There is no organization unit that can be assigned the sole responsibility for carrying out the human resources

function. Rather, this function is performed by a diverse group of persons scattered throughout the organization - from the chief executive officer to line managers and personnel who work in the human resource department. How can all these persons be persuaded to act in concert to achieve human resources strategies? The development of tactical policies will coordinate the activities of these diverse persons to accomplish strategic human resource objectives with minimal organization effort.

TACTICAL HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING CONCEPTS

We have said that tactical planning is the allocation of an organization's resources to particular uses within organizations unit and job positions. At the functional level of planning, tactical planning becomes an allocation of human effort. Planners must choose the areas where they wish to direct effort on behalf of organization strategies and objectives. Then tactical policies are developed for these areas to ensure that the effort is directed throughout the entire organization. These tactical policies must take precedence over other, nontactical policies.

Two concepts are central to tactical planning for human resources, activity areas and policy set. Activity areas are clusters of activities that may be controlled by a common policy statement. A policy set is a group of policies that, together, control all tactical activity areas.

ACTIVITY AREAS Identification of activity areas is key to tactical planning for the human resources function. By selecting those areas that are important to the strategic plan, the tactical human resource planning committee concentrates control in those areas and help to ensure that the intent of the strategic plan is realized.

Activity areas that may be of importance to strategic human resources plans of the organization include the following: Appeal system Benefits and services Career management Career counseling Compensation / reward Design of work Discipline

Employee communications Employee influence Employee relations Employee support system Employment planning Employment security Health and safety Human resource flow Individual development Organization development Orientation Performance appraisal Placement Recruitment Research Scheduling of work Selection Supervision Training Union relations

SELECTING TACTICAL ACTIVITY AREAS There are two methods for identifying activity areas. One is judgmental selection and the other is empirical selection. Judgmental selection bases the choice of activity areas on contribution to human resource strategies. Empirical selection bases the choice on contribution to human resource objectives. Small organizations with operations at one or a few locations may use the judgmental selection method. Larger organizations with operations at many locations may use both the judgmental and the empirical selection methods.

JUDGMENTAL SELECTION In judgmental selection, the committee prepares a list of human resource management activity areas believed to include all activities performed in the organization. The committee then evaluates each area for its importance in carrying out the human resources strategies of the organization. This process uses a specially structured meeting, or series of meetings, designed to reduce the tendency of individual participants to conform thoughtlessly to group or leader opinions. The structure of the meeting will allow committee members to develop a common and thorough understanding of both the activity areas and the human resource strategies, it will supply the information needed to select activity areas, and it will encourage the objective use of this information.

The meeting should make use of an outside facilitator who will facilitate the work of the group, not lead the group. This avoids another common tendency of meeting participants, to shift responsibility for results to the leader. The facilitator does the following: Prepares for the meeting by decomposing task for the group. Decomposing of complex task into simple task greatly improves the accuracy of decisions made by allowing the use of information in a more efficient manner. The overall task of the committee is to answer the question. How important to our human resource strategies is each activity area, as compared to other activity areas? The facilitator may break this question into a series f simple question, such as: What result does each activity area achieve? Persons involved in the activity may be asked to suggest results that they observe while performing the activity. For example, an observed result of the activity area appeal system might be equitable treatment of employees How important is each of these results for each human resource strategy of the organization? Human resource theoreticians or practitioners may be asked to brief committee members on whether the outcomes of each activity area are preconditions for the carrying out of each strategy. Continuing the example, human resource theoreticians or practitioners may advise committee members that equitable treatment of employees is a precondition for the achievement of the strategy creating organizational commitment but would not likely be an important enabling condition for the strategy ensuring an adequate supply of employee talent. On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is each activity area for each strategy? Answering this question requires the information gained by answering the preceding two questions. On a scale of 1 to 10, how important to our human resources strategies is each activity area as compared to all other activity areas? An answer to this question is obtained by using the results of all the preceding questions. Provides an opportunity for all members to participate and especially encourages the expressions of minority opinions. Encourages the group to suspend evaluation until the analysis is complete. Avoids introducing his or her own ideas to the group. Provides for the preparation of a written report outlining the group consensus of: The relative importance of activity areas The activity areas to be used as tactical areas Why each selected activity area is important to each strategy

EMPIRICAL SELECTION

The empirical selection method takes advantage of the fact that different operating locations of an organization tend to emphasize different human resource management activities. The locations are studied to determine the amount to which those activities they emphasize contribute to successful achievement of human resource objectives. The activity areas found to contribute most are targeted for tactical use. Activity areas may be identified by the following steps: Conduct an audit of human resource activities in each location. For the audit, measures are selected or developed to determine the extent and effectiveness of activities in the various locations. These measures are based on objective indexes or opinions of the recipients of human resource services. Data for the objective measures are found in company records of location operations. Opinions are obtained by surveying employees, managerial and nonmanagerial, in each company location. Perform a factor analysis to group the activities into activity areas and to determine the extent and effectiveness od activities in each activity area. This analysis will yield factor scores that will be used in step 4. A discussion of factor analysis may be found in most basic statistical texts and will not be discussed here. Develop measures of the contribution of each location to the achievement of organization human resource objectives. These measures will be applied to the human resource activities of the various locations. Measures may be based on objective indexes available in organization records or on opinions of outside observers and organization employees, especially higher level executives. The exact measures used by an organization will depend on the particular objectives established in strategic planning Following is a list of strategic human resource objectives taken from chapter 4 and an example of objective measure for each; Being a socially responsible employer number of equal employment opportunity complaints filed by job applicants and employees at a location Developing human resource competencies for competitive advantage number of invited presentations by employees at meeting of professional associations. Making sound investments in human resources provision for human capital budgeting at each location Respecting the right of individual employees existence of a sound grievance procedure for nonunion employees Being considered a good place to work employee response at each location on quality of work life surveys Managing human n a state of the art manner average amount of time between the first publication of a new idea for human resource management and its consideration for use in a location.

Perform a regression analysis to establish relationship between extent and effectiveness of activity areas and achievement of organization human resource objectives. The analysis will reveal those activity areas that are very important to the achievement of strategic objectives.

COMPARISON OF THE SELECTION METHODS The judgmental method an the empirical method are effective tools for selecting activity areas to strategic plans. The judgmental focuses on strategies, the empirical on strategic objectives. A company with just one or two locations is limited to the judgmental method, but companies with multiple locations may realize the advantage of the independent use of both methods. Because each method provides separate evidence about topics that should be covered in the policies for the activity areas, a comprehensive analysis is achieved. The independent results of the two methods act as a check on the accuracy of the strategic planning. There should be considerable overlap in the tactical areas designated by the different methods. If little overlap exists, the committee should question whether the strategies chosen are appropriate for the organizations strategic objectives.

POLICY SET DEVELOPING POLICIES WITIH TACTICAL ACTIVITY AREAS Once activity areas have been selected to serve as tactical activity areas, policies must be developed for these areas. Policies adopted must be consistent with the organization philosophy respecting human resources and with the human resource objectives and strategies. At least some policies are likely to exist already for each area, These policies must be revised to serve tactical purposes. The analysis done to select activity areas will suggest specific topics and even specific wording for policy statements. If activity areas are chosen using the judgmental method, members of the tactical planning committee will have prepared a report stating the reasons they feel the carrying out of strategies will involve each activity area selected. These reasons will likely point out important decisions that should be controlled by policy. For example, the activity area concerned with compensation / reward would likely be chosen if one of the strategies was creating organizational commitment. It has been shown that equitable treatment in compensations is important for building employee commitment. Reasoning suggests that a policy statement should be drafted as follows: In determining wage and salary structures, internal equity will be given priority over other considerations. If activity areas are chosen by the empirical methods, attention to the measures included in each factor (activity area) will provide clues to important decisions that should be controlled by policy. Those measures more heavily loaded on a factor should be given greater emphasis in policy development. To illustrate this point, assume that the most important measure included in an activity area concerned with compensations/rewards is the extent to which positions are evaluated in such a way that equity is maintained throughout the plant. A secondary measure associated with a less important activity area, staffing/EEO is average time required to fill vacancies. These results suggest a policy as follows, In

determining wage and salary structures, internal equity of individual wages and salaries will be given priority over external equity. In practice, some differences in policies suggested by the two methods will occur, and judgment must be used by the tactical planning committee to reconcile those differences. TACTICAL HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING PROCESS THE TACTICAL HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING COMMITTEE The tactical human resource planning committee may not need to be as large as the tactical planning committee for enterprise, group, and business unit level planning because there is less work to do. Whereas enterprise, group, and business unit tactical committees must design organization structure, organization culture, and budgetary processes, the tactical human resource planning committee must design a set of tactical policies. However, it is essential that the tactical human resource planning committee be representative of the entire organization. As mentioned previously, a diverse group of persons scattered throughout the organization must carry out tactical policies. If all these persons are to be persuaded to act in concert to achieve human resource strategies, there must be a high level of agreement with, and acceptance of, these policies. The committee should be as small as possible, consistent with the requirement that the various facets of the organizations be well represented. GUIDELINES FOR THE DESIGN OF A TACTICAL POLICY SET The guidelines for the design of distributive structures discussed in chapter 3 apply to the distributive structure tactical policy set, are the following: The tactical policy set must be compatible with the other distributive structures organization structure, organization culture, and financial budgets. To further this compatibility, the committee that design the human resource tactical policy set and the subcommittees that design each of the other distributive structures should have overlapping memberships. The tactical policy set must allocate human resource management effort for equal incremental return. The tactical policy set must function as an integrated whole to implement strategic plans. Tactical policy set and human resource strategies must be in a mutually interactive relationship such that each is adjusted for optimum effectiveness of the relationship. The tactical policy set must conform both to organization design and organization identity. The tactical policy set must leave room for subsequent decision making by line managers and human resource department personnel in day to day operations. The tactical policy set must include a policy statement requiring review periodically and whenever strategic plans are changed. The tactical policy set must produce desired behavior.