New HR Officer Seeking Guidance on Building a SMART Performance Plan from Scratch

Dear Seniors,

I have recently joined as an HR Officer in a small firm with nearly 70 employees and have been assigned the task of creating my Performance Profile and also developing the departmental goals and roadmap for the next year. All the objectives have to be SMART.

Though I have experience in all generalist HR activities, I do not have experience in independently setting up the systems from scratch. Hence, I am having trouble understanding how to derive the TIME and RESOURCES (People/Tools/Money) needed to develop the plan. Attached is the Performance Objectives I have developed. Could anyone please guide me further on this?

Thank you.

Regards,
Vina.

Dear Vina, I appreciate the attachment of the Excel sheet. You have developed it with whatever understanding you have. Merits or quality of the document aside, you deserve appreciation for not seeking direct spoon-feeding, a trend that is observed in this forum the most. I have gone through the attached Excel file. My observations may appear terse; however, you need to be given upfront feedback. The observations are as follows:

a) There appears to be confusion between the concept of JD and KRA, a common problem among HR professionals, at least in India.

b) In each KRA, there has to be a numerical value. Except for one, I did not find a single number in the entire Excel sheet.

c) Some of the statements are routine tasks, and these cannot be KRAs. Regarding productivity improvement, how can HR alone be responsible? Productivity depends on several factors like timely availability of raw material, quality of capital equipment in use, guidance and support by the manager, etc.

d) Examples of how productivity per person is measured are as follows:

i) Tonnage handled per person (in ports or logistics companies).

ii) Revenue per employee (almost all industries).

iii) Units produced per operations staff (mostly in factories).

As stated in my previous post, you need to work under someone who has handled this job. Otherwise, it may do more harm than good.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Thank you for taking the time to go through my query and for your willingness to help.

Thank you very much for your valuable feedback. I have gone through the links you provided. I understand now that what I have mentioned as KRA in the Excel sheet is only the various functions I had planned to focus on. The industry is F&B, and recruitment was the only area of focus. Now they would like to have an HR department, and I have been hired for the startup.

The attachment shows my Performance Goals as HR Officer for the first year, which I was trying to develop. Could you please guide me on how I can make my Individual Performance Goals SMART?

Upon receiving the assignment, I informed my management of the need for guidance from someone with more expertise and experience, to which they agreed. However, I shall get back to you on this after management approval.

Thank you.

Regards,
Vina.

Comprehensive HR Planning and Development

You have covered every aspect of the HR domain, from minor to major, including core and developmental practices planned for one year—something your bosses may not appreciate.

The focus on recruitment, induction, and the preparation of job descriptions (JDs), Key Result Areas (KRAs), and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for both new and existing employees will be no small task for you. Given your limited tenure in this organization and lack of prior HR leadership experience in other firms, you will require facilitation and support for comprehensive initiatives to enhance your strength and capabilities, benefiting both you and your organization.

Moreover, effective planning entails setting timelines, often an overlooked aspect. By mapping out assignments on an activity schedule with a time tracker, you will uncover interconnected issues, sub-issues, and the probable time required for each task. Take, for instance, the "remuneration policy." To formulate this, you must conduct a detailed study of various compiled data related to compensation surveys in the region and industry, salary and wage information, and benchmarks from comparable companies to establish figures incorporating mean, median, and average values for the remuneration policy, which should remain effective for a minimum of four years.

I recommend discussing comprehensive details on what you can accomplish, where you may need assistance with routine HR tasks, and determining the priorities to solidify HR assignments for the upcoming one, two, or even three years.

Regards,
RDS Yadav

[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

As I see, you will be the HR initiator of the company. Firstly, you have to seek a deep understanding of the owner or top management people for what they are looking for. As per your attached sheet, you should have a good number of HR folks for executing and implementing HR practices. Although every single activity is time-consuming and requires approval from top management, for smart goals, please take the initial steps of HR setup as your 1st-year plans and execute them perfectly so that employees feel a good experience with HR.

In short, my advice is to go for some basic HR practices where employees can enjoy the basic needs of an organization, then proceed to more complex activities.

Regards