Tool 4. BASIC S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS

About This Tool

In basic terms, a SWOT Analysis is a series of probing questions and honest insights (from both internal and external sources) about an organization's potential to achieve certain objectives. It can be an effective way for identifying an organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, as they relate to achieving its strategic objectives.

It can be applied to numerous different variables such as financial levers, marketing tools, product mix, customer market segments, business processes, organizational capabilities, workforce skills, HR practices and many others. There's little limit to the variables a SWOT Analysis can be used to evaluate. When done well, SWOT Analyses can be time-consuming. So they should be used selectively.

Using This Tool

When building an HR Strategy, the following variables - at a minimum - should be reviewed from a SWOT perspective:

• Leadership - direction setting, goal alignment, follow-through, accountability, etc.
• Culture - values, beliefs, formality, functional orientation, diversity, communications, etc.
• Capabilities - innovation, speed, customer-focus, cross-boundary teaming/integration, etc.
• Competencies - technical, functional and managerial skills, abilities and behaviors
• Processes - work flow & processes, process orientation, continuous improvement, etc.
• Structure - organizational structures and boundaries, policies, rewards, roles, etc.

You may also want to apply the analysis to specific HR practices and/or competencies. The following pages will provide a number of different examples where SWOT Analyses can be effectively applied.

The analysis can be enriched by comparing the responses to one another. For example, how can you exploit the opportunities with your strengths? What strengths can you apply to mitigate the impact of the weaknesses or threats? What threats could be further fueled by your weaknesses and become serious problems? What opportunities can you not exploit because of your weaknesses? The discussions that arise during the analysis can be just as meaningful and important as the conclusions drawn from it. As a result, we advise conducting the analysis face-to-face with teams, as opposed to using questionnaires or individual interviews.

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