26/02/2017 Chantal

Workforce Planning

Most organizations need to respond effectively to changes in the environment, customer needs, the workforce, technology, as well as geo-political and social shifts to ensure its success now and into the future. Organisational agility is key sustainability. An important mechanism to ensure that organisations are prepared for the future is a robust strategic planning process. Closely linked to this process are the efforts from the organisation to ensure that the right workforce is in place to implement the strategy.  Workforce Planning forms the link between strategy and ensuring that the right workforce is in place.

Workforce Planning will help to determine and shape the capacity and capability of the workforce that is needed to achieve the organisation’s current and future goals and direction. The Talent Hub uses the following framework to assist organisations in doing strategic Workforce Planning.

Phase Description of activities Deliverable (s)
Ensuring readiness During this phase the following activities take place:

  • Confirming and obtaining approval for the business case for workforce planning (Main reasons for embarking on the process, business benefits expected, the process to be followed, etc.)
  • The creation of a project support structure to drive the process
  • Educating all relevant stakeholders on the process to be followed, the project timelines, various roles and responsibilities

An approved business case and project plan.

An informed project team and stakeholders

Creating context During this phase we analyse the organisation’s strategy and future plans so that we can identify the requirements for the future in terms of number of people, as well as the competencies required in now and in the future. This phase entails the analysis of all strategic documentation, interviews with key stakeholders, as well as some focus groups.

A clear idea of the workforce requirements to achieve current and future strategy

Understanding the current internal and external workforce During this phase we analyse in detail:

  • The profile of the current workforce in terms of demographics e.g. age, qualifications, eligibility for pension, job profiles, competency profiles, etc.
  • The profile of all contingent workers in the organization, e.g. how many independent contractors in which functions, etc.
  • Critical and scarce skills in the organisation
  • Current ratios determining number of employees
  • If the organization has done a skills audit before, this information will also be used
  • Succession management and talent management data are also analysed to get a total picture of what is currently available in the workforce
  • The external workforce in terms of the competition, other pools of candidates, etc.

 This phase entails the generation and interpretation of various reports from the HRIS system and other sources of internal data. It also entails research in terms of the external market.

A document specifying the current status of the internal, as well as external workforce

Futuring During this phase we do some forecasting regarding the demand and supply of:

  • The current workforce should nothing change
  • The external workforce should nothing change
  • The scenarios taking into account likely changes
  • During this phase we use different forecasting techniques.
A documented picture of the forecasted supply and demand regarding the internal and external workforce,
Gap analysis During this phase we analyse the real and forecasted gaps between supply and demand of the workforce to identify either a surplus or a shortage of staff. A description of the anticipated shortfalls and/or surplus of staff in the selected talent segments/unit (numbers as well as competencies)
Develop workforce strategies During this phase strategies are designed to deal with the identified gaps and to formalize the workforce plan. This phase entails presentations to and planning sessions with relevant stakeholders An approved, documented workforce plan
Implement, monitor and evaluate workforce plan During this phase the client implements the agreed on workforce plan, according to project management principles. An implemented workforce pl

The Talent Hub also presents a workshop on Strategic Workforce Planning.