Part of strategic planning in HR is mapping an organization’s human capital. When we look at the strategic value of a person’s skills as well as their uniqueness, we soon discover that organizations comprise different kinds of workers who have very different kinds of skills. Some are core knowledge workers; some are more traditional job-based employees; some are contract workers; and some are external partners. In this context, it is unlikely that we would manage all of these employees the same way (as much as we might want to for fairness).
There are differences in HR practices for different groups. That’s not bad, but it makes the job of HR managers more difficult.

Assignment
The following are descriptions of three different employees. How would you characterize each worker? What role does each play when it comes to the organization’s strategy?
Andrea Bascomb is a highly talented computer programmer for MiniFluff, Inc. She is among the elite set of engineers in the computer industry that is doing leading-edge work on advanced computer modeling. In truth, CEO Bill Ding believes that the future of the company rests on the innovative work that Andrea and her team is doing. He worries that someone might lure Andrea away to work for them. So he wants to give her all the room she needs to grow and stay committed to MiniFluff.
Calvin Duff is a salesperson on the retail side of MiniFluff. He has daily contact with customers and is responsible for making sales and communicating with service personnel. Make no mistake: To many customers, Calvin and his co-workers are the “face” of MiniFluff. Always on the lookout for a better situation, Calvin has thought about working for PeachTree Computing, MiniFluff’s main competitor. In truth, other salespeople have found that they can leave Mini- Fluff and get “up to speed” easily at other firms. Their skills are very transferable and the transition is not difficult. Bill Ding and other managers at MiniFluff recognize this fact, so they try to keep salespeople loyal and productive, recognizing that many of them do eventually leave.
Evelyn Frank is a part-time secretary for MicroFluff. She handles routine typing and filing work for the company, particularly in peak periods in the summer and around the holidays. She usually works for a few weeks at a time and then takes time off. The executives at MicroFluff have considered either outsourcing the job to an agency or automating it through a new computer system. But for now things are steady.