Six tips to improve workforce planning

SuccessFactors has released a white paper titled ‘Workforce Planning Pitfalls’. The paper provides six tips on how to deliver the workforce of the future, and discusses how this workforce can help achieve consistent business success.

With ageing workforces and a shortage of talent being amongst the biggest challenges facing today’s businesses, strategic workforce planning has become one of human resources’ most important responsibilities. The ability to execute talent management activities before they’re needed is the mark of a successful organisation.

The white paper ‘Workforce Planning Pitfalls’, from SuccessFactors, is part of a campaign focused on business transformation which concentrates on how workplaces are changing shape rapidly and how organisations are having to change their approach to recruitment. It is intended to help HR executives gather insight into strategic workforce planning while avoiding some of the costly pitfalls, such as:

1. Who owns workforce planning

The foundation for workforce planning is the business strategy; therefore, workforce planning should be owned by the business units - not HR. HR should play a role of stewardship as the content experts and consultants in the workforce planning process, articulating the value, providing the necessary tools and processes, and driving accountability.

Success requires the expertise of both business leaders and workforce planners - which may mean that new competencies should be developed within the team (see Pitfall No.6).

2. Connecting with the bigger picture

Workforce planning is a strategic exercise, not a short-term budgeting endeavour. The goal is not to slot employees onto project teams or into schedules, but to ensure talent managers prepare a future workforce to execute company objectives. As a rule of thumb, the time frame of the forecast should be equal to the time required to source and fully train an employee - usually somewhere between two and five years.

It is also critical for the workforce plan to estimate the impact of business and technology changes that are expected to occur beyond the forecast time frame.

3. Trying to run before you can walk

Attempting workforce planning for an entire organisation in the first iteration will almost certainly become overwhelming and limit program success. Starting small - with five to 10 critical job roles, for example - is recommended, allowing time to refine the process before expanding company-wide.

Additionally, starting small will help build internal credibility and solidify support. As organisations expand workforce planning to include more job roles, workforce planning software can help make the overall process easier, resulting in a better partnership and the ability to deliver on the desired outcomes.

4. Talking in a different language to the board

HR managers must be able to translate the impact of the workforce plans into financial value and business success. This enables business leaders to make workforce decisions based on the same criteria used in other areas of strategic planning. It also demonstrates the value of the workforce planning function, building credibility and support for the process going forward.

However, the majority of organisations struggle to quantify this impact, making it impossible for senior management to understand the value of workforce planning to the business. HR managers should be able to answer questions about the plan’s return on investment (ROI).

5. Falling at the last hurdle: implementation

Too often, the workforce plan never gets actioned. Organisations that start too big exhaust themselves (see Pitfall No.3) and often do not even get as far as developing the right strategies. In other instances, HR develops strategies without input from the business (see Pitfall No.1), and the necessary managerial buy-in does not exist.

To avoid this pitfall, each business unit should have an owner accountable for seeing the plan implemented. The original workforce planning team should be briefed periodically to evaluate the success of the strategies and to make adjustments where necessary.

6. Planning without the right skills

Workforce planning requires a unique blend of skills and capabilities. Finding people with these attributes can be difficult, and finding people who have these skills and previous workforce planning experience can be even harder.

This is the primary reason why companies get started with outside consultants, who train HR and the business in workforce planning, provide technology and support the first few planning iterations. Once the process is in motion, the expertise will develop internally, and companies usually find they can successfully manage the process independently.

With these tips in mind, businesses can begin to build data to identify gaps in the skills of a workforce that are required to deliver strategic goals. Once the weaknesses are identified, the gaps can be filled through smart recruitment, targeted training and the use of innovative collaboration technologies. Only then can an organisation begin to transform the performance and delivery of a strategy.

To download the Workforce Planning Pitfalls white paper, visit www.successfactors-businesstransformation.com.