American Plastics had fared rather worse than its competitors during the economic downturn. With revenue, quality, and productivity down, management set several goals to reverse the company's fortune. One area in need of improvement was human resources and "Janet," the newly appointed HR Director faced a daunting challenge: to quickly re-invent the Human Resources function, reposition it a strategic partner to the business, and improve employee perceptions of her department. Her predecessor retired after leading a major reduction in force causing a significant exodus of key talent, some unexpected. Janet was charged with finding a way to retain top talent and develop a steady but highly-qualified stream of candidates to fill regular as well as critical positions.  The CEO agreed with her that differentiating the human resources function was essential for the company's strategic plan to succeed. In her first two weeks on the job Janet discovered: Job descriptions were inconsistent, long but vague lists of high level "duties and responsibilities" and qualifications Job titles didn't reflect the work people did, used instead as a framework for budgeting and compensation as many were doing unique work requiring different knowledge and skills. Aside from providing a coordinating function, human resources had outsourced recruiting to third parties who presented candidates based on their internet postings and other sources. No matter the level or criticality of the open position, human resources rarely conducted interviews or assessments before or after handing over the third party resumes to the hiring organization and would get involved again only when a candidate was selected. HR's participation in the onboarding process of new employees was limited to having them attend a half-day orientation session where, between a video and a slide presentation about the company, they filled out benefits-related, payroll, ID and other paper forms. Training and Development (T&D) had largely been outsourced to several companies that provided generic on-line courses. The recent departure of several mission-critical employees disclosed no systematic means of capturing expertise from employees; when they left, their knowledge left with them. The Performance Employee Evaluation Program didn't align with anything, was viewed by managers and individual contributors alike as a burdensome annual chore that interfered with people's "real jobs."     The management of talent is one of a handful of strategic services human resources can offer. The decline of traditional HR functions through automation, self-service, and outsourcing demands a "culture change" within human resources: adopt a business focus by an organization still structured largely around benefits administration, time and attendance reporting, labor cost processing, and similar transactional operations. Write a communications plan not to exceed 1,050 words to support the strategy of American Pl ...

1. American Plastics had fared rather worse than its competitors
during the economic downturn. With revenue, quality, and
productivity down, management set several goals to reverse the
company's fortune. One area in need of improvement was human
resources and "Janet," the newly appointed HR Director faced a
daunting challenge: to quickly re-invent the Human Resources
function, reposition it a strategic partner to the business, and
improve employee perceptions of her department. Her
predecessor retired after leading a major reduction in force
causing a significant exodus of key talent, some unexpected.
Janet was charged with finding a way to retain top talent and
develop a steady but highly-qualified stream of candidates to
fill regular as well as critical positions. The CEO agreed with
her that differentiating the human resources function was
essential for the company's strategic plan to succeed.
In her first two weeks on the job Janet discovered:
Job descriptions were inconsistent, long but vague lists of high
level "duties and responsibilities" and qualifications
Job titles didn't reflect the work people did, used instead as a
framework for budgeting and compensation as many were doing
unique work requiring different knowledge and skills.
Aside from providing a coordinating function, human resources
had outsourced recruiting to third parties who presented
candidates based on their internet postings and other sources.
No matter the level or criticality of the open position, human
resources rarely conducted interviews or assessments before or
after handing over the third party resumes to the hiring
organization and would get involved again only when a
candidate was selected.

2. HR's participation in the onboarding process of new employees
was limited to having them attend a half-day orientation session
where, between a video and a slide presentation about the
company, they filled out benefits-related, payroll, ID and other
paper forms.
Training and Development (T&D) had largely been outsourced
to several companies that provided generic on-line courses.
The recent departure of several mission-critical employees
disclosed no systematic means of capturing expertise from
employees; when they left, their knowledge left with them.
The Performance Employee Evaluation Program didn't align
with anything, was viewed by managers and individual
contributors alike as a burdensome annual chore that interfered
with people's "real jobs."
The management of talent is one of a handful of strategic
services human resources can offer. The decline of traditional
HR functions through automation, self-service, and outsourcing
demands a "culture change" within human resources: adopt a
business focus by an organization still structured largely around
benefits administration, time and attendance reporting, labor
cost processing, and similar transactional operations.
Write
a communications plan not to exceed 1,050 words to support
the strategy of American Plastics.
Justify
why they were important for your strategic HRM planning
process.
Recommend

3. how to address these considerations.
Focus
on resolution of the human resource management challenges in
order to support operational strategies.