Strategic Workforce Planning
Here at Human-ByDesign we believe workforce planning is incredibly important to the execution of your business plan.
Having the right people in the right jobs at the right time, is not only important, we would say is absolutely vital if your organisation is to thrive in the uncertain times ahead.
A strategic workforce plan provides leadership with a framework. A really good strategic workforce plan, should enable the leadership to see a clear link between the business strategy, the job roles required in order to execute the strategy and the specific tasks required to bring it through to fruition.
There should also be clear goals, timelines and metrics in place to ensure employees have the right skills for the job as well as a process to measure progress and hold employees accountable.
With a clear strategic workforce plan, employees know what to do and how to execute, they are clear on where to focus their efforts and on which value-added tasks they are accountable for and are going to move the needle and the organisation forward.
Before diving into developing your strategic workforce plan…it might be worth answering the following questions first:
- Are there plans afoot to re-organize? What positions are likely to be kept as part of the new organisational structure, what positions are no longer relevant and what positions have yet to be created?
- Is your workforce resilient are you positioned well to take on the challenges of the ‘new normal’ and to navigate in uncertain environments (remote working for example)? How do you know? How do you measure that?
- Do your current employees have the right technical skills and behaviors ? Are they in roles that play to their strengths, which will enable them to perform at their best, adapt to change and be motivated in the role without the need for constant supervision?
- How are you currently measuring the skill level and engagement levels of your employees? Is this something you are leaving to chance or do you have processes and systems in place that provide you with regular ‘up to date data’ on performance and engagement?
- What are your levels of employee turnover? Do you have data which tells you the underlying cause of employee turnover in your organisation? Do you have a succession plan in place, to ensure you have a steady pipeline of candidates to fill positions that may become open, that you can tap into from both internal and external sources?
- Do you have a culture of supporting mental well-being at work, by ensuring employees are the right fit and are competent in their jobs? How do you know they are suitable for their jobs? How do you measure that?
The answers to the above questions will inform your planning process.
Once you have answered the above, you can then go ahead and start to develop your strategic workforce plan, We have outlined a step by step process and some free resources to get you started:
…Click here to access your step-by-step blueprint on how to develop a strategic workforce plan…
…Click here to be taken to out blog…5 steps to developing a strategic workforceplan…