Strategic Human Resource Management

PUBADM 505

2026-09-14

Tonight’s question

How do people and HR practices help an organization accomplish its mission?

Strategic alignment, workforce planning, and succession planning

A workforce challenge

Think of a government or nonprofit organization you know. What workforce problem makes its mission harder to achieve?

  • What work suffers?
  • What would a manager need to know before responding?

Five minutes in groups. Put it on the white board.

Strategic human resource management

HR decisions connect the organization’s people and capabilities to its goals.

  • What does the organization need to accomplish?
  • What capabilities will that require?
  • How will HR practices develop and support those capabilities?
  • What evidence will show whether the approach works?

People are an asset to develop, not a cost to minimize. Strategic HRM moves from managing positions to managing talent.

HR’s role in organizational decisions

Transactional

Accurate pay, benefits, records, and dependable employment processes

Transformational

A seat at the table: advice about staffing capacity, employee development, and whether organizational goals are feasible

Strategic HRM depends on reliable administration and a voice in setting direction.

Where you work: is HR asked before a commitment is made, or after?

Alignment across management systems

Organizational goal Strategic planning What result are we trying to achieve? Budgeting What resources can sustain the work? Human resource management Who can do the work, and what support do they need? Information technology What tools and information will staff use?

The arrows run both ways. Are any of these systems missing from where you work?

A service goal with conflicting incentives

Hypothetical: a benefits office

The office wants residents to receive accurate eligibility decisions sooner.

Managers reward staff for closing more cases each day. Training time reduces that daily count.

What behavior does this system encourage?

Performance and public service values

Capacity building Talent development Performance Metrics EVIDENCE-BASED HRM PRACTICE Organizational justice Public service values Diversity and inclusion Representative bureaucracy

Whose experience disappears when we report only an average processing time?

What a strategic approach can offer

For employees

A clearer connection between their work and the mission, useful feedback, and support for development

For managers

Evidence for resource decisions and a way to assess whether new commitments fit existing capacity

Strategy also means knowing what not to do. Would an attractive new grant make the organization less able to deliver what it already promises?

Workforce planning

The workforce planning process

Five steps, cyclical

1 · Direction

What must we accomplish?

→
2 · Analysis

What workforce do we have, and what do we need?

→
3 · Action plan

How will we close the gaps?

→
4 · Implement

Who is responsible for each action, by when?

→
5 · Evaluate

Did it work? What needs revising?

Discovering a workforce constraint may send you back to the goal, the budget, or the timeline.

Strategic direction and the HR audit

1 Direction2 Analysis3 Action plan4 Implement5 Evaluate

Direction: What must the organization accomplish now and over the next several years?

HR audit: What do existing policies, practices, and workforce information reveal about its ability to do that work?

  • Review roles, staffing, compensation, and performance processes.
  • Identify what works and where capacity or information is missing.

Activity: the staffing implications of a goal

Hypothetical: a city will open its permit counter two evenings each week using its existing staffing budget.

  1. What work and skills will evening service require?
  2. What do you need to learn about the current workforce?
  3. Are there any tradeoffs leadership resolve should before promising this service?

Think about the potential varying perspectives : HR director · budget analyst · counter supervisor · resident who works days

Five minutes in groups.

The workforce we have and the workforce we need

1 Direction2 Analysis3 Action plan4 Implement5 Evaluate

Current workforce Future requirements
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities Work needed to meet service goals
Career stage and anticipated departures Capabilities that may disappear
Hours, positions, and funding sources Sustainable staffing and funding
Current workload and constraints Gaps, surpluses, or work to redesign
Rules, contracts, and required staffing levels Constraints any plan must respect

Responses to gaps and surpluses

1 Direction2 Analysis3 Action plan4 Implement5 Evaluate

A capability gap

Recruit, develop current employees, redesign work, or reconsider the service commitment.

A surplus in some work

Consider redeployment, retraining, attrition, or position reductions in light of service needs.

An organization can have a surplus in one role/position and a shortage in another.

Succession planning

1 Direction2 Analysis3 Action plan4 Implement5 Evaluate

Which departures would put essential work at risk?

  • Identify key leadership and service positions.
  • Identify the competencies future employees will need.
  • Develop internal capability and consider external recruitment.
  • Prepare for an unexpected vacancy as well as a planned transition.

A vacancy beyond the leadership team

Hypothetical: one experienced analyst

Only one analyst knows how to produce a required monthly report. The report draws on several systems, and the process lives mostly in the analyst’s memory.

Show of hands: are you the only person at work who knows how to do something?

What should the manager do before that person leaves?

Implementation and evidence

1 Direction2 Analysis3 Action plan4 Implement5 Evaluate

A plan needs an owner, resources, and a timeline.

  • Assign responsibility for each action.
  • Agree on measures and review dates.
  • Discuss progress in regular management meetings.
  • Adjust when results or service needs change.
Management question Possible evidence
Can we fill needed roles? Vacancy duration, qualified applicant pools
Can staff perform the work? Demonstrated competencies, error rates
Is service improving? Timeliness, accuracy, differences across users
Can we sustain it? Turnover, workload, employee feedback

Pick one problem from the board(s). What measure would provide evidence about whether it’s improving?

What would you tell your manager?

Return to the workforce problem your group put on the board.

  • What organizational goal is at stake?
  • What evidence would you gather first?
  • What HR decision might that evidence change?

Two mindsets for strategic HRM

Growth

Hire, develop, and expand. Most of the chapter, and most of what the field teaches, assumes an organization that is adding capacity.

Austerity

Cut, consolidate, and reduce in force. The reality for many public and nonprofit organizations, and the harder test of whether people are treated as an asset.

Tonight’s case is strategic HRM under austerity. What can Pat Alvarez do?

Urbanopolis after the break

Next class

September 21: Merit systems and nonprofit HRM

Guy & Sowa, Chapters 3–4

Case: Corvallis Crisis Line, the first student-led case presentation