| Strategic Planning Organisation | | | | How do you do workforce planning? |
| You might have heard of 'HR' also known as Human | | | | The idea of workforce planning is that the business (i.e. |
| Resources or if you are in a particularly supportive | | | | not the HR dept) actively plan and prepare for what |
| organisation it may be called 'Human Remains'. This | | | | sort of workforce they will need over the coming year |
| department is instrumental in supporting managers to | | | | to three years. This activity can be very scientific with |
| help get the most out of their people. As we move | | | | forecasts based on probabilities of when people are |
| and more into the knowledge economy organisations | | | | likely to leave down to the week!! Not every |
| assets are very much their people and what they do | | | | organisation will need this level of detail or accuracy, |
| and know. | | | | but it should have its workforce aligned to its financial |
| How much of your day job is workforce planning? | | | | planning cycle if only to ensure budgets are tracked! |
| Managing this crowd of people to get the most out of | | | | The high level concept is: |
| your human assets is a task that falls into typically two | | | | 1. each manager has access to the full suite of |
| camps: | | | | information regarding their people and reviews the next |
| 1. The HR dept has this as 100% of their day job but it | | | | 12, 24 and 36 months service needs. |
| "usually" (not always) turns into being a reactive activity | | | | 2. demands that might impact on the level (amount of |
| with them being engaged after the fact | | | | people) or type (skills of people) of workforce are |
| 2. The 'manager' who treats this activity as probably | | | | highlighted for review |
| 5-10% of their day job if you're lucky Strategic Planning | | | | 3. the workforce supply (number of people and skills) is |
| Organisation | | | | then matched to the anticipated workforce demand |
| Usually neither of these two options work well at | | | | (from previous step) |
| getting the most out and optimising the crowds of | | | | 4. any gaps in number of people or skills is turned into |
| people that make up the organisation. Mostly because | | | | an action plan which HR and the Manager go and |
| it ends up being fragmented across depts, or is based | | | | work on ahead of time |
| on some convoluted process or overly complex | | | | That, in a nutshell is workforce planning. |
| spreadsheets. Enter...WORKFORCE PLANNING! | | | | |