6 Ways to Drive Effective Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is critical to creating a great candidate experience
As we discussed in our last Employee Experience Lifecycle blog, the three elements of ATTRACTION – workforce planning, sourcing and recruiting, and interviewing and selection – form the underlying foundation for creating a positive candidate experience that drives successful hires and grows into a positive employee experience.
Here we take a deeper dive into the first element: workforce planning.
Here are six key considerations that will help you drive effective workforce planning that nets you great hires in roles that fulfill your organization’s objectives.
1.Never skimp on workforce planning.
Too often this critical step is done too quickly or without enough strategy behind it. Why? Because HR teams are stretched thin and hiring managers just want to get their open jobs filled. We get it – putting a check mark next to that filled position feels very satisfying. But if that hire isn’t the right person for the job – or if the job isn’t the best strategic position for the company to further its business objectives – you’ll be starting from scratch again in no time.
2.Recognize that hiring managers don’t always know what they need.
Often an open position reflects artifacts of the past that no longer serve the business needs of the company. These artifacts can have you running in circles only to fill a position with someone who cannot be successful because the job isn’t the right job for the department or company. There are some warning flags that might indicate a particular hiring request requires a bit more investigation and HR expertise to identify whether the position and talent sought are accurately defined.
The job was formerly filled by a candidate the manager knew personally. This may even have been a position the hiring manager created a job for. The hiring manager may have expectations for the job that may be based more on that person’s unique skillset than on what’s best for that job role – and hiring for a job with those kind of expectations can be particularly tricky, as no one will ever fill those shoes quite the same way.
A job role that has morphed over time and now has significantly different responsibilities than the last time you hired for it. This may have been a role the former employee evolved or grew into and the hiring manager isn’t even aware of all the requirements for a successful hire today. For example, it might be a marketing role that now requires a great deal more social media or AI management skills than were listed in previous job descriptions.
What the hiring manager wants may not be what the company needs at this point in time. Managers tend to get comfortable with how their teams are staffed, and it’s only natural to feel the urge to fill an open head count as soon as someone leaves. This may be a perfectly fine approach. Or it may be based more on “how we’ve always done it” than “how we should be doing it today.” It’s the job of workforce planning to figure that out.
Lean into opportunities to educate hiring managers. If you see any red flags emerge from hiring requests, hit pause. This is your chance to be proactive. Discuss the request with the hiring manager, ask them key questions that address skill gaps or mobility opportunities and, if needed, advise and educate them about effective workforce planning and how they can get the most from the next hire.
3.Elevate workforce planning to a strategic business planning function.
Workforce planning – identifying strategic talent needs – should be a business function, but it’s not always viewed that way (even in organizations that claim to be all about their people). This is where HR experts have an opportunity to shine and earn their place as a trusted advisor to top management.
Just reacting to incoming requests is sometimes all an HR or recruiting team can handle. But it pays to stop and put your business hat on. You are the people expert, and your job is critical to the success of the business. Do a bit of research, if you have to, to understand your organization’s business priorities and look at workforce planning through that lens.
Seize (or create) opportunities to step up and engage with business leaders on the subject of workforce planning. They need to know it isn’t just something that happens in a re-org – it’s a living, breathing, ever-evolving thing and you are the one with the expertise to make it successful.
4.Get strategic by identifying critical skills gaps for your company.
A skills gap analysis is one way to get #3 done and earn your seat at the leaders’ table. Look at your organization’s strategic business needs then look at your existing workforce. Chances are, not everything matches up perfectly.
Identify key areas where either the current workforce isn’t helping drive business success or isn’t adequate to achieve business goals. Identify the specific skills gaps – like the aforementioned person with AI management experience, for example – and come up with your strategic advice for how those gaps can either be filled by developing existing employees or if you’ll need to hire external talent.
This is key to garnering the attention of business leaders and proving your value to them. Help them see talent using their terms, such as buy or build (recruit or develop).
5.Make sure your whole team is on board with workforce planning.
It’s essential to make sure your whole team is on board with workforce planning. Business leaders tend to understand sales and marketing plans better than recruiting plans, and that’s a disconnect you may need to overcome.
Engaging business leaders and your HR team in the process of thoughtful, strategic workforce planning is one way to ensure your recruiting resources are being invested in the right places.
6.Get help if you need it.
Once you’ve worked through the above five steps, you should have identified the positions your company actually needs (vs. what folks think they need), and you are ready to begin your next phase of ATTRACTION: sourcing and recruiting to attract qualified candidates.
If all of this sounds overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. HR leaders end up wearing a lot of hats, and it is asking a lot of any top-notch HR professional or recruiter to also be a workforce planning expert. Plus, if your organization’s leaders aren’t accustomed to giving HR a seat at the executive table for strategic workforce planning, now may be a good time to partner with an outside resource to help build your business case.
At Bright Talent we have workforce planning and operations experts who can advise you and your team on how to do a successful gap analysis, create an effective workforce plan and even help you plan how to present this strategic function to your business leaders. We can pick up as much of the slack in the process as you need us to, or we can be your guide-on-the-side to advise you, educate you and ensure your workforce planning efforts are successful.
If you’d like to learn more, please give us a call or shoot over an email. We can help!
We look forward to hearing from you!