Many organisations’ business and operating models have been significantly and unexpectedly disrupted by the events of 2020. Some organisations have faced increased demand (health services, grocery store delivery, hand sanitiser manufacturers), while some have faced significant decreases in demand (airlines, tourism, restaurants). Some have experienced a mixture of demand shifts across different areas of the business, for example, banks have faced a decline in branch activity but an increase in contact centre activity.

Research published by Gartner highlights that few CEOs think their organisation’s business models (14%) and operating models (13%) will be the same in three years. This was a challenge facing every organisation before 2020, but last year has undoubtedly shone a spotlight on the pace of change.

With such rapid rates of change, successful partnership between HR and the business is imperative, to ensure that the workforce – in terms of skills, capabilities and availability – and the work – in terms of how work gets done, for example remote vs. hybrid vs. onsite – are in line with shifting business objectives. However, research has shown that the most important workforce planning challenge for HR is that it has difficulty getting access to relevant business executives and subsequently struggles to keep up with the internally evolving business needs.

How do you understand changing organisation activities and objectives, and what they mean for the workforce? The answer is with a data-driven approach to workforce planning.

This article will explore four key questions to understand:

• Why effective workforce planning is imperative to organisational success

• The three main types of workforce planning

• How to take a data-driven approach to workforce planning

• Why organisation design and workforce planning are two sides of the same coin  

Why effective workforce planning is imperative to organisational success

Leaders need an evidence-based way of understanding the impact of the current pandemic and other external events on the organisation. Scenario planning, a key component of workforce planning, enables workforce planning teams to predict the impact of external factors that are likely to occur. Insights from this practice ensure that leaders can consider various trajectories and the resulting workforce requirements. This can help to answer pressing questions, such as:

• Which of the core business drivers/activities are increasing or decreasing, and what is the resulting impact on the workforce?

• What will upcoming changes – starting a new facility, ceasing a part of our operations, transitioning to a new technology delivery method for our customers – mean for the organisation?

• How can the organisation create talent transition pathways (redeploying, re-skilling) to smooth out internal curves of demand without blanket workforce reductions?

• How can the organisation navigate/deploy different ways of working, such as remote or hybrid working, or tapping into the gig economy?

Workforce planning has a significant role to play in helping the organisation meet its objectives. According to upcoming Insight222 research, the majority of companies surveyed about workforce planning approaches still report that that workforce planning drives decisions for HR most frequently, over other outcomes such as ‘driving strategic decisions.’ There is important work to be done in establishing joint ownership for workforce planning across HR and the business.

Interested in learning more about Strategic Workforce Planning? Take a look at our online HR training courses on myHRfuture

The three main types of workforce planning

There is no “one size fits all” roadmap to successful workforce planning. There are, however, three guiding approaches that can be adapted to each organisation, its priorities and strategy: Strategic, Operational and Tactical. Each approach examines its own specific objective, timeframe and planning level:

At the core of these three approaches is a single tenet: successful workforce planning is not only about the long-term, but it must also be able to link the strategic plan with more operational and tactical workforce decisions that together will have an impact on business success.  However, organisations tend to focus on Strategic and Tactical workforce planning, but often omit the Operational approach, which is arguably where a lot of value can be added.

As Rupert Morrison, CEO of orgvue, says “be proud to be operational!”

 How to take a data-driven approach to workforce planning

In our training course, Data-Driven Organisation Design and Workforce Planning, Rupert Morrison talks through the ‘Organisation System’ which can help organisations understand the data available within a company and how different components of work and workforce fit together. It also showcases how organisation design and workforce planning are two sides of the same coin.

In the Organisation System, there is a clear distinction between roles and positions. While organisations design roles (such as HRBP), they plan for positions (such as HRBP for finance, HRBP for marketing, etc.), which are filled by people. The work itself is understood as objectives, activities, and the competencies or skills needed to do the work.

Organisations should aim for each of these elements to be understood through data, both internal and external. For example, skills data can be gleaned through a number of resources, such as: 

• Recruitment data: Resumes, cover letters, assessments, etc.

• Career history data: Roles previously held by individuals within an organisation, role titles, job descriptions, project descriptions, leadership roles, awards won, etc.

• Learning & Development data: Courses undertaken and completed, development objectives, mentoring, certifications, 360-degree feedback, psychometric assessments, etc.

• Performance data: Performance objectives, performance appraisals, written feedback by peers and stakeholders, etc.

• External data: Professional networking sites, professional publications, patents, blogs, etc.

Why organisation design and workforce planning are two sides of the same coin

The Organisation System showcases how closely interconnected organisation design and workforce planning are, and how the two together help drive business outcomes.

As discussed above, it’s imperative that the organisation is able to translate strategy into workforce planning and design. It’s the Organisation System that translates the theory of the strategy into the outcome of business performance.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline is the Research Director at Insight222. She is a thought-leader, researcher and writer on people analytics and the future of HR. Prior to joining Insight222, she worked at the Center for the Future of Work where she was an advisor and in-demand speaker on topics related to the future of work. She has also held roles in digital services and transformation consulting at Cognizant. Contact Caroline at caroline.styr@insight222.com