Strategic Workforce Planning
From OrgChart.net
Contents |
Overview
Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) takes workforce planning to the next level. In this case, Human Resources partners strategically with senior management in analyzing resources and determining talent required to achieve the organizations long term goals. Strategic workforce planning is about long term thinking and alignment of the workforce through identification, development and retention.
As the range of time which the SWP process looks at increases, the role of strategic workforce planning also increases, in some cases, dramatically. As the process moves beyond basic it takes into consideration an increased number of parameters and complex analytics. This process is more incisive, places greater premium on the inherent potential of employees and is about deeper, insightful knowledge than a mere juggling of statistics and numbers.
"What if" Scenario Planning
The highly fluid business environment, however, creates uncertainty. When uncertainty is rife, forecasting and talent gap analysis cannot make much of a contribution to effective planning. At these times, Scenario Planning becomes the preferred tool of choice. Multiple “what if” scenarios can be visualized using advanced software. Since the impact of these “what if’s” can be seen before implementation, a best case scenario can emerge.
Organizations are increasingly looking at human capital in a new light. There is a tilt towards maximizing benefits through ‘no regret’ decisions - decisions which, irrespective of market situation and state of economy, create a win-win for both the organization and employees.
The use of the segmentation approach also brings a benefit to SWP. This approach separates employees into segments on basis of their line of work; this tool is especially helpful in helping the organization prioritize talent and talent gaps.
Steps for Strategic Workforce Planning
Even though there is no “cast in stone” approach for strategic workforce planning, there are certain basic steps which most workforce plans incorporate:
- Agreement on a strategic planning process: there has to be commitment from Senior Management as well as an agreement throughout the management ranks regarding the need for Strategic Workforce Planning. Since this is a long-view process, resources need to be dedicated, responsibilities assigned and milestones/timelines need to be agreed on.
- Carrying out an Environment scan: gains an understanding of an organization’s operations in light of the external environment. It is a SWOT analysis of sorts, where strength and weaknesses provide a picture of the internal environment and threats and opportunities help assess the external environment. It is akin to gathering vital business intelligence.
- Current workforce profile: a complete assessment of the existing talent of the organization, its current sources of recruitment, availability of talent required in the market and so on.
- Future workforce view: carrying out an environment scan helps in understanding where the business is headed and what the requirements might be in the future. This is the stage at which intelligent software solutions can help either in forecasting or scenario planning, whatever the need of the hour is.
- Identify issues and areas of concern: Once identified and prioritized, plans can be made to ensure these are addressed in a timely manner with adequate resources.
- Analysis and targeted future: review of the situation gives a picture of the real position of the business, where it is on its growth path and what resources it has at its disposal. It gives a picture of the constraints and potential threats too. Keeping all this in view, an appropriate strategy can be formulated to pursue the organization’s growth realistically.
- Build in monitoring and modification mechanisms: the plan must be equipped with monitoring mechanisms to quantify and measure effects and progress. There should be a fair amount of flexibility built in for “sudden change” modifications.
- Closing the gaps: talent gaps must be closed meet growth objectives. In the context of strategic planning it is not just about balancing demand and supply of talent but ensuring the process works to the mutual benefit of the employee as well as the organization.
