Workforce Management’s weekly e-newsletter contained a question and answer regarding getting started with workforce planning. This is a common scenario – the executive team issues a mandate to start workforce planning, and the HR staff is left feeling overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. Dr. Sullivan had excellent advice, and I’d like to add a few pointers.
1. Get educated. Look for a workshop or conference on the topic. Infohrm is holding its 3rd Annual Workforce Planning Summit in San Francisco May 18 and 19 that will bring together thought leaders such as Dr. John Boudreau and Mary Young, best-practice companies such as Hewlett-Packard and T-Mobile, and other workforce planning professionals for networking opportunities.
2. Develop a definition. Dr. Sullivan touches on this point, but I wanted to offer another definition of workforce planning: having the right people in the right place at the right time with the right skills at the right price to reduce business strategy execution risks associated with workforce capacity, capability, and flexibility. Workforce planning is not an operational staffing plan or budgeting exercise; it is a strategic planning process that enables organizations to prepare today for the needs of tomorrow.
3. Build a process. A workforce planning process should be developed that fits within your organization’s business planning cycle and takes corporate culture into account. As organizations vary in activities across business units and functions, the process should be robust enough that it covers the essential elements yet flexible enough that planners throughout the organization can use their own techniques to satisfy each step.
4. Start a pilot. We recommend that you start small (you will collapse under the weight of planning for the entire organization on the first round) by choosing a business unit, function, or job that has a critical need (think aging workforce, hard-to-fill, high turnover, etc) AND business leaders who “get” the importance of workforce planning. Business leaders are integral to the process, so it is essential to have their support.
5. Start simply. Workforce planning can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Start with square one – you have to learn to crawl before you run. Additionally, you may find that for certain elements, that’s enough. For example, Boeing started by developing a set of “critical questions” for each phase of the process and found that’s enough to meet their organizational needs. On the other hand, HP runs complex financial modeling along with supply and demand forecasts to project workforce needs and P&L implications for each decision.
While the task of building a workforce planning capability can seem daunting, breaking it into manageable steps can help to set you in the right direction. Just remember that it is a journey. We have found that most planners need about three cycles in order to feel comfortable with the process. However, our research shows that companies who plan feel better prepared for impending skills shortages, recognize a strategic advantage over competitors, and manage their workforce costs more efficiently.
Tags: critical roles, HR education, managing workforce costs, skills shortages, strategic human capital, Strategic Planning, strategic talent management, Workforce Planning, workforce planning conference, workforce planning training