Strategic HRM

  
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 Plastics.
Justify why they were important for your strategic HRM planning process.
Recommend how to address these considerations.
Focus on resolution of the human resource management challenges in order to support operational strategies. 
Cite all sources according to APA formatting guidelines.
Click on the Assignment Files tab to submit your plan.