How to Create a Strategic Hiring Plan

Why a Strategic Hiring Plan Starts With Finance and HR Alignment

Vinod Parmeshwar doesn’t see hiring as an isolated HR activity. He sees it as a financial investment—and one that needs proper modeling and forecasting. “Use a finance-backed workforce-planning template so each team maps quarterly hires for the next year—that way recruiting operates strategically instead of scrambling.”

Too often, recruiting teams operate in reactive mode, receiving last-minute requests from department leads and scrambling to catch up. By tying workforce planning to finance, Vinod’s team creates predictability and lets Talent Acquisition add value from day one.

From Inbox Chaos to Systemized Hiring: Streamlining with HR Tech

Before you can plan, you need visibility—and that means getting out of spreadsheets and inboxes. “Don’t plan hiring blind—stand up HRIS/ATS to get pipeline and time-to-hire data so you can forecast and staff intentionally.”

Vinod helped consolidate six disconnected HR systems into a single stack, giving his team access to clean data on time-to-fill, sourcing effectiveness, and projected headcount needs. That shift from manual to systematized created the foundation for accurate hiring forecasts.

How to Create a Hiring Plan That Actually Supports Business Growth

Vinod’s approach to hiring isn’t just about who to hire next quarter—it’s about what the business needs to thrive two, three, even five years out. Strategic hiring, he explains, “is a zoom-out/zoom-in dance—visualize new skills/roles, sequence by budget capacity, and build teams over 2–5 years.”

Without this view, companies often prioritize too many hires too quickly, overwhelming their budget and onboarding capacity. Phasing out the hires based on strategic priorities and budget absorption helps organizations scale sustainably.

Using a Hiring Plan Template to Standardize & Scale

A hiring plan template isn’t just a document—it’s a strategic tool that aligns departments, clarifies timelines, and sets budget expectations.

Vinod’s team uses a lightweight, finance-backed template to structure hiring by quarter and capability. This ensures everyone from TA to finance to department leaders is speaking the same language. It also enables proactive planning rather than reactive scrambling.

From Order-Taking to Strategic Partnership in Talent Acquisition

“Strategic hiring doesn’t wait on the brand to do the work,” Vinod explains. “Make the plan proactive—don’t wait on the brand; hunt specific profiles (even name people) and invite them in.”

Too often, recruiters post and pray. But in today’s market, especially for niche roles or new capabilities, you need to target the exact people you need—sometimes before you even have the role formally opened.

What Most Hiring Plans Miss: Skills Gaps and Future Needs

Vinod pushes hiring teams to think not in terms of jobs, but in terms of capabilities. “Plan for capabilities first: if a needed skill doesn’t exist internally (e.g., video production), hire for it or buy/borrow it—start by naming the exact skill set.”

By identifying gaps early—especially for emerging or nontraditional needs—TA can partner with finance and leadership to secure those hires proactively, not reactively.

The complete transcript – “How to Create a Strategic Hiring Plan”, with Vinod Parmeshwar.

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:04] Jonathan Duarte: Hey everyone. Today I wanna introduce Vinod Parmeshwar of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Vinod is both the CFO and the CHRO of a company and has gone through talent acquisition, HRIS systems integrations from both the finance side. The HR side, so he’s got some great tips on how to build a strategic hiring plan that aligns with the company’s business priorities, as well as ideas on how to engage your team and build a hiring plan that will grow with you.

[00:00:39] Jonathan Duarte: So let’s get started.

[00:00:41] Jonathan Duarte: Hey everyone. We have a fantastic guest. Vinod why don’t you go ahead and give us a little intro about yourself. 

[00:00:49] Vinod Parmeshwar: Hi everyone. I’m Vinod Parameshwar the CFO and CHRO at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

[00:00:58] Jonathan Duarte: All right. And I think what’s a [00:01:00] great thing about this is so many people in HR and TA have questions about, okay, how do we create like even our business goals and match our talent acquisition goals to, business goals.

[00:01:15] Jonathan Duarte: For listeners, you’ve got someone on the line here who’s handled both sides of finance I would gather that most people haven’t talked to a CFO who also runs HR, this is the time.

[00:01:28] Jonathan Duarte: Hopefully we’ll get some good insights from Vinod on these topics. So, Vinod, tell me a little bit, you know, when we were talking about, the transition of your recent HRIS, you had six solutions before you transitioned to one.

[00:01:44] Vinod Parmeshwar: So part of the thing is and this is also a good way to approach whenever we are trying to add value as a CHRO or even as a CFO to any business is to look at current source. of inefficiencies and what I [00:02:00] would call drag that is preventing us from achieving liftoff. For the business. When I did the analysis when I came into Lincoln, I saw that we had a number of disparate systems that had been put in place for managing different benefits and different situations.

[00:02:17] Vinod Parmeshwar: So, for example, we had one for vision. We had one for managing Cobra. We had one for managing our health care, all of which didn’t speak to each other, which meant that A lot of human hours was being wasted both on the employee side and on my team, which was non existent at that time because it was just me.

[00:02:37] Vinod Parmeshwar: So if I had to build something, I had to create something that was more efficient. And so that is what, like the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. We did a request for proposals. Bought the most tech enabled system and, created APIs, which are basically tech speak for systems to systems integration, so that the systems talk to each other, reducing [00:03:00] the chance for human error.

[00:03:01] Vinod Parmeshwar: And thereby freeing up the team’s time, to focus on more value added activities so that we could better service our internal clients. 

[00:03:10] Jonathan Duarte: Awesome. There you go. So those were all HR platforms. I know the company was much smaller back then. Did you guys have an applicant tracking system when you came on?

[00:03:20] Vinod Parmeshwar: No, we didn’t. We actually had an email inbox where it would come in. Part of the problem for me. Because I’m very data driven was the lack of data I couldn’t build a talent pipeline.

[00:03:33] Vinod Parmeshwar: I didn’t know how many applicants how many days it was taking me basic data to a higher how. So for me, the first step in that is getting to an HRIS. But The opportunity, like they say, it’s like never waste a good crisis, if you are in a system at a basic stage, you have the ability to leapfrog generations.

[00:03:52] Vinod Parmeshwar: Instead of just moving to the next step above, you have the ability to do a seismic shift upwards in efficiency [00:04:00] and effectiveness. That is what I was able to do because it would save us a lot of time, effort and money. Particularly with nonprofits, because we are completely dependent on people.

[00:04:13] Vinod Parmeshwar: Saving people’s time is the biggest cost saving we can do. For most businesses, that also tends to be true. I have a simple philosophy anything that can be done in three seconds should not take three minutes. 

[00:04:25] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah, that’s great. I have, ~it’s funny.~

[00:04:26] Jonathan Duarte: ~I have a ~a way of product managing, all the stuff I’ve done. And it only came to this realization maybe like four years ago when we were doing some, big launches and I termed it, what will break first. So when you’re going to scale things, and I think that that’s that risk aversion level, like the same thing is like, I can’t get out of email.

[00:04:52] Jonathan Duarte: If I’m going to hire three people. Email is just going to be a nightmare. If I have to hire 10, it’s absolutely never going to [00:05:00] work. You kind of think like a product when you’re trying to get your first thing done. You can hire one person for email, but you can’t hire three and manage at the same time.

[00:05:10] Jonathan Duarte: That’s not going to work in email and it’s, you’re better off spent, you know, putting the time even to get a lower cost ATS, spend the time to learn it because if you’re hiring three, you’re probably gonna be hiring three to five again. So you’re just beating your head against the wall by, running the same routine.

[00:05:27] Jonathan Duarte: I’m glad you bring up automation because that’s where my brain goes all the time I think what would break first to me was if we’re building like a sales funnel or a marketing funnel. I can bring one person through and just look at every single step or every call or every note or any conversation between our team what happened to get that person through.

[00:05:51] Jonathan Duarte: And even if it’s manually retyping stuff that got broken, I don’t really care. Document it, and then see if you can get two people [00:06:00] through faster, and then five, and then can you get a hundred, or what’s going to break at that next point? In our JIRA Atlassian system, we have something that just said, our, the tagline is, what will break first if it’s urgent?

[00:06:15] Jonathan Duarte: That’s what gets solved in the next meeting. We’re tackling the urgent What will break first so we can’t scale and that I think another way of looking at that risk side of do we implement or not? implement something To solve those kind of problems 

[00:06:31] Vinod Parmeshwar: So jonathan, going back to your earlier question about adding value, to be effective in a CHRO role, you have to be able to do the dance.

[00:06:38] Vinod Parmeshwar: As a successful CHRO, you need to visualize. What skills and positions you need in the institutions and bring them into the organization where that position itself never existed in the past.

[00:06:50] Vinod Parmeshwar: And that actually allows you to grow again, leapfrog generations of improvement. So that is something where you need, to zoom out and zoom [00:07:00] in. The hiring process is more zooming in and trying to find pain points and fixing them. Visualizing what skills and talents you need, which ~haven’t.~

[00:07:06] Vinod Parmeshwar: ~Currently ~do not exist in the structure requires zooming out ~and ~taking the longer view, and it becomes a dance between the two, which has got implications again to your question on what is our financial ability to absorb. Which talent do we need? So you have to work with your leadership team to prioritize 

[00:07:23] Vinod Parmeshwar: so we are building that capacity. Next year we are going to build the other person’s team. So people have to wait as we build so that over a period of time, let’s say between two to three years or five. You have built out the entire institutional capacity on every front. 

[00:07:39] Jonathan Duarte: In startup world where I have been, you know, managing, building stuff, we have the same way. If you’re gonna, raise money you have to have a business plan. Not like the, here’s their financial model and your go to market, those parts, but your staffing side too. In a startup, because it’s so risky, you’re not hiring for [00:08:00] Two years from now, you’re hiring for today and the next 18 months at max because it’s just way too risky.

[00:08:06] Jonathan Duarte: You can’t hire a VP of sales who’s done 50 million. You need someone who can roll up their sleeves and get you to 5 million. 

[00:08:16] Vinod Parmeshwar: Absolutely. 

[00:08:17] Jonathan Duarte: That’s interesting because that leads me to another point most recruiters I talked to feel that they and their teams are.

[00:08:25] Jonathan Duarte: Recruiting on their heels, like they’re not being strategic, they’re order takers rather than being strategic. So in your experience, from your H. R. and T. A. and finance side, what are some of the ways you’ve seen T.

[00:08:38] Jonathan Duarte: A. and H. R. teams become strategic and get that seat at the table, how do they bridge recruiting KPIs, like cost per hire and time to fill to business outcomes? 

[00:08:52] Vinod Parmeshwar: Sure. So one of the things that we have been doing, and this is again something that will have to happen in collaboration with the business side [00:09:00] of your institution.

[00:09:00] Vinod Parmeshwar: For example, something that I’m doing right now is creating a more structured planning mechanism, using my finance hat so that I can get into a basic version of workforce planning, which we have never engaged in. It is coming up with the template on the HR side.

[00:09:17] Vinod Parmeshwar: So that people can engage more positively in quarter wise planning. Who are you planning to hire over the next year? What quarter are you planning? That gives my in house recruiter, the opportunity to engage in recruitment at a more strategic level instead of trying to figure it out at the last minute in which case they are not able to put their best foot forward in terms of adding value. The other way we have managed to do it is to provide more structure and transparency around the process. We have created structures where none existed, salary grades, and made all of that transparent to all the managers so that anybody coming into the institution now has a very clear idea.

[00:09:57] Vinod Parmeshwar: This is the programmatic pathway to growth. This is [00:10:00] the administrative pathway to growth, assistant, associate. Manager, associate director, director, and then you can go further up, executive director, C suite, part of it is creating the levels and making both the process and the policy transparent so there is less ambiguity.

[00:10:19] Vinod Parmeshwar: That decreases tension and you have to iterate towards a better process. For example, historically, we had one window for promotions. We got feedback that was not sufficient. We increased it to two. We heard that was not sufficient. Now we have increased it to three. Part of it is having that kind of agility to respond to business needs and demonstrating to people that you are able to translate that feedback 

[00:10:43] Vinod Parmeshwar: actual changes in processes that impact them. One should never ask for feedback if one is not willing to implement the outcomes and be transparent with what happened as a result of the survey. 

[00:10:56] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah, that’s great. I think you mentioned before you were employee [00:11:00] 40 or so at Lincoln?

[00:11:01] Vinod Parmeshwar: 42nd, 43rd. 

[00:11:02] Jonathan Duarte: And how many employees do you have now?

[00:11:04] Vinod Parmeshwar: So within a sister institution we are around 173.

[00:11:08] Jonathan Duarte: Wow. All right. And that was four, five years, 

[00:11:10] Vinod Parmeshwar: seven, 

[00:11:11] Jonathan Duarte: seven years. 

[00:11:12] Vinod Parmeshwar: Almost. 

[00:11:12] Jonathan Duarte: Yep. So you doubled in four years or seven years.

[00:11:15] Jonathan Duarte: And then I think our guests should know that Vinod is an entrepreneur and a business coach, which is definitely different than most of your CFOs. Definitely different than your most of your HR leadership because it comes in with a different view, which is why I think it’s just phenomenal conversation of understanding the business side because I, I go back to this all the time you can’t automate something that you can’t define.

[00:11:43] Jonathan Duarte: So people say, yes, we’re going to put it in this ATS. Well, why it was the problem first and people come to me all the time. Hey, I need an ATS. You know, what’s the best one? I’m like, okay, well, let me help you define the question first, which is What’s the [00:12:00] process that you don’t think the ATS is working for or do you have something Happening in the business that your system can’t work or you don’t know yet?

[00:12:11] Jonathan Duarte: If you just start with asking the right question, you can get to the next step. 

[00:12:16] Vinod Parmeshwar: I can illustrate that with an example of how I’ve done it. We had a situation where we are in the business of putting out intellectual products and we have put out books, we have papers that are widely read by a lot of people working on different issues.

[00:12:28] Vinod Parmeshwar: It could be affordable housing, land conservation, water, etc. My idea in my head was like, all of those were paper based stuff, and some portions were on the web. So, if I wanted the institution to reach out to newer audiences, I need for us to have the ability to produce snazzy videos.

[00:12:47] Vinod Parmeshwar: Which means I need somebody to produce those videos, which means I propose bringing a producer on board who has the ability to create those things. Or if institutionally you’re strapped for resources, you can borrow or buy that [00:13:00] set of skills outside. Identifying that skill set becomes important.

[00:13:04] Vinod Parmeshwar: And so now we have a set of fantastic videos that even have won awards now, but part of it is how you add value to your business. It’s helping them think creatively about how we push on that end? That is an HR person’s job I feel because it is about bringing in a skill set that doesn’t currently exist 

[00:13:25] Jonathan Duarte: that’s interesting, because, in all of the HR leaders I’ve talked to, I’ve never heard anyone say it that same way it’s different.

[00:13:33] Jonathan Duarte: Your perception of how you look at the problem is, the difference between being an order taker. And being aligned with the business goals, ultimately in the point of say, you’re just standing by the water cooler. If you’re working in office, I guess these days. And someone says, yeah, we were thinking about going down this road or we think we have this business problem.

[00:13:55] Jonathan Duarte: And then the human aspect of it, i. e. the HR part of it, [00:14:00] is well have you defined the skills you need and maybe I can have a recruiter talk to you, or if it’s me, help you define those needs, and then we can just help you decide is it internal or external, and then you can create your business plan, We’re not just there for recruiting.

[00:14:17] Jonathan Duarte: We’re not there just for payroll. We have expertise in that and we can help you. That’s our role. 

[00:14:25] Vinod Parmeshwar: So part of it is demonstrating the value add in a very concrete manner that is accessible to everyone 

[00:14:30] Vinod Parmeshwar: it’s very clear to talk through an example if you want to connect with people and then move the needle in terms of actually turning it into something actionable that can help the business flourish. 

[00:14:43] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah, that’s really cool because I’ve never actually heard anyone talk about that as far as, really moving the needle, which isn’t a normal HR role, it has been, you know, the benefits calls the payroll the stresses of those things, manage those, the onboarding but that’s, I think [00:15:00] that’s strategic when you’re certain when your partner, it’s, it’s phenomenal for me to hear someone say, yeah, we’re a real partner in the business because They were thinking about this and we said, well, let’s help what are the skills you need?

[00:15:13] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah. Very true. I hope, I hope definitely our our listeners get some insights in how they may be able to do that in their businesses too. You don’t have to be an HR leader. You can be an HR admin in a manufacturing business when someone’s saying, Hey, we’ve got this problem over here and it has something to do with people.

[00:15:30] Jonathan Duarte: And that’s your expertise. Land the hand. If you know, ChatGPT and how to get job descriptions written, you can just say, here’s some of the skills that I’ve seen out, out there. 

[00:15:40] Vinod Parmeshwar: Exactly. 

[00:15:41] Jonathan Duarte: Awesome. 

[00:15:42] Vinod Parmeshwar: Go on LinkedIn and tell them that these are the profiles make it more live and real for them instead of just job description, make it live and say, these are XYZ people.

[00:15:53] Vinod Parmeshwar: So I am a big fan of actually not doing passive recruiting, but actually hunting for the people you need. And [00:16:00] getting them into the institution instead of passively waiting on your brand, the institutional brand to work. It’s magic. You could go out there and tell, Hey, I think you are a great person.

[00:16:10] Vinod Parmeshwar: Why don’t you come work for us?

[00:16:12] Jonathan Duarte: All right. So we usually get to, you 

[00:16:14] Jonathan Duarte: know, try to do these things about 20 minutes or so. What are some kind of final thoughts that you’d like to share about it? Maybe your entrepreneurial side in HR or, how does an HR leader, talk business to A CFO?

[00:16:29] Vinod Parmeshwar: So basically the thing is to start with the common shared goal of any business in a for-profit organization. It could be either increasing revenue, decreasing cost, boosting profits, one of the three. So you start with the shared goal or, 

[00:16:42] Jonathan Duarte: or stay outta jail. 

[00:16:44] Jonathan Duarte: That’s always the first one. 

[00:16:45] Vinod Parmeshwar: Compliance. First step, don’t do anything illegal. Do no harm. The second step is, always focus on how it will actually benefit the person. So my approach to thing is, like, I’ve always focused on, like, [00:17:00] where, how it will benefit the institution. You have to sell it to different parts of the institution, whether it is senior leadership, your peers on the leadership, or the rest of the people in the institution.

[00:17:10] Vinod Parmeshwar: And all of them will require a slightly different pitch. Because their needs are different and their orientation and the way they touch the institutional elephant is different. It’s like the proverbial six blind men. Somebody’s touching the trunk, somebody’s touching the tail, somebody’s touching the legs.

[00:17:26] Vinod Parmeshwar: They are not wrong, but that is one perspective. If you want everybody to come together, part of my objective has been to increase the visibility of the elephant itself. for everybody so that there is greater shared visibility of the entire institution so that we all feel like we have some skin in the game.

[00:17:45] Vinod Parmeshwar: It’s not like, Oh, fundraising is that person’s job or bringing talent in is this person’s job. It’s like, no, we all depend on the institutional talent to flourish. It could be an accountant today, it could be a program person tomorrow, it could be a marketing person the day after. [00:18:00] But all of which is talent.

[00:18:02] Vinod Parmeshwar: Similarly, if you have to pay them, finance person has to be involved, so for me, it’s a team sport. 

[00:18:07] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah, that’s a great way to end the section too. So Vinod, what’s the best way for people to reach you? 

[00:18:13] Vinod Parmeshwar: The best way for people to reach me is via LinkedIn. 

[00:18:15] Jonathan Duarte: All right.

[00:18:16] Jonathan Duarte: So we’ll put your LinkedIn profile link in the description. Cause I think there are probably lots of HR leaders, who would love to hear more. And I know Vinod’s got on his LinkedIn profile, he’s got a couple of videos of startup things he’s done too. 

[00:18:32] Jonathan Duarte: Lots of great insights. And thank you so much. Hopefully listeners got some great insights and thanks so much for being on the show with us. 

[00:18:40] Vinod Parmeshwar: Thank you, Jonathan, for the invite. Happy to be here.

[00:18:42] Speaker: Thanks for spending your time here with GoHire Talks and listen to our guest. My intention has always been to create incredible content to help you in your career in recruiting and marketing, business and leadership. We appreciate all of the insights and feedback you provide. If you’ve got guests you’d like [00:19:00] us to have on the show, please let us know.

[00:19:02] Speaker: Again, thank you for all your support.

About the Guest: Vinod Parmeshwar

Thanks to Vinod Parmeshwar for joining us on GoHire Talks and sharing this incredibly actionable roadmap to strategic workforce planning. Vinod is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
You can connect with Vinod on LinkedIn.