Most companies have a business strategy. Far fewer have a clear plan for the people who will deliver it. When growth targets are set without asking who will lead the new division, which skills the team will need in two years, or how to keep the best performers, the result is familiar: rushed hiring, key roles left empty and good people leaving for competitors.
An HR strategy closes that gap. At Talent Hunts Indonesia, a founding member of APRESI, the Indonesian Association of Recruitment and Executive Search Companies, we have worked with 300+ businesses across 30+ industries and placed 500+ candidates. We see the difference a clear people plan makes every time a client asks us to fill a critical role. This guide explains what an HR strategy is, how to plan one step by step, and six examples you can adapt.
What Is an HR Strategy?
An HR strategy is a long-term plan for how a company will attract, develop, reward and keep the people it needs to achieve its business goals. It turns business priorities, such as entering a new market, launching a product or improving margins, into concrete people priorities: which roles to create, which skills to build, how to structure pay, and how to develop future leaders.
The idea is often called strategic human resource management. The CIPD, the UK professional body for HR, describes strategic HRM as a framework that links people management and development practices to long-term business goals and outcomes. In short, an HR strategy is not a list of HR activities. It is the reason behind them.
Why an HR Strategy Matters
Three reasons stand out:
- Skills are changing fast. In the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, employers expect 39% of workers' core skills to change by 2030. Without a plan, companies end up hiring for yesterday's needs.
- Managers drive performance. Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement across business units. Choosing and developing managers is one of the most strategic decisions a company makes.
- Key roles are expensive to fill in a hurry. When a senior leader resigns without a successor, the business loses momentum while the search runs. A strategy that plans for these moments protects revenue and continuity.
Key Components of an HR Strategy
Component | Key question it answers |
|---|---|
Workforce planning | How many people, with which skills, do we need in one to three years? |
Talent acquisition | How and where will we find them? |
Learning and development | Which skills will we build internally rather than hire? |
Performance management | How will we set goals and measure results? |
Reward and benefits | How will we pay competitively and fairly? |
Leadership and succession | Who will lead, and who is ready to step up? |
Culture and engagement | What kind of workplace keeps our best people? |
HR operations and technology | Which systems and processes support all of the above? |
Not every company needs all eight at once. A 50-person startup may focus on hiring and culture; a 5,000-person manufacturer may prioritise succession and skills.
How to Plan an HR Strategy in 6 Steps
1. Start from the business strategy
Read the business plan before writing anything about HR. List the company's goals for the next one to three years and ask what each one means for people. A plan to open two new plants means plant managers, engineers and operators; a plan to grow online sales means digital marketing and data skills.
2. Assess your current workforce
Map who you have today: headcount by function, key skills, performance, potential, turnover and the age profile in critical roles. Identify single points of failure, roles where one resignation would cause serious disruption.
3. Identify the gaps
Compare where you are with where the business needs to be. Typical gaps are missing skills, too few leaders ready for promotion, uncompetitive pay in certain functions, or high turnover in a key team.
4. Choose a few strategic priorities
Pick three to five priorities that close the most important gaps. For each one, decide whether you will build (develop people internally), buy (hire externally), borrow (use contractors or consultants) or bind (retain current talent). Trying to fix everything at once usually means fixing nothing.
5. Build a roadmap with owners and budgets
Turn each priority into specific actions with deadlines, owners and budgets. Make line managers co-owners, not just HR. A strategy that only HR understands rarely survives the first busy quarter.
6. Measure and review
Set a small number of metrics for each priority, such as time to hire for critical roles, internal promotion rate, retention of high performers or training completion. Review progress quarterly and update the strategy every year, or sooner if the business changes direction.
A Simple HR Strategy Template
You don't need a 50-page document. Many effective HR strategies fit on one page, as long as each priority is clear and owned. Use a structure like this:
Business goal | People priority | Approach | Key actions | Owner | Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open a second plant in 2027 | Plant leadership ready | Build + buy | Identify two internal candidates; plan an external search for the plant head | COO and HR | Plant head hired 3 months before opening |
Grow online sales 40% | Digital skills | Build | Train the current sales team in digital channels; hire one e-commerce lead | Sales director | Online revenue share; training completion |
Reduce turnover in engineering | Retain high performers | Bind | Stay conversations, a clear career path, a pay review | Engineering head | High-performer retention rate |
Fill one row per business goal, keep it to three to five rows, and review it every quarter with the leadership team.
HR Strategy Considerations in Indonesia
Companies operating in Indonesia should build a few local factors into their HR strategy:
- Mandatory benefits and allowances. Payroll planning must include BPJS social security contributions and the religious holiday allowance (THR), regulated by Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 6 of 2016. These affect total employment costs and should be part of every reward plan.
- Personal data protection. HR holds sensitive personal data on employees and candidates. Indonesia's Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 27 of 2022) applies to how that data is collected, stored and shared, so HR systems and processes need to comply.
- Notice periods and hiring lead times. Senior professionals often need one to three months to leave their current employer, so plans for critical roles should start well before the role is needed.
- Leadership expectations. Many Indonesian organisations, especially family businesses and state-owned enterprises, value relationship-building and consensus. Leadership development and hiring decisions should reflect this, particularly for foreign managers.
6 HR Strategy Examples
The examples below are common priorities we see among companies in Indonesia. Each one includes a suggested metric, so you can track whether it is working.
1. Succession planning for critical roles
Identify the roles that would hurt the business most if they were suddenly vacant, usually leadership and specialist positions. Name potential successors, assess how ready they are, and give them development plans. For roles with no internal successor, decide early whether to develop someone or plan an external search. In our experience, many urgent executive searches start because no successor was ever identified. Measure: the percentage of critical roles with at least one ready-now successor.
2. Building a leadership pipeline
Develop managers before you need them, through structured programmes, mentoring and stretch assignments. Be clear about the leadership behaviours your business needs, such as coaching for a growing team or a steady, structured style for a regulated operation. Our guide to leadership styles explains the options. Measure: the share of management vacancies filled internally.
3. Strategic talent acquisition
Treat hiring as a business capability, not an administrative task. Plan critical hires in advance, build an employer brand that attracts the right people, and decide which roles to fill internally, through job portals, or through a headhunter. Read more in our article on talent acquisition. Measure: time to hire and first-year retention for critical roles.
4. Reskilling for new technology
Given how quickly skills are changing, many companies are choosing to train existing staff rather than replace them. For example, a company automating its warehouse might retrain supervisors to manage systems and data instead of hiring an entirely new team. Use the right HR tools to track skills and training. Measure: the number of employees certified in the new skills and the external hires avoided.
5. Retention of high performers
Identify the people you can least afford to lose and find out what keeps them: career growth, recognition, flexibility or pay. Regular "stay conversations" between managers and top performers often prevent resignations better than counteroffers. Measure: retention rate of employees rated as high performers.
6. Workforce strategy for market entry
Foreign companies entering Indonesia need a people plan before they have a legal entity. Common approaches are hiring a country manager first, then building the team, or using an Employer of Record (EoR) to employ staff compliantly while the entity is being set up. Talent Hunts Indonesia supports both through executive search, EoR and payroll services. Measure: time from market-entry decision to a fully staffed core team.
Real Experience: When There Is No Successor
A mining holding company came to us after months of trying to hire a Chief Financial Officer, first internally and then through other headhunters. There was no internal successor ready for the role. We began with a deep assessment of what the business needed from its finance leader, then presented a shortlist of three candidates. One was hired within 30 days. You can read the full CFO case study. The lesson for HR strategy is simple: identifying critical roles and their successors early turns an emergency into a plan. When an external hire is needed, a structured executive search reduces the risk.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Writing the HR strategy without business leaders. If the CEO and department heads are not involved, the plan will not reflect real priorities.
- Too many priorities. Ten initiatives with no budget achieve less than three with clear owners.
- No measures. Without metrics, nobody knows whether the strategy is working.
- Copying another company's plan. Examples help, but your strategy must fit your industry, size and stage of growth.
- Treating it as a one-time document. Business conditions change, and the strategy should change with them.
Conclusion
An HR strategy connects your people decisions to your business goals. Start from the business strategy, assess your current workforce, focus on a few priorities, and measure progress. Whether your priority is succession planning, a leadership pipeline, reskilling or entering a new market, the companies that plan ahead fill critical roles faster and keep their best people longer.
Sources
- CIPD, Strategic human resource management factsheet
- World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025: Skills outlook
- Gallup, Randall Beck and Jim Harter, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement, 21 April 2015
- JDIH BPK, Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 6 of 2016 on Religious Holiday Allowance
- JDIH BPK, Law No. 27 of 2022 on Personal Data Protection
- Talent Hunts Indonesia, CFO search for a mining holding company
