Workforce planning - Getting it right - How do I know who to recruit, retain and develop?
All business, no matter how large or small ought to plan for their future success. Most, if not all, do this from a business perspective but many forget about planning for their future people needs.
Workforce Planning, as the name implies, is about planning for future workforce requirements both in terms of numbers and skills. Workforce Planning, if done properly, can save your business a lot of time, money and heartache. This is even more important in times of low unemployment where access to those necessary skills (and staff numbers) can be a challenge in itself.
Not having the right employees with the right skills impacts on the bottom line. It can also damage your brand name through delays in achieving projects, lack of innovation and change, dissatisfied customers and unhappy employees.
Workforce Planning assists business avoid these risks by analysing what the people needs will be in the foreseeable future – developing plans to ensure that you have the right number of people with the right skills, in the right place at the right time.
Workforce Planning is also about ensuring that the HR practices and actions are tied to the future strategic plan. Workforce Planning therefore is not just a HR matter, but a business imperative. It’s about having the people and skills to deliver on your strategic plan.
There are generally 5 key characteristics to workforce planning:-
- The development of a workforce profile and workforce analysis;
- An assessment of a future demand and supply of labour;
- A gap analysis;
- Development of human resource strategies to address these gaps; and
- Development of systems which enable regular reporting, monitoring and review of the workforce needs.
Businesses who have workforce plans in place can more effectively plan for the future, even in trying times such as during the GFC. Knowing your future direction, the resources and skills necessary to be successful in the future and how you can attract, retain and develop those human resources enables you to make sound decisions now, that meet your short term needs and also protect your growth capacity for the future. Once you have let the wrong people go, it is not easy to get those skills, experience and expertise back and to have to try can be an expensive lesson.
If you don’t have a workforce plan in place, we suggest you develop one as soon as possible so that you can have the security of knowing that all of your staffing decisions are consistent with your strategic direction.
If you would like to discuss how workforce planning can benefit your business, contact Peter Fletcher, Senior Consultant on (07) 3833 1219.
