Workforce Planning in a Changing World: Ensuring Business Success
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Done properly, strategic workforce planning sets organisations up for success by ensuring that today's workforce is aligned with tomorrow's business objectives. Senior leadership and human resource teams collaborate to define future human resource needs, producing a clear plan to acquire, train and retain the talent necessary to meet those needs.
The ultimate goal of workforce planning is to ensure that an organisation has the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time and cost to achieve its business objectives.
Benefits of Workforce Planning
Despite labor shortages and a growing global skills gap, a recent Human Capital Institute report revealed that 38% of organisations skip workforce planning, citing a lack of time and a need to direct available funds toward current staffing needs.
In a world where exponential technology drives continuous change, workforce planning is more critical than ever, and offers many benefits, including:
Cost management improvement: Identifies areas where businesses can cut costs, such as reducing overtime or part-time employees without compromising productivity.
Enhanced market agility: Helps organisations adapt to changing circumstances and respond quickly to new opportunities or threats.
Talent Retention: Identifies high-performing employees and develops strategies to keep them engaged and motivated.
Common Missteps
While Workforce Planning is essential, an organisation can just as quickly make missteps by investing in the exercise too soon. Some common issues that can erode the value of workforce planning include the following:
Limited senior leadership buy-in: Many executives may hesitate to invest time and attention in strategic planning activities while dealing with current workforce issues, causing inadequate cross-functional collaboration, poor forecasting, and ineffective planning.
Assuming “planning” means hiring: The assumption that external talent must fill skill gaps is common. But the truth remains that current employees can typically fill more than 60% of a company’s future roles, provided that adequate upskilling programs are in place.
Failure to consider workforce diversity: Companies that overlook the importance of diversity in their workforce planning efforts end up with a lack of representation and bias in their hiring and promotion processes.
A How-to Checklist for Leaders
So, what does workforce planning entail in practice? Our Accela Talent experts have curated a handy checklist to guide you:
Define the business strategy: Define business objectives several years out into the future.
Conduct a “supply analysis”: Collect and analyse data on the organisation’s current talent supply examining demographics, skills, competencies, and future trends. Use this data to create a baseline for your workforce plan.
Conduct a “demand analysis” and define scenarios: Develop multiple scenarios that consider likely changes in the future business environment, e.g. changes in local hiring quotas, supply chain factors, sociopolitical events, and changes in customer demand. Determine how each scenario will impact your business plans and objectives, and define your future workforce needs in each scenario.
Conduct a “gap analysis”: Compare your current supply and future demand models to identify skill surpluses and deficiencies in your future workforce.
Conduct “solution analysis” and produce a workforce plan: Determine the best ways to address gaps via recruitment strategies, training and development programs, or workforce restructuring. Prioritise solutions within an action plan (should include timelines and budgets) based on business impact and feasibility.
Communicate the workforce plan: Inform all stakeholders, including senior leadership, managers, and employees, about the plan to ensure everyone knows about and can work together to achieve its goals.
Prepare supporting assets: Produce critical tools such as organisation charts, job descriptions and succession plans to ensure clarity and enable turnkey execution.
Implement and monitor plans: Develop a timeline and metrics for implementing action plans. Monitor progress regularly.
Additional Considerations for Specialised Fields
Workforce planning in highly technical fields can be more challenging because of the fast-changing nature of these industries, where new technologies and techniques are constantly emerging, requiring specialised skill sets. In addition, the limited pool of qualified talent in these fields means increased expatriate visa processing costs and a higher risk of losing employees to competitors. This makes it essential to determine employee benefits and engagement programs that might be required to keep the organisation competitive.
If you are considering implementing workforce planning in your organisation, Accela Talent can provide expert support. Our experienced consultants will work closely with you to understand your unique needs and challenges and provide customised solutions that drive results. Contact us at [email protected] today to learn more.
