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The new year is right around the corner, which means that sales and marketing departments throughout the country are reviewing and revising their strategic staffing plans. In this blog series, we’ll discuss strategic planning for 2018.

In this installment, we’ll cover how (and why!) to audit your 2017 strategic staffing plan so you have the information you need to plan for 2018:

Why Audit?

Auditing your 2017 strategic staffing plan and outcomes has the following benefits:

  • Understanding what went right. When you review the plan’s application and outcomes, you can more easily spot where the plan works well to accomplish your staffing goals. This information, in turn, tells you which parts of the plan can likely be continued into 2018 without modification.
  • Identifying trouble spots. Where did the plan cause more trouble, fail to help hiring team members predict or avoid conflicts, or get abandoned altogether as unworkable? These trouble spots will be the places you’ll focus most in updating the plan, so articulating them early is essential.
  • Aligning the plan with your team’s culture and goals. Often, a staffing plan gets abandoned (in whole or in part) not because it is ineffective, but because your team doesn’t understand how the plan moves them more efficiently toward the goal. By getting your team involved in auditing, you reinforce the cultural norms and goals on which they should focus.

A Quick-Start Guide to Auditing Your 2017 Staffing Plan

Here’s how to start auditing your strategic staffing plan:

Reread the plan.

Start by reviewing the strategic staffing plan you created for 2017. This “refresher” will help you spot places where the plan worked well – and places where your team may have deviated from the plan altogether. Keep a notepad handy to jot down any thoughts or plans you have as you read.

Compare the results.

Next, examine the results of your 2017 staffing efforts. How long did it take you to find qualified candidates? Who accepted job offers, or rejected them? Did you have the right people to fill roles internally? Identify things that went well, as well as things that need improvement.

Talk to your recruiting partner.

With your notes in hand, meet with your staffing partner. Your recruiter can help you analyze and organize your information to make the next step – revising your staffing plan for 2018 – flow more smoothly.

At SMR Group Ltd, our recruiters specialize in connecting our clients in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries with some of the best sales and marketing talent available. To learn more, contact us today.


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