Selecting a Company for Your Terminal Project – Let’s Talk About That

First, remember to stay current on questions and faculty responses about deliverables in this course, using the ‘Contact the Instructor’ tab frequently. Today, I was asked if I had “…any (negative) thoughts about non-profit organizations being chosen,” and this is such an important question, I wanted to be sure everyone saw my response while you are getting a routine established and thinking about what company to use. First, thinking ahead and considering which company to select should be going on right now. THAT is what it takes in this course, above all others! This selection is one of your assignments this first week.

There are no negative issues with using non-profit organizations for your chosen organization, other than information needed for this project may be non-existent or weak. Publicly traded organizations are required to have depth in organizational information and data, and are required to address specifics in its content, so these companies tend to have more high-level information available.

I do have general thoughts about using one’s own organization that go beyond the idea of using (inappropriately) confidential or proprietary information. When students use their own organization, they tend to ‘think small,’ i.e., they think from the perspective of the position they are in, rather than like a higher or more strategic or systemic position, which is what is needed to write an Annual HR Operating Plan. It tends to work against the student in almost (not all) every scenario. When students select an organization whose information is public (publicly traded organizations with available detailed information), they tend to think and write from a much loftier and more strategic perspective, which is what is needed, and then they tend to be much more capable of addressing the necessary detail and content of an Annual HR Operating Plan. However, knowing this helps you stay focused at the strategic level. It’s up to you.

So, in summary, there’s nothing wrong with using non-profit organizations to write an Annual Operating Plan for HR — nothing at all –  and students can use their own organizations, but they really have to keep reminding themselves to think from a systems perspective and NOT make assumptions about ‘what is’ from their current positions. This can lead to writing a plan that is quite superficial and does not meet the content requirements of this project or this course. This is very important to keep in mind in writing this very important project, which needs to reflect all that you have learned in your MHRM program. You want to get it right.

• How Much Data Will I Need from My Company for the Annual HR Operating Plan?

How important is it to actually have access to my chosen company’s strategic information — their strategic plan with their organizational strategies, their finances, etc.?

Having access to a company’s actual information is not essential in order to write the Annual HR Operating Plan (AHROP) – it just makes it easier. What I am looking for from YOU, as a Capstone student, is your grasp of what to do with the HR content you have learned throughout your program and in this course. The financial statements are not essential to writing the AHROP, either, because we only write the Operating Plan, and we do not then write the budget to support the plan. The budget always follows the writing of any operating plan, once it is approved, and is done in collaboration with the Finance Department. Our focus is clearly on the HR piece, which is the writing of their planned work for the year ahead, based on where the organization itself is heading. The content you will need is the focus we provide each week during this course. ALWAYS READ the Announcements – frequently.

It really is not important if the way you state your company’s business objectives or their business strategies is exactly as they have written it. I allow you to make some assumptions about what they might be based on information you have read about them, because what I need to know is that you know WHAT do to with that information in order to create an HR Operating Plan, demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of the role and work of HR and its ability to support the company’s business direction and their organizational strategies through planning.

The only thing I require is, for example, that if you must make some assumptions as to what their key business strategies are … that you write each one … as a strategy is supposed to be written, i.e., in one forward thinking sentence that shows action in some direction, e.g., to improve, to increase, to decrease, etc., and is measureable, because you will need to be able to have strategies that can be monitored for progress (you will actually create metrics for each one). The strategies of a plan – of the organization or a department like HR – are the key to the rest of the plan. One might even say that … the strategies ARE the plan!

This course is a test or measurement of your knowledge of HR – your ability to apply to real life what you have learned about HR and the work and role of HR within the organization. The Capstone terminal project, i.e., writing of an AHROP, is in lieu of writing a Master’s Thesis.  So, this is a wonderful opportunity to really show off what you’ve learned from this program – evidence that you got what you came for and what we said the program would offer.

Welcome to Capstone Week 1 – VERY IMPORTANT to READ

This week introduces us to the wide, wide world of synthesizing everything you’ve learned in this program, by starting with the territory of driving forces behind the efforts of Human Resources Departments and Divisions. It’s important to understand what a long-term strategic vision is and what the strategic plan for an organization is, in order to know where to begin and how to sustain it, while avoiding short-term pressures, clashes and distractions that will tempt organizations to abort the mission – sometimes literally!

So, first and in this week’s work, we will begin by looking at the top of the flow of things, i.e., at the organizational level and view, because the vision and mission of the organization drives the organization’s strategic planning process each year. Then, what comes out of organizational planning, like the general organizational objectives and the strategies drive the operating plans of every department or division, including HR.  Keep this perspective clear as a context as you progress throughout this course. In fact, look ahead to Week 5 to see the Media piece, which is a picture of this flow – you need to do this now. Students who did not bother to do this misunderstood the first week’s focus in the assignment, so now you know and you want to avoid any misdirected assignments.

So, Human resources (HR) has a role in all of this, in making the organization’s plans become a reality, and the following weeks (2 -8) will ratchet down on what HR specifically does to carry out the organizations plans through its own planning process.  We’ll be pushing through every aspect, so that you understand it and can execute it, ultimately producing an Annual HR Operating Plan. Thinking ahead to this project which is due in Week 7, this project marks the culmination of not only several weeks of this course’s work that will ultimately reside in an Annual HR Operating Plan, but also months of knowledge and content in your MHRM program – that’s saying something! This is indeed a direct reflection of what you will have learned in your entire program and is, essentially, a test of that knowledge to determine your readiness for graduating from your program.

 

This week you want to acquaint yourself with the Template you must use for your terminal writing project for this course and to complete this program, the Annual Operating Plan for the Human Resources Department/Division. It’s found in Week 5’s resources, but even more importantly, you need to select a company to use in writing the Annual Operating Plan for the HR Department or Division.

In Week 1’s resources you will find a link to publicly traded companies, if you do not have one or want to use one that you are either affiliated with or know. Try to find one you are really interested in and try to make this one the company for future assignments that terminate in the Annual Operating Plan. Students who use their own organization often get caught up in their insider information, forget to cite information, or think small, because they may not be functioning at a high level in that company at this time. So think about which direction you want to go and which will serve you best – your own company or one you are interested in and may be familiar with. Either is okay, but remain ever aware of the challenges that have been mentioned.

It is important to remember that you are not expected to have access to full strategic plans for the Capstone project. Most organizations do not publish their strategic plans, but there is suitable information available in almost all organizations, such as business goals or objectives that are available fairly widely. This will tell you a great deal about what they are trying to do. Some students elect to set appointments to talk with people who will know a lot about the organization chosen, e.g., the Director of Marketing. If the company is local or has a local office, face to face may be good. If it isn’t local, you can ask for a short telephone meeting – but neither is required.

You do not have to meet with people or talk with them to complete the work in this course. Companies refer to their goals and objectives all the time, even to strategies, and these will tell you a great deal about what the company is trying to do. Publicly traded companies and their 10-k forms hold a lot of information, too, and you have already used these in this program, so are familiar with them. Company websites are helpful, too, in trying to figure out what they are all about. So, prepare to select a company and begin using it, this week.

Remember, everything that HR does in an organization is all about building organizational capacity. If we take hiring practices, succession planning, rewards, performance review processes, staffing plans, leadership development and everything else that HR is involved with, we will quickly recognize that all these things collectively build the organization’s ability to do what it wants and needs to do … and it’s called organizational capacity This is an integrative term that is the culmination of everything HR’s work hopes to achieve. Remember this term you’ll need it later in creating one of your Appendix elements, the HR Balanced Scorecard.

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