Your 2027 business plan may call for more sales, a new location, or better margins. But if your managers are already stretched and routine decisions still land on your desk, what will need to change for those goals to become achievable?

Annual people planning means identifying the roles, skills, capacity, and support your team needs to deliver the business plan. Building the two together helps you set priorities the organization can realistically achieve.

What Will Next Year’s Goals Require From Your Team?

Start with what your biggest business priorities will require from your team.

Opening a second location, for example, may require someone who can lead a larger team, make day-to-day decisions, and keep service consistent. More sales may also put pressure on fulfillment and customer service.

These people requirements belong in the business planning conversation. CIPD’s workforce planning guidance reinforces this, describing workforce planning as a core business process that connects people strategy with the organization’s goals and longer-term plans.

Before adding responsibilities, ask:

• Do we have the skills to do this well?
• Is there room in the workload, or will something need to change?
• Will we need to hire, develop someone, or bring in support?

A capable manager may have no time to lead an expansion. Recognizing that early lets you adjust workloads, arrange support, or reconsider the timeline.

What Can Your Managers Handle Without You?

When routine approvals and employee issues keep landing on your desk, they pull you away from leading the business. Annual planning is an opportunity to reduce that day-to-day involvement.

Start with the issues that repeatedly come back to you. A manager escalating performance concerns may need coaching or HR advice. Someone waiting for routine approvals may need clearer authority.

Asking managers to “take more initiative” will have limited impact if they do not know what they can decide or where to get help.

Managers need clear authority and reliable support to take ownership. Gallup’s research on frontline managers highlights job authority, trust from senior leaders, and opportunities for growth and development as important parts of manager support.

Agree on which decisions managers own, where they can access HR guidance, and what requires your involvement. Regular check-ins give you visibility without chasing updates. The goal is confidence that people issues are being handled properly, freeing you to focus on the business.

Giving managers experience making decisions and owning outcomes also develops future leaders, helping the business grow with less dependence on you.

How Will Your People Adapt to New Technology?

If AI is part of your 2027 efficiency plan, include the people who will use it in the planning.

Look beyond automating tasks to where AI can help people spend more time on higher-value work.

Identify the work it could improve, then consider the training, guidelines, and human review needed. Ask employees where repetitive tasks take up time and what would help them do better work.

Be clear about how responsibilities may change, and make space for questions. Budget for learning and adjustment before assuming the technology will create extra capacity.

Make Sure Someone Owns the People Side of the Plan

You do not need to personally manage every action this raises. You do need confidence that someone with the expertise and time is coordinating the work and keeping you informed.

For each major priority, agree on who owns delivery, what success looks like, what support they need, and when progress will be reviewed. Identify who will coordinate hiring, development, and other people requirements across the plan.

That may be an internal HR leader, an experienced HR advisor, or a fractional HR partner. External support can also complement an existing HR team where additional expertise or capacity is needed.

At MaxPeople, we help growing businesses connect their people decisions to business goals. If you want a second set of eyes on whether your team is ready for 2027, we can help identify the gaps and support needed so you can stay focused on leading the business.

If you’d like to discuss your current policy manual or explore opportunities to strengthen your workplace policies, we’d be happy to start the conversation.

Contact us to learn how we can help.