Dear Rajan,
Strategic HR activities are different from PMS, Manpower Planning etc. These are hardcore HR activities. There is nothing "strategic" about it.
Strategic HR is derived from the organisation's strategy. Strategic HR activities cannot be done in isolation. You need to do a strategic analysis of the enterprise and later you need to find out what would be the role of HR in executing the organisation's strategy. To do the strategic analysis, various tools of strategy are used viz Porter's Five Forces, SWOT Analysis, McKinsey's 7S, Ohmae's 3C etc. Based on the outcome of the tools, HR strategy is derived.
Causes of strategic HR could be because of the following few reasons:
a) Localisation of the development of the product
b) Technological changes like Robotics, 3D printing etc
c) Changes in Supply Chain
d) Introduction of new technology
e) Commencement of new plant or new facility at overseas
f) Establishment of R and D for a new product line
If you are an HR Executive in manufacturing then all of a sudden you cannot commence strategic HR in your company. You need to work under some senior. Even seniority is no guarantee to understand the strategic aspects. Once I had provided the training on business strategy to my client. To make them understand "What is Strategy?" I had devoted almost half a day. Later the participants told that all along they had carried the misconceptions of the strategy. CEO, who is in mid-fifties, told that for the last 30 years he had wrong notions above the strategy.
For further clarification, if any, feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
+91-9900155394