’s professional growth within your business.

Best practices for implementing an HR strategy

While there isn’t a right or wrong way to build a successful HR strategy, you can follow certain best practices when developing and implementing yours.

• Align your HR strategy to your business needs by activating your people and processes to reach the goals and growth outlined in your business strategy
• Know your budget and focus on strategic initiatives that fit within your organization’s budget
• Identify what success looks like, establish key performance indicators, and track progress against them over the year
• Focus on collaboration and involve your key stakeholders and other business partners across your organization to get their support, buy-in, and sign-off
• Drive engagement through communication and use multiple channels to encourage everyone in your organization to support your HR strategy 
• Measure your results in real-time and study what the data tells you to strengthen and reinforce your HR strategy with your stakeholders
• Monitor and adjust your HR strategy over time and revise it to achieve your desired results  

Your strategic HR plan template

Practical and actionable—HR professionals can use this strategic HR plan template to ensure their business is well-staffed and well-served.

1.   Look at your business—identify what you want to achieve

Start your strategic HR plan by establishing your current state, outlining what you’d like to achieve, and identifying the metrics to get you there. Focus on:

• Clarifying your overarching business strategy and goals
• Identifying the metrics related to your desired outcomes

2.   Look at your people—and identify their skill sets

Next, consider your people and their collective performance, productivity, and skill sets. Your HR plan will support your company’s business strategy for the coming year by ensuring a steady stream of skilled people is ready to keep everything on track.

3.   Do your people need anything?

A skills gap analysis will help you identify if your people could benefit from additional help, training, or resources to increase their productivity, knowledge, or abilities.

4.   Where do you shine?

Assess your work environments and levels of engagement and audit the compensation and benefits you offer. Understanding your current state of where you stand can help you retain the people you value—and compete for new talent in the job market.

5.   Grow your talent

Reviewing and understanding your current state allows HR professionals to look at their people, identify anyone ready to grow, and create a talent development plan.

6.   Leaving so soon?

Your HR plan supports your company’s business strategy by ensuring a steady stream of skilled people is ready to keep everything on track. If you’re seeing a high talent turnover, now’s the time to investigate what’s happening and why— finding out what’s causing people to leave and addressing the root cause of their unhappiness. 

7.   Looking ahead

  Succession planning can help HR professionals to reduce disruption. Identifying those people who could fill positions if they became vacant can smooth the way for people in the event of a sudden departure from the business.

8.   Make data-driven decisions

Use data and analytics to guide your strategic decision-making. You can access a wealth of information by analyzing your compensation history, turnover rates, levels of engagement, and other HR metrics.

9.   Where you’re going, why—and how

Developing mission and vision statements can help HR professionals stay on course as they implement a strategic HR plan. Refer to your mission and vision statements to check that you align with the broader business initiatives and connect with your strategic HR plan.

Documenting your strategic HR plan

HR strategy plans can be any length, but it’s helpful when thinking about writing an HR strategic plan to focus on clarity and simplicity so that HR leaders and the wider business can easily refer to the contents.

Try to be concise, relay the facts, and, where possible, use data visualizations to illustrate your point. By documenting your HR strategic plan, you also have a record of where you started and can course-correct where and when necessary as time passes.

Keep your mission and vision statements to hand as you deliver the organizational business goals outlined in your strategic HR plan. Referring to the statements often will ensure you align with the broader corporate strategy as you go.

What does a good HR strategy look like? 

While a business strategy outlines how a business will achieve its goals and growth, a good HR strategy creates the internal structures needed to activate people and processes to reach those goals. 

VaynerMedia

VaynerMedia is a mid-size marketing and advertising agency based in New York City, with additional offices in Los Angeles, London, Singapore, and Mexico City. The company’s strategy is all about people, putting human beings at the forefront of everything it does—ensuring its ideas and plans are culturally rich and consumer-led.

VaynerMedia approaches strategy with practicality, humility, and empathy and believes the most effective way to drive relevance and growth is by speaking specifically and differently to people based on who they are, by listening and understanding.

VaynerMedia is a perfect example of how an HR strategy can align seamlessly with a company’s broader business goals. Its people are not just its greatest asset—they’re a community. With an HRIS that manages the entire employee lifecycle, VaynerMedia puts its own people front and center and welcomes new hires into its positive culture and inclusive and friendly workplace.

Fiverr’s culture is built around its people-first perspective. The company’s mission is to change how the world works together, and it has fundamentally changed the way businesses and freelancers work with each other.

Fiverr prioritizes the individual members of its community and continuously strives to build an atmosphere of connection and inclusivity. The ‘people company’ loves its team members for who they are and celebrates their diverse backgrounds.

Fiverr’s HR strategy and mindset focus on the personal touch. With an HR team made up of 25 professionals, the company is dedicated to supporting its people. It sought a powerful HRIS to support its people throughout their entire employee lifecycle and provide a friendly and engaging way to communicate with its people worldwide.

Recommended For Further Reading

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Save the Children Italia

For over 100 years, Save the Children has been improving the lives of children and provides emergency aid during times of natural disaster, war, and other conflicts. Save the Children Italia , the organization’s Italian branch, has sites in Rome and Milan and employs 219 permanent employees and 84 temporary workers with fixed-term contracts. 

Following a period of growth in headcount and projects, Save the Children Italia decided to implement a modern HR platform to replace their spreadsheets and manual processes, modernize their performance management process, and create a sense of community for their people working remotely and in the field. They were passionate about moving from annual performance reviews to a continuous feedback model and replacing their top-down approach with 360-degree feedback for a more holistic and engaging experience.

At HiBob, we’ve built a modern HR platform designed for modern business needs—today and beyond.

An HR platform such as Bob offers a one-stop shop for all things HR. It sits at the center of your HR ecosystem, is fully customizable, and grows with your organization. 

For HR, it delivers automation of many common processes, allows greater oversight and visibility of the business, and centralizes all people data in a secure, user-friendly environment.

For managers, it provides access to data and insights to help them lead more effectively and streamline processes.

For employees, it’s the tools and information they need to connect, develop, and grow throughout their journey.  

In a short time, Bob can be deployed to enable communication, collaboration, and connectivity that drives stronger engagement, productivity, and business outcomes.

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HR Plan Templates

• May 15, 2024
• HR Template

Human Resources (HR) planning is crucial for any organization, as it ensures that the right people are in the right roles at the right time to achieve business objectives.  HR Plan Templates serve as a blueprint for HR managers to strategize, implement, and evaluate HR practices effectively

Importance of HR Planning:

Human Resources (HR) planning is vital for several reasons:

Anticipating and Meeting Organizational Needs: HR planning helps anticipate future workforce requirements based on organizational goals and changes in the business environment. By understanding staffing needs in advance, HR can ensure that the right talent is available when needed.

Talent Acquisition and Retention: Effective HR planning enables organizations to attract, recruit, and retain top talent. It helps identify the skills and competencies required for various roles, allowing HR to develop recruitment strategies to fill those positions.

Optimal Resource Utilization: HR planning ensures that resources, including human capital, are utilized efficiently. It helps prevent understaffing or overstaffing situations, optimizing workforce productivity and cost-effectiveness.

Succession Planning and Talent Development: HR planning involves identifying and developing future leaders within the organization. By implementing succession planning initiatives, HR ensures a smooth transition when key positions become vacant. Additionally, it facilitates the development of employee skills through training and career development programs.

Adapting to Change: In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations frequently face changes such as technological advancements, market shifts, or regulatory requirements. HR planning allows organizations to adapt to these changes by adjusting their workforce strategies accordingly.

Related Article: 10 Tips To Build An Employee Task Tracker Template – PMITOOLS

How can HR Planning uplift our business?

HR planning can uplift a business in several ways:

1. Aligning Human Capital with Business Objectives: Effective HR planning ensures that the organization has the right people in the right positions to achieve its strategic goals. By aligning HR strategies with business objectives, HR helps maximize employee contributions to the company’s success.

2. Optimizing Workforce Productivity: HR planning helps prevent under- or over-staffing situations, ensuring optimal workforce productivity. By accurately forecasting staffing needs, HR can avoid costly inefficiencies and ensure that resources are utilized efficiently.

3. Attracting and Retaining Top Talent: A well-developed HR plan includes strategies for attracting, recruiting, and retaining top talent. By offering competitive compensation, benefits, and career development opportunities, HR can attract skilled employees who are committed to the organization’s success.

4. Fostering Employee Engagement: Engaged employees are more productive, innovative, and committed to their work. HR planning includes initiatives to enhance employee engagement, such as training and development programs, recognition and rewards, and opportunities for career advancement.

Related Article: Top 3 Employee Performance Report Templates – PMITOOLS

5. Supporting Organizational Growth: As businesses grow and evolve, their HR needs change accordingly. HR planning anticipates future workforce requirements and develops strategies to support organizational growth, whether through expansion into new markets, launching new products/services, or scaling operations.

6. Enhancing Organizational Agility: In today’s fast-paced business environment, agility is essential for success. HR planning enables organizations to adapt quickly to changes in the market, technology, or regulatory environment by adjusting staffing levels, skills, and competencies as needed.

7. Improving Decision-Making: HR planning provides valuable data and insights that support informed decision-making. By analyzing workforce trends, skills gaps, and performance metrics, HR helps leaders make strategic decisions that drive business success.

8. Cultivating a Positive Workplace Culture: A strong workplace culture fosters teamwork, innovation, and employee satisfaction. HR planning includes initiatives to promote a positive culture, such as diversity and inclusion programs, employee wellness initiatives, and effective communication strategies.

10. Building a Strong Employer Brand: A positive employer brand attracts top talent and enhances the organization’s reputation in the marketplace. HR planning includes initiatives to build and maintain a strong employer brand, such as employer branding campaigns, employee referral programs, and positive employee experiences.

Related Article: PMO Dashboard Template – PMITOOLS

Tips to create HR Plan Templates:

Creating HR Plan Templates involve several key considerations. Here are some tips to guide you:

1. Understand Organizational Goals: Begin by aligning your HR plan with the organization’s strategic objectives. Understanding the business’s long-term vision and goals will help tailor HR strategies to support them effectively.

2. Conduct a Comprehensive Analysis: Perform a thorough assessment of the organization’s current state, including its structure, workforce demographics, and culture. Conduct SWOT analysis to identify internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.

3. Involve Key Stakeholders: Collaboration with key stakeholders, including department heads, managers, and employees, is crucial. Their input will provide valuable insights into workforce needs and priorities.

4. Define Clear Objectives: Clearly define the objectives of your HR plan, ensuring they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). These objectives will guide your HR strategies and initiatives.

5. Tailor Strategies to Needs: Develop HR strategies that address the identified needs and objectives. This may include recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, employee relations, and compensation and benefits.

Related Article: 3 Tips To Create Cost Management Plan Template | PMITOOLS

6. Ensure Flexibility: Your HR plan should be flexible enough to adapt to changing business needs and external factors. Build in mechanisms for periodic review and adjustment as necessary.

7. Consider Diversity and Inclusion: Incorporate diversity and inclusion initiatives into your HR plan to ensure a diverse and equitable workplace. Implement strategies to attract, retain, and develop a diverse workforce.

8. Budget Appropriately: Allocate resources effectively to support your HR strategies. Consider budget constraints and prioritize initiatives based on their impact on organizational goals.

9. Establish Metrics for Evaluation: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your HR plan. These metrics should align with your objectives and provide meaningful insights into the effectiveness of HR initiatives.

10. Communicate and Engage: Ensure effective communication and engagement with employees throughout the HR planning process. Transparency and involvement will foster buy-in and support for HR initiatives.

11. Review and Revise Regularly: Regularly review and revise your HR plan to ensure it remains relevant and effective. Solicit feedback from stakeholders and adjust strategies as needed to address changing priorities or challenges.

For HR Management Templates: HR Management Template (Strategy, Performance) Excel (ucube.biz)

Top 3 HR Plan Templates:

Shrm hr strategic plan template:.

• Comprehensive template offered by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
• Covers all aspects of HR planning, including workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management, and diversity and inclusion.
• Customizable and aligns with SHRM’s competency model.
• Provides guidance for developing strategic HR initiatives.
• Suitable for organizations of all sizes and industries.

HR Planning Toolkit by CIPD:

• Offered by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
• Provides templates and guidance for various HR planning aspects, such as workforce planning, talent management, and performance management.
• Includes tools for conducting skills audits, forecasting workforce requirements, and developing action plans.
• Designed for organizations to develop effective HR plans tailored to their specific needs.
• Suitable for businesses and HR professionals seeking practical tools and resources.

HR Strategic Plan Template by HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector:

• Tailored for nonprofit organizations by the HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector.
• Helps nonprofits align HR strategies with their mission and objectives.
• Covers areas such as talent acquisition, performance management, and employee engagement.
• Includes sections for goal-setting, strategy development, and progress monitoring.
• Suitable for nonprofit organizations aiming to develop strategic HR plans that support their unique missions.

Related Article: Strategic human resource planning – Wikipedia

Conclusion:

In short, HR Plan Templates are the valuable tools for HR professionals to develop strategic initiatives aligned with organizational goals. By using HR plan templates, organizations can ensure consistency, efficiency, and effectiveness in their HR practices, ultimately leading to a more engaged workforce and better business outcomes.

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HR Strategy & Processes Templates

Form a strong foundation for your HR practices and achieve organizational excellence with our HR strategy & processes templates. Quickly design comprehensive HR strategies, streamline essential processes, and align HR initiatives with your overall business goals. Whether you’re designing employee policies, refining compensation structures, or creating diversity and inclusion strategies, use these templates as a roadmap for creating a well-structured and efficient HR framework.

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• Project planning |
• HR project plan

HR project plan template

No matter the project, human resources teams can use our template to set priorities, track progress, and streamline recurring work.

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How to plan and manage HR projects with our template

Today’s human resources teams don’t just handle payroll, onboarding, and offboarding. They’re also responsible for a wide range of projects and internal processes to ensure the success of every employee. But without a central system for managing work and priorities, HR teams struggle to keep up with everything on their plate. Fortunately, a work management tool like Asana can help HR teams track work progress, scale processes, and stay aligned with less effort. Try our HR project plan template—and the following tips–to get started:

Streamline recurring work . Establish repeatable processes for common HR workflows—such as quarterly planning or review cycles—so you can spend less time planning work and more time getting it done.

Set team priorities . Make sure everyone knows which tasks are mission-critical, and which are nice-to-haves, by defining and prioritizing goals across your team.

Communicate progress . Track and share updates in one place (like Asana) to keep everyone on the same page without the endless email threads.

Related templates

Short-term goals template

Learn how reusable short-term goals templates can take your goals from vision to reality.

Communication plan

Keep everyone on the same page and clearly communicate important information to stakeholders by creating a communication plan template in Asana.

Work log template

See where you're losing time and kickstart your productivity by creating a work log template in Asana.

Risk register template

Create a risk register template to proactively identify and solve potential roadblocks before they become a bigger problem.

A sales plan template can help provide your team with the organized framework they need to establish their sales goals. Learn how you can do that with Asana.

Risk management plan template

Starting a project without considering risks is, well, a big risk to take. Prevent major issues from occurring in your project with a risk management plan template.

Weekly to-do list template

Clarity doesn’t have to be complicated. With a weekly to-do list template, you can create a new task list in seconds every Monday.

Prioritization matrix

Take the guesswork out of task prioritization by creating a prioritization matrix template. Prioritize your work by business impact and needed effort.

Change management plan template

Is your organization starting to make some big changes? Create a change management plan template to make the process easier.

Project premortem

A premortem is a brainstorming tactic your team uses to anticipate different ways a project can fail. Learn how to use a premortem template to minimize project risk.

Bill of materials

Learn how a bill of materials template helps keep you organized by housing all the information needed for the successful completion of your project.

Learn how creating a RAID log template in Asana can help you proactively identify and mitigate project risks.

Waterfall project management

Standardize your project process with a waterfall project management template. Break your project into sequential phases that map to your end goal.

Status report

Keep track of project status and provide key stakeholders with at-a-glance progress updates with a project status report template.

Project timeline template

Learn how to keep a project on track—and ensure success—by creating a project timeline template.

RFP Process

Use our template to prepare an RFP, then organize and evaluate the responses—all in the same place—so you can pick the best vendor for the job.

Business process management template

Learn how a business process management template can help improve your business processes.

Project estimation

Create a project estimation template to accurately scope project resources and align on project expectations.

Project schedule

Complex work, simplified. Organize project tasks, deliverables, and milestones into one cohesive schedule. Learn how to create a customized project schedule template in Asana.

IT project plan

Organize your IT work in one place. Manage deployments, order equipment, and connect teams—without compromising security.

Daily planner template

Keeping your day organized is more than just writing down a list of daily to-dos. Learn how to create a daily planner template in Asana.

Event promotion plan

Use Asana’s event marketing plan template to increase event awareness, build excitement, and drive audience attendance.

Marketing project plan

Our template guides you through project management best practices for marketing teams so you can get from strategy to tactics to results.

Design project plan

What’s the secret to more productive design and creative projects? A smooth creative process.

Project documentation

Looking for documents is a giant time waster for most people—which is where a project documentation process comes in. Learn how to create a project documentation template so that you always know where documents live—for every project, company-wide.

Eisenhower Matrix template

Overwhelmed by your to-do list? Learn how to create an Eisenhower Matrix template in Asana so you can prioritize and sort your tasks based on their urgency and importance.

Project scope management plan

A project’s scope is just as important as its budget or timeline. Prioritize this crucial part of project management by creating a project scope management plan template.

RACI matrix

Team decision-making can be hard—a RACI matrix template makes it easier. Define each project task role to instantly boost clarity for all your stakeholders.

Project initiation document

A project initiation document template is a helpful way to standardize the information you share with your team before a project begins.

Implementation plan

Create an implementation plan template to break down your business goals into manageable, achievable steps.

Project charter template

Want to nail your next project pitch? Create a project charter template and outline everything you need to get your next initiative approved.

Public relations plan

Create focused, targeted, and organized PR campaigns—no matter who’s planning them—with a public relations plan template.

Operations project plan template

Operations teams strive to optimize and gain efficiency across the business, and can do the same for their own projects with our template.

Web production template

Let our template help you coordinate a web production schedule—even if producers and web developers work out of different tools.

Action items template

No matter your best intentions, you need more than motivation to knock out your to-dos. An action item template—where you decide the who, what, and when of every task—can help you organize your workflows and get more done.

Critical path method template

Project delays holding you back? Create a critical path method template to visualize everything that needs to be done in order to reach your end goal.

Milestone chart template

Milestone charts highlight significant moments in your workflow. Learn why this matters and how to create one for yourself.

Stay on top of every HR project

Get our HR project plan template with a free trial of Asana.

HR templates, documents and letters

Find the hr templates you need for your business, whether that's documents, letters or forms – all drafted by cipd-qualified hr experts..

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Welcome to our HR templates hub, designed to save you time and ensure your documents are accurate, compliant, and legally sound. Whether you need a well-drafted risk assessment template, a clear and concise redundancy letter, or any other HR-related form, our extensive HR templates library has got you covered.  ‍ Say goodbye to hours spent searching for reliable HR resources or struggling to draft documents from scratch – our Human Resources templates have been crafted by our team of CIPD-qualified experts, so your small business is in good hands.

Find the HR template you need

Employee onboarding checklist, employee details form, employee time off form, return to work interview template, hr compliance checklist , interview preparation checklist , disciplinary procedure template, flexible working request, appraisal templates , 360 review template, employee engagement survey, hr templates for small businesses < 30 team members.

Running a business is made of a lot of different aspects – HR being one of them. But unlike the rest, HR makes no room for mistakes.  HR can be even more challenging for small businesses, where it’s often adjacent to other responsibilities. Without the right knowledge, it’s easy to start feeling unsure about compliance , whether you’re the CEO, founder, or ops manager.  At Charlie, the early days of our small business were quite stressful as we didn't know which aspect of HR to prioritise.  That’s why we wanted to share with you our HR templates & documents package for small businesses – put together by our in-house CIPD qualified experts.  ‍ This package is based on the most-common queries our HR advisors get from the small businesses they speak to every day, and which documents they used to solve their problems. It includes:

• The most important HR templates and documents to get started and be 100% compliant. 
• The HR documents and templates you will need in the near future once you’ve got the basics covered.  

HR templates – the basics

Making sure you have ready-made templates for your team is crucial when you run a small business. It will allow you to: 

• Safely keep records saved in a Drive folder, or maybe in a cloud-based software like CharlieHR for added security.
• Save a great deal of time – instead of using a reactive approach and searching for HR templates on an ad-hoc basis, you’ll have a reliable source to go back to whenever you need it. 
• Protect yourself from legal complications – avoid legal issues by avoiding free templates from unreliable sources, which may lack important details or contain incorrect wording or information that could lead to bad consequences for your business. 

One of your first HR tasks will be to onboard your new hires to help you build your company from the ground up. As many studies have shown, it's crucial their onboarding is structured and looks professional. By following this checklist, you'll make new hires feel welcome and ensure you take the first step towards retention.

On top of collecting passport information or VISA, you also need to have your employee details on file – use this template to collect all the information you need from them.

Team members are entitled to holidays, whether that's from your own policy or from the standard UK allowance – to make sure your business remains operational and you record time off and allowances, you'll need them to send an employee time off form. Download ours for peace of mind. 

Team members can get sick from time to time, and that's where return to work interviews can be handy – they'll help you catch up with the team member to understand what happened and make sure they have all the support they need to get back to work.

Worried about not having the right processes and not being compliant enough? Our HR compliance checklist can support you to make sure you don’t leave any aspect of HR compliance behind. 

Be ready to interview your new hires with our interview preparation checklist. It’s important to come prepared to any interview you’re running, so we’ve shared our own prep list to make it easier. 

As part of your disciplinary procedure, you'll need to have a disciplinary procedure outlined if one of your employees misstep. We've put one together to guide you through this complex process, so you have a point of reference if it were to happen.

As part of a 2024 law change, employees are now allowed to request flexible working

Go further with your HR templates

Once you’ve got the basics in place, it's time to think about where your HR templates and processes can take you next.  Many employees join startups and small businesses to benefit from quick progression as well as career opportunities they wouldn't get at other companies. ‍ To do this, you’ll need to have clear HR processes in place. We’re here to support you with our HR templates and documents. 

Get your performance management sorted right from the start – this will make your team members feel valued and recognised for the work they do every day, and has a potential to boost your retention. 

It’s great to put performance management in place, but it’s even better if it can come from all sides of your company. By putting together a 360 review process, you guarantee that feedback is not just a one way street at your small business. 

Employee engagement survey 

It can be difficult to understand how your team members are feeling at work – that’s where running employee engagement surveys may be helpful. Make sure you always keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to your workplace. 

Excusal from jury service letter

Garden leave letter template, maternity leave letter, phased return to work plan example.

Check out our article

Get the template

An excusal from jury service letter can come in handy if you need one of your team members to be around. Make sure you outline all the important aspects in this template.

Discover what should be included in the letter

Learn what professions are automatically exempt from jury duty

Find out who is responsible for writing a jury duty exemption letter

A garden leave letter template can be used to communicate with your team member during a dismissal process. This will let them know that you'd like them not to work whilst still paying them. This is usually to make sure the team member doesn't interfere with the company's interests.

Learn in what circumstances you can use garden leave

Find out more about the pros and cons of using garden leave

Download a free letter template to standardise your garden leave process 

A maternity leave letter is a formal written communication from an expectant mother to her employer, notifying them of her intention to take time off from work to care for her newborn child. The employer is expected to reply with a ‘confirmation of maternity leave’ letter to approve the parental leave period.

Learn how the process of requesting and approving maternity leave works

Find out what regulations you should follow as an employer

Download two letter templates: one for employees to request maternity and another one to respond to their request

Returning to work can be daunting after an extended period of absence. That's why it might be a good idea to put together a phased return. This is done with your employee after being ill for an extended period of time, or after coming back from maternity leave.

Check when to use return to work plans at your business

Learn how to structure your plan to support your team member and protect your business at the same time

Save our sample template for when you’ll need to put an employee on a phased return to work plan

A return to work interview template is a structured document you can use to conduct a meeting with a team member who is returning to work after a period of absence, to discuss the reasons for the absence and facilitate a smooth transition back into the workplace.

Find out in what circumstances you should conduct a return to work interview

Learn about what to ask your team members and how to structure your meeting

Get a ready-made template you can use every time you conduct return-to-work interviews

Automate your HR, all of it

Charlie helps you banish manual and repetitive HR tasks, so you can focus on what really matters.

Flexible working request 

In line with the new flexible working requests laws of 2024, you should be ready to accommodate requests for employees right after they've been hired. Read our blog post to find out more and download our template.

Check what your team’s rights are when it comes to flexible working

Discover what the flexible working requesting/approval process looks like

Get a simple templates your employees can use to request flexible working adjustments

Investigation meeting template

Disciplinary appeal letter, written warning template.

An investigation meeting template outlines the structure and key elements of a meeting held to conduct a formal inquiry into a workplace issue or complaint (for example, as part of a disciplinary process).

Find out in what circumstances you should have an investigation meeting

Learn how to structure you meeting to be in line with law requirements

Download a simple template to have at hand whenever you need

When faced with allegations of employee misconduct, finding the right balance between fairness and consistency, all while ensuring compliance with the law is a challenging task. Find out in this complete guide how this is possible by putting together the right procedure and download a free template.

Download a free disciplinary procedure template written by HR experts

Understand all the elements that need to go into your disciplinary procedure

Find out the challenges that may arise in a small business context and how to tackle them

A disciplinary appeal is a formal letter used to acknowledge a dispute between an employee and an employer following a disciplinary action. Understand everything you need to know about it from the employer's point of view.

Download a free disciplinary appeal letter to provide to your team members

Find out which information needs to be given in a disciplinary appeal letter to make it valid

Get the right advice to respond to the disciplinary appeal letter

Crafting written warning templates for disciplinary actions against employees can be quite challenging, but having a well-designed template can greatly impact the process. So, how do you get it right? How do you strike the appropriate tone and choose the most effective delivery method? Find out in this blog post.

Download a written warning template that will protect you against any legal issues and communicate with your team members clearly

Understand how you will use this written warning template and in which circumstances

Get advice on how to handle disciplinary issues from HR experts

Workplace accident report

Risk assessment templates, workplace accident report template.

A work accident report template is a standardised form used to document and record details about workplace accidents, injuries, or other incidents involving your team members.

Find out what data you need to record

Learn how to describe the accident

Outline the corrective actions to be taken

Get the home working risk assessment template

Get the pregnancy risk assessment template

A risk assessment template is a tool that helps you identify, evaluate and mitigate potential hazards and risks in various processes, activities or environments to make sure your workplace is safe.

Fully understand the legal requirements, so your company is protected from being taken to court

Get an overview of common workplace hazards, including when working from home and during pregnancy

Download two risk assessment templates compiled by qualified HR experts

Redundancy letter templates

Letter of dismissal template, zero hour contract example, hr compliance checklist, employee database template.

Get the risk-of-redundancy template

Get the redundancy notice template

Learn how redundancy letters fit in the wider redundancy process

Download a free at-risk-of-redundancy letter template written by qualified HR experts

Get a redundancy notice letter examples to adapt to your company’s context

It can sometimes happen that you need to let go of one of your team members. As difficult as it may be, it's important you get the wording right. Find out what information you need in this template and get some tips from our blog.

Find out in what circumstances to send a letter of dismissal

Ensure you know what to include

Stay on the right side of the law throughout the dismissal process

A zero-hour contract is an agreement between the employer and the employee where there is no minimum number of hours worked. This gives the employer and employee more flexibility.

Discover how to comply with employment law while using zero-hour contracts

Learn how to structure your contract to protect both your company and your team members

Get a ready-made contract template you can use for all your casual workers

An HR compliance checklist is crucial for ensuring adherence to laws and regulations governing employees' rights and employer responsibilities. If you're a small business owner or founder, managing HR matters is just one among numerous responsibilities, and errors in this domain can lead to significant consequences. Find out more in our guide and download our checklist.

Download a complete checklist to learn the steps to take to make your business compliant

Get a basic HR audit completed in a few steps without having to pay for a professional

Understand which documentation may be missing from your current HR processes

Welcoming a new employee to the team is a moment filled with anticipation and excitement. However, before diving into the exciting prospects ahead, the initial step involves gathering employee details and incorporating them into your payroll system to initiate payment – so how do you do it without wasting any time to get the work done?

Download a free employee details form to collect your employee’s information

Find out what information you need to collect from your team members to stay compliant

Get timelines as to which and when information should be collected

A comprehensive employee database is super important for all businesses – these databases, also referred to as HR databases, are available in different format, but perhaps it's worth having a look at this Excel-based solution to simply the process.

Download a CSV document for your free employee database – no complicated formulas

Understand what other solutions exist on the market

Probation review template

Interview prep checklist, group interview questions.

A probation review template is a document you can use to assess and provide feedback on an employee's performance during their probationary period, usually to determine whether they meet the required standards for the work they’ve been hired to do.

Learn how to structure your probation period, from start to finish

Discover some top tips on how to support new hires during their probation 

Get a simple template to make your probation process more consistent

Maintaining consistency throughout the interview process presents one of its greatest challenges. Ensuring that candidates are evaluated using identical criteria, guaranteeing that each question aligns with the role, eliminating bias, and conducting fair assessments all demand attention to detail and adherence to standardised procedures. So, how can this be achieved? Through the use of checklists.

Download a complete interview preparation checklist for free

Find out what kind of steps you need to take before interview

Understand what really matters to candidates and to your business

Group interviews are a great opportunity for you to get to know how your candidate is reacting in a group setting, as well as how quick they are on their feet. Download our group interviews questions and read our blog to find out more about how to make this happen.

Download a free sample of our best group interview questions

Understand what you want to find out more from candidates from different perspectives

Onboarding a team member is something you can't do without when you're running a business. To ensure they have all they need to succeed, you'll need to cross some items on your checklist – that's why we've created some helpful ones for you.

Download a complete onboarding checklist to go through your process for free

Find out more about each step of the onboarding process so you avoid making any mistake

Just do a quick check on our page with our clickable lists

360 degree are getting super popular in many workplaces and for good reasons: it's good practice to have as many perspectives as possible when it comes to performance. This ensures fairness and avoid blind spots. Find out how we do it at Charlie and get a free template.

Download a free template to conduct your 360-degree feedback reviews

Understand how to put together a 360-degree review process at your business

Get some of the questions we ask our team members at Charlie

Salary increase letter

Letter of recommendation, hr checklist.

A salary increase letter template is a document you can use to let your team member know about a salary increase. It's just a formal way to confirm their payrise and needs to include some vital information.

Find out in what circumstances in good practice to write a salary increase letter (or email)

Discover how to structure your letter and what to include

Download a free template you can adapt to your company context

Letter of recommendation template

Investing in people is important, so when they leave, you need to support them as well. That's where a letter of recommendation comes in handy to make sure you give them a good reference.

Download a free letter of recommendation template written by our team

Find out what you can and cannot say in a letter of recommendation

HR checklist

Don't be tired of checklists! They're essential to your success. With this one, Charlie has combined all the aspects of HR in one go, so check it out if you don't want to miss out on any item.

Download a free HR checklist to set up your business for success

Get more information about each point if you want to go deeper into it

Make your HR effortless

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Plan Templates

Plan template – 607+ word, excel, pdf, ppt documents download.

It is difficult to enjoy life is you don’t have a plan. Many people lack a sense of direction because they don’t often have an idea about what it is they need to do. In fact, they end up blaming everyone and everything if they don’t succeed in life. The one thing you need not forget is that every person behind the success story you have ever read has always had a plan, and so should you. Plan templates can help you with the best plan for just about anything you want to focus your attention on. And they are free to download, so take advantage of them now.

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• Project management Track your team’s tasks and projects in Hive
• Time tracking Automatically track time spent on Hive actions
• Goals Set and visualize your most important milestones
• Resourcing Track time and assign teammates to projects
• Forms Gather feedback, project intake, client requests and more
• Proofing & Approvals Streamline design and feedback workflows in Hive
• See all features
• Analytics Gain visibility and gather insights into your projects
• Automations Save time by automating everyday tasks
• Hive Apps Connect dozens of apps to streamline work from anywhere
• Integrations Sync Hive with your most-used external apps
• Templates Quick-start your work in Hive with pre-built templates
• Download Hive Access your workspace on desktop or mobile
• Project management Streamline initiatives of any size & customize your workflow by project
• Resource management Enable seamless resourcing and allocation across your team
• Project planning Track and plan all upcoming projects in one central location
• Time tracking Consolidate all time tracking and task management in Hive
• Cross-company collaboration Unite team goals across your organization
• Client engagement Build custom client portals and dashboards for external use
• All use cases
• Enterprise Bring your organization into one unified platform
• Agency Streamline project intake, project execution, and client comms
• University Marketing Maximize value from your marketing and admissions workflows with Hive
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• Business operations Track and optimize strategic planning and finance initiatives
• Education Bring your institutions’ planning, fundraising, and more into Hive
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The Best Project Plan Template

• Michaela Rollings
• August 23, 2024

Table of Contents

In any organization, project plans are essential documents that outline the goals, objectives, scope, timelines, resources, and potential risks associated with a specific project.

These plans provide a roadmap for all team members to follow and help ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards a common goal. Better yet, having a project plan template make that roadmap even more clear and replicable across teams.

The Main Benefits of Project Plans

One of the key benefits of project plans is that they provide a clear direction for all team members involved in the project. By clearly outlining the goals and objectives of the project, team members can understand what is expected of them and how their individual contributions fit into the bigger picture. This helps to align everyone’s efforts towards achieving the desired outcome – and that’s even easier with a project plan template.

Project plans also help to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. By outlining the specific timelines and resources required for each phase of the project, project managers can better track progress and make adjustments as needed to keep the project on track.

Hive’s to-do list view pictured above.

This helps to mitigate the risk of delays and cost overruns, which can have a significant impact on the overall success of the project.

Additionally, project plans help to identify potential risks and challenges that may arise during the project. By considering these factors early on, project managers can develop strategies to address them proactively and minimize their impact on the project.

This can help to improve the overall chances of success and reduce the likelihood of unforeseen issues derailing the project. Making project plans repeatable with a project plan template also helps the reduction of issues that could arise.

What Does A Project Plan Template Help You Do?

What’s even better than any old project plan? A free project plan template, built custom for your team and needs. When you’re just starting out, you don’t always have the money, time, or energy to spend on paying someone to build out a complex plan. But our free project plan plan template will cover that for you.

Set Clear Goals

One of the key reasons why project plans are important is that they help teams to clarify their vision and set concrete goals for their project. By outlining the project’s mission, objectives, and strategies, a project plan provides a framework for decision-making and helps to keep the team or organization on track towards its long-term goals – it can even help you automate them.

Without a clear plan in place, it can be easy for teams to lose focus and become overwhelmed by day-to-day operations. That’s why we’re helping you develop this project plan template – it will take you 60 seconds to create, and it will save you HOURS down the line. Here’s why it’s helpful to have a project plan template.

Communicate With Stakeholders

In addition to providing a roadmap for the business, a well-developed project plan also serves as a communication tool for stakeholders. Whether it’s potential investors, employees, or suppliers, a project plan can help to convey the project’s goals and objectives in a clear and concise manner. There’s no easier way to ensure you’re all on the same page than a project template.

This can be particularly important when seeking financing, as lenders and investors will want to see a well-thought-out plan that demonstrates the company’s potential for success.

Anticipating Future Challenges

Another key reason why project plans and a project plan template are important is that they help store and replicate successful past projects. If you’ve got a project template that has been battle-tested and used throughout the course of months and years, it’s easier to guarantee project success.

This level of preparation can also help the business to navigate unforeseen challenges and adapt to changing market conditions.

6 Steps to Writing A Project Plan

Writing a project plan is essential for effectively managing and executing a project. To ensure success, it is important to follow a systematic approach to develop a comprehensive and well-thought-out plan.

The following are the steps needed to write a project plan, whether it’s from a project plan template for Word, or something more complex, like an agile project plan template:

1. Define the project scope: Identify the objectives, deliverables, timeline, budget, and resources required for the project. Clearly outline what needs to be accomplished and the constraints that need to be considered.

2. Identify key stakeholders: Determine who will be involved in the project and their roles and responsibilities. This includes team members, sponsors, clients, and any other relevant parties.

3. Create a work breakdown structure: Break down the project into smaller tasks and subtasks to organize and prioritize the work that needs to be done. This will help ensure that all aspects of the project are considered and accounted for.

4. Develop a timeline: Create a schedule that outlines the start and end dates of the project, as well as key milestones and deadlines. This will help keep the project on track and ensure that tasks are completed in a timely manner.

5. Assign resources: Allocate resources, such as personnel, equipment, and budget, to each task in the project plan. This will help ensure that the necessary resources are available to complete the project successfully.

6. Monitor and control progress: Establish metrics and key performance indicators to track progress and measure the success of the project. Regularly review and update the project plan to address any deviations or issues that arise.

By following these steps, you can develop a well-structured and detailed project plan that will guide the successful completion of your project.

Get Hive’s Free Project Plan Template

We know how hard it is to get started with a business – we started one too! Hive has been around since 2016, but we know that it can be so tricky to get out of the gate.

The good news is that we’ve used our project planning and AI superpowers to bring you a free business plan template that can be customized to your EXACT needs. How you might ask? Our super impressive new AI tool .

All you have to do to get your own personal business plan is visit mind.hive.com and type in the following command: “Create a project plan for me.”

You’ll be able to add in the amount of days you’d like it to plan across, and you can also interact in real-time and add feedback to the AI planner. So if it spits out something that you don’t like, you can just ask the AI to change it.

From there, you can get and download your project plan, get started, and head for world domination. Getting a free business plan template has really never been easier. And you’re in total control!

Best Prompts to Generate a Great Project Plan

With Hive’s project action plan template generator, you’ll need to feed a prompt to the AI. Here are a few places to start:

• “Generate a project plan for a new startup in the cosmetics space looking to launch their first product”
• “Build out a project plan for a construction company looking to kick off three local house builds at once”
• “List the steps I’d need to take to start a business in Colorado”
• “Generate a free startup plan for a non-profit dog adoption agency in Minnesota”

These are just a few places to start! The sky is the limit, and we want this project plan template to be as customized as possible.

Have any feedback for us about project plans? Email us at [email protected].

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