There are many reasons for preparing a Workforce Plan:
- Budgeting – For most organizations people costs (salaries and benefits) represent one of the most significant bottom line expenses. A solid Workforce Plan can aid in confirming that spending is at the right level for the contributions staff are making, as well as guide the process of identifying imbalances, should it be determined that cost reductions need to be made.
- Human Resource Planning – Often the Workforce Plan is an initiative within a Human Capital Plan. Either way, it will help to influence and align with other HR initiatives and programs, and aid managers with adjusting to changes dictated by revised requirements for skills and competencies.
- Human Resource Spending – Human resources are expensive. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Human Resource practices, i.e., reductions in employee turnover, streamlined hiring activities, and improved retraining and retention efforts, provides opportunities for cost savings and investing in people in other ways.
- Alignment with Recruitment, Training and Strategic Goals – The clear rationale provided by a Workforce Plan allows for more strategic approaches to expenditures associated with sourcing, recruiting, hiring, developing, and retaining the right talent.
- Improved Organizational Structure – The planning process will help to clarify the reasonableness of organizational structure options and the appropriateness of decisions to supplement full-time staff with part-time, temporary, and contract personnel, or to outsource functions all together.
How To Steps
Step 1: Organizing Before beginning the actual Workforce Planning a few issues should be discussed and documented:- Who is on the Workforce Planning Team? If key Leaders are not on the Team, get a commitment from them that they are available to be tapped for assistance and support as necessary.
- What’s the scope of the study – function area, department, division, business unit, entire organization?
- How is the “workforce” being defined? Does it include: permanent, temporary, part-time, contractors, volunteers, etc.
- What baseline human resource and financial data is available to be used for analysis?
- What information/documents will the Team need access to when performing the environmental scan: i.e., Strategic Plans, Financial Reports, Workload Reports, Organizational Charts, Staffing Plans, Affirmative Action Reports, etc.
Based on the Workforce Planning Model Christina Morfeld outlined in her article, “Workforce Planning: The Strategy Behind Strategic Staffing” , Steps 2-5 are offered:
It will be helpful for planning purposes to not only conduct a Skills Inventory (knowledge, skills, abilities, education, experience, anticipated retirement date, and compensation history) of current staff included in the study, but also to examine attrition statistics. This information together with workforce demographics should be analyzed and documented as the Current State.
Working with the information collected on future expectations, document the assumptions the Plan is being built on. These assumptions will assist with adjusting the Plan moving forward as the “planned for future” becomes the present and additional information is available about the “future to come”.
Based on these assumptions, forecast the staffing and competency requirements that will be required by the future workforce to be successful. Align this data in the same manner as the skills inventory so it becomes easier to compare the Future State to the Current. Analysis in this step also focuses on any staffing patterns that are emerging and any program or workload changes that are anticipated.
Step 4: Gap Analysis
As the step indicates, this is an analysis between the Current and Future States. The results will identify the gaps in skill surpluses and deficiencies, and determine which positions may be at risk.
Step 5: Solution Analysis
With the gaps identified, brainstorm solutions for closing the gaps. Identify the programs, initiatives, training, recruitment efforts, etc. that will be required along with a timeline for execution. The solutions should focus on optimizing the current and future workforces. As a result of these recommendations a workforce transition plan and/or an employee development and retraining plan should be implemented and monitored.
The Workforce Planning process is straight-forward. However, organizations often find that utilizing an outside resource to supplement internal staff capabilities and facilitate the Team is helpful. In addition to a thorough understanding of Human Resource Management practices, the consultant provides:- a reality check on the openness and credibility of the process
- a strong project manager to keep the project on schedule
As you can imagine, it’s important to get the Workforce Plan developed in a reasonable amount of time so that the data and assumptions are not out-of-date before the Plan is finished. Using outside resources to supplement internal staff capabilities might be necessary for time management purposes. Companies that make the commitment to organize current talent data and compare it to future anticipated needs, will be well served for preparing for the future. |
