Workforce planning is a relatively new HR concept that helps organizations big and small manage their talent and objectives. If that sounds familiar, that’s because everyone plans for the future. Planning gives work some certainty; without it, our every move would be a blind guess.
We plan to avoid the gamble, and that’s of special importance for large organizations. The more people they hire, the more they have to lose, and not only in financial terms.
Workforce planning is a way to avoid that.
Even more than that, workforce planning can offer data-backed support for setting goals and defining objectives. When it comes to strategizing and decision-making, it provides powerful insights and all that by focusing on every organization’s most valuable tool and asset: people.
Here’s more about workforce planning, plus how to apply it in practice.
What does workforce planning really entail?
Now let’s be more precise.
Workforce planning is a set of methodologies, practices, and tools that organizations use to make the most out of their employees. It’s such a broad term that it’s difficult to define. The process of workforce planning includes many steps and involves many departments.
Most notably, it works side by side with HR and finance.
That includes recruiting, hiring, employee development, and talent management.
Based on continual workforce analytics and financial insight, organizations that use workforce planning strive to determine the actual value of every employee, as well as present and future staffing needs. The goal is to discover what works and what needs to be improved, as well as how – which is the most challenging part of workforce planning.
What are the benefits of workforce planning?
Apart from the theoretical goal-getting, workforce planning shows many measurable employee benefits. Considering that personnel is the greatest source of income and the biggest cost, the impact of workforce planning should translate directly to the return on investment.
Put simply, workforce planning should help organizations become more profitable.
Needless to say, this isn’t an easy objective to achieve. If it was, there would be no competition. Nevertheless, workforce planning is a concept designed with organizations’ bottom line in mind and regarding two critical aspects of successful entrepreneurship, two keys to success:
Employee satisfaction and collaboration.
Workforce planning is an excruciating study of talent and productivity. Analytics are used to carefully measure all the factors that contribute to employee excellence for each employee individually and on an everyday basis. Ultimately, it ensures that talent is equally distributed.
When organizations put focus on people, it always pays off. It even manages to achieve the impossible – a workforce where every employee is in the right place at the right time. Maximum productivity, employee satisfaction, and impeccable collaboration are only side-effects of that.
How to plan and execute workforce planning?
Depending on your organizational needs and the scale and complexity of your workforce, there are many different workforce planning steps to consider. In general, the workforce planning process follows the pattern of any other systematic planning process, from goal-setting to monitoring.
Here’s a framework you might be able to implement:
Set the objectives based on what you want to achieve
Smart goal-setting implies achievable and measurable objectives. In terms of workforce planning, this step requires multi-departmental collaboration. Expert insight from finance and HR is crucial. You should also form a designated workforce planning team and include all decision-makers.
Employ workforce analysis to obtain employee data
Workforce analysis is a thorough and time-consuming process, but you mustn’t rush it. During this step, your organization should gather and organize valuable business and HR data to help you determine your strengths and weaknesses. On this scale, it requires a powerful analysis tool.
Define your role models for employee excellence
Data will help you notice the right people, even if they are currently working in the wrong positions. It’s important to note that workforce planning isn’t only about future hiring but also about allocating existing talent. In this step, your team should work closely with talent managers.
Identify gaps in talent, skills, positions, and teamwork
Skills gap analysis is crucial for aligning your workforce planning objectives to your organization’s overall strategic plans. Not only does it help reveal what’s missing from your collective skillset, but it also allows you to plan for the future by anticipating turnover and analyzing retirement plans.
Anticipate your organization’s future needs and issues
Workforce planning must consult and include general business data from all departments to have a clear picture of your organization’s future direction. During the pandemic, we’ve learned that we can’t predict everything – but that makes future planning even more important.
Develop, implement, test, and monitor the action plan
Logistically speaking, this might be the most challenging part of workforce planning, but at the same time, the uncertainty is already behind you. Now that you’ve collected and analyzed data, you can approach recruiting, hiring, and development with a clear objective.
From this point on, it should be smooth sailing.
Of course, workforce planning is a strategically complex, multi-departmental, and continual practice. With so many moving parts in action, you can never be sure. That’s why everything must be tested and monitored. Progress is never linear, so make sure you’re tracking each step.
Conclusion
Workforce planning is key to organizational excellence.
It’s also a serious step forward into a more structured and data-driven company culture. All this will take time to figure out, implement, and fine-tune. It’s next-level HR, but it grants improvements in all fields. Investing in the right people at the right time always has a positive impact on ROI.