Austrian management consultant Peter Drucker famously said: “People decisions are the ultimate – perhaps the only – control of an organization”. This is a truism for any company, organization or start-up: an organization is only as good as its people. Yet, people decisions and HR planning are often put on the backburner and not regarded as an essential part of organizational growth.

According to Investopedia, Human Resource planning is defined as “the ongoing [..] process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organization’s most valuable asset: its human resources”. Ideally, HR planning will find the best-fit employees for each position while being flexible enough to account for and even forecast future hiring needs once the company expands.

Here are three steps to start creating your Human Resource planning, or HRP for organizational growth.

Current state

A good HRP, or Human Resource Plan, starts with an in-depth analysis of the current state of employment. This means analyzing current job descriptions, current and projected number of positions, employee development as well as current hiring activity.

Synergize

Next, it is important to synergize with other departments, especially front-office, to figure out the direction of the organization. An HRP is supposed to contribute and be in tune with organizational growth. Therefore it is crucial to recognize where the organization is going in order to plan for potential hires needed in the future. This allows you to already plan for when the organization has grown X percent and is ready to expand further.

Revamp

The final step of HR planning is revamping the hiring processes. This means re-figuring how, where and when your organization searches for talent. Whether through a youth internship program to find innovative new talent, through focusing on employer branding or by optimizing existing processes, a good HRP is not complete without a plan to move forward.

Finally, a good HRP is only as good as your execution. So make sure you have plenty of time to follow-up, get feedback and further improve your hiring processes. Don’t forget to add leeway to account for unexpected situations (because they will arise)! Set your organization up for success by focusing on what’s really important: the people.