Workforce planningWorkforce planningWorkforce planningWorkforce planning

What is workforce planning?

• Definitions

• “having the right people, in the right place, with the right capabilities at the right time”

• ‘determining and shaping the capacity and capability of the workforce that is needed to achieve an organisation’s goals, objectives and direction”

• Workforce planning is a tool that assists organizations and managers plan for the future, anticipate change, manage the workforce and meet business goals.

• It ensures that there is a proactive approach to future staffing needs avoiding situations of talent surpluses and shortages.

Advantages of workforce planning

• Ability to identify more effective and efficient use of people at work

• Effective planning of “demographics” of the workforce

• Proactive vs management by crisis or just in time.

• Proactive, responsive and flexible response to environmental changes.

• Develop alternative courses of action to different situations

If we don’t plan….• Adhoc and reactionary decision making• Lack of necessary capabilities• Operational goals that don’t match strategic

goals• Inability to attract and retain quality staff• Underutilisation of staff• Problems with succession planning• Increased staffing costs• Workforce which lacks diversity

• Assists in management and planning of leave• Planning for skills development• Target training expenditure to achieve value

for money• Better retention and turnover strategies

developed• Coordination of HR strategies in line with

business goals

Workforce planning Framework

• Workforce analysis• Forecast Future needs• Analyse the gaps• Develop strategies• Implement strategies• Monitor and evaluate

Workforce analysis• Clear understanding of organisation’s

direction, strengths and weaknesses, internal and external factors

• Review organisation strategy and external environment

• Analyse internal and external labour forces

• EG

Forecast future needs• What is going to change that will

affect service delivery and our capacity and capability to meet our service requirements.

• Eg You have just taken on a 10 year contract and the average age of our technical staff is 50.

• Understand our future requirements

• Identify our future competencies• Develop a forecasting model• Develop forecasting assumptions

and scenario building.

Analyse gaps• Analyse and forecast the

difference between the demand for labour to provide goods and services and the supply of labour to meet the projected demands.

Analyse gaps cont• At this stage we would identify the gaps

and analyse the problems eg no experience in major infrastructure project management.

• This may mean prioritising work eg XXX project needs to be delayed

• Identify potential directions for action. Eg contracting out projects to firms with qualified staff.

Develop strategies• Here we plan for specific

strategies and programs that will enable the organisation to develop and /or maintain a workforce that will be able to deliver the requirements of the organisation’s goals and objectives.

Specifically the organization will:• Formulate staffing strategies• Plan for this change in the

organisation

What’s involved in workforce planning

• Conduct an environmental scan (SWOT)• Review planning strategies, services,

products,budget,benchmarking info and KPIs

• Identify critical staff capabilities required to meet KPIs

• Discuss forecasting impact in light of turnover , absenteeism, survey results etc

• Discuss Supply impact- do succession planning, retirement planning

• Develop capabilities matrix and redeployment strategies. Look at timing for gap closure

• Investigate current practices and how they can close gaps eg job design, flexible employment, development etc

• Identify new programs eg cadet program or improvements to existing systems

• Implement new HR programs or practices• Evaluate results