The in-depth analysis of the environment and staffing issues is the major objective of HR planning along with the strategic coherence of all HR systems and activities to organizational goals. Bennett and Brush (2018) support this statement through their article that addresses Corning’s HR Strategic Planning Process. The authors examine how these processes have changed affected by the business environment and the company’s new regulations and objectives. Thus, based on an environment of plentiful resources that supported Corning’s growth in the 1990s, the HR team developed specific transformation goals. They included global HR processes, strong business linkage, continuous cost improvement, and scaleable solutions (Bennett & Brush, 2018). However, in the present day, it has to change the emphasis of these goals completely due to a changing environment and the contraction of telecommunication businesses. Thus, the company is forced to balance its centralization and decentralization, keep a global mindset, fasten all processes and communication, and limit the budget with HR functions.
Corning currently aims to hire people who will be able to contribute to the company’s growth and development and follow its regulations in a long-term perspective. That is why the HR planning process consists of the determination of talents and the number of people required, the identification of talent gaps, and the actions necessary to align talents with business goals (Bennett & Brush, 2018). At the same time, this strategy cannot be regarded as universal as other companies may face particular obstacles during its implementation. For instance, more centralized organizations may have information incompatibility and wrong perception of talents and the required number of employees, especially when their sizes limit efficient control over all departments.
In addition, the company makes sure that the HR leadership team is aware of its objectives through a shared review of the agenda and the elaboration of development strategies. In general, HR function priorities are formed based on Corning’s corporate strategy, business unit needs, and functional strategy to determine the annual operating plan, the work of the CEO, and the budgets of departments (Bennett & Brush, 2018). Thus, supported by evidence, the authors manage to demonstrate the current significance of HR function in practice.
Reference
Bennett, D., & Brush, M. (2015). The Annual HR Strategic Planning Process: Design and facilitation lessons from Corning Incorporated Human Resources. In J. A. Mello (Ed.), Strategic human resource management (4th ed) (pp. 230-236). Cengage Learning.