HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning1 Study Unit 4 : Workforce Planning Def: The process of planning to ensure that the right people are in the right role at the right time in an organisation

Objectives: Pages in the textbook: Page 214 – 222 Page Explain how workforce planning forms part of strategic planning. 2.Examine the internal and external factors that influence workforce planning. 3.Carry out the steps in the workforce planning process. 2HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning

1. Explain how workforce planning forms part of strategic planning. See page p216 – 8.2 Workforce planning is a systematic, fully integrated organisational process See Figure 8.1 where the strategic HR planning and strategic organisational planning model is discussed. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning3

Workforce planning forms part of strategic planning (cont) Workforce planning is based on a forecast of future talent needs and an analysis of the current supply of talent. The process of workforce planning and recruitment should be closely linked to the business cycle. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning4

Strategic HR Planning and Strategic Organisational planning model (p216) HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning5

Workforce planning (p ) Workforce planning is a HR activity and critical for an organisation’s success, but should be aligned with objectives and external influences See Figure 8.2 where the external influences on workforce planning are outlined. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning6

External influences on workforce (Fig 8.2 – page 217) HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning7

The impact of good workforce planning (p218 – 8.2.2) HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning8

Good workforce planning  eliminates surprises  smoothes out business cycles  Identifies problems early on  prevents problems early on HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning9

Good workforce planning (cont)  takes advantages of opportunities  improves the image of the HR department See Figure 8.3 where an integrative model for successful labour recruiting to achieve goals is presented. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning10

2.Examine the internal and external factors that influence workforce planning. (p218) Key areas of workforce planning (8.3) Workforce planning systems categorised into three areas:  The talent and demand forecast covers: -Talent forecast predicts demand and supply of talent - Forecast process covers four different areas HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning11

Key areas of workforce planning(cont)  Trend projection and talent action plans covers sourcing, identifying supply, etc. -Talent action plans comprise three general activities: *Sourcing and recruiting an adequate supply of leaders and key talent *Identifying + grooming internal development + the supply of qualified leaders and key talent *Forecasting the gap between talent needs + its availability. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning12

Key areas of workforce planning(cont  Integration plan covers: - All action plans to meet labour needs of an organisation -See Figure 8.3 for an integrative model -First activity in process is forecasting labour demand. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning13

3. Carry out the steps in the workforce planning process.(p219) Firms that do not conduct workforce planning may not be able to meet their future labour needs (a labour shortage) or may have to resort to layoffs (in the case of a labour surplus). Cascio and Aguinis (2005) state that HR and management must devise an inventory of available knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences of present employees in the organisation. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning14

Forecasting techniques are categorised as quantitative and qualitative (p ) – Quantitative methods have two main limitations: (1) Rely heavily on past data, (2) created between 1950 and early 1970s, when large organisations had stable environments and workforces – Qualitative techniques rely on experts’ qualitative judgments of labour demand or supply HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning15

Forecasting techniques (cont) – Subjective methods may be less accurate than those obtained through quantitative techniques – In Table 8.1 quantitative + qualitative techniques of labour forecasting are presented. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning16

Estimating labour supply (8.4.2) Estimating availability of workers with required skills to meet future labour needs Labour supply comes from existing employees or people outside the organisation Skills inventories and MIS include: - Personal or bibliographical data - Language skills - T & D programmes attended. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning17

Implementation of the workforce plan entails (8.4.3) The results of the labour demand forecast and labour supply enables a plan of action to be established How the workforce plan is implemented depends on whether labour demand exceeds labour supply and vice versa In Table 8.2 the ways of implementing the workforce plan are presented. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning18

Control and evaluation of the workforce planning system (8.4.4) Guiding HR activities that identify deviations from a plan and their courses Qualitative measures used in establishing planning systems to make key comparisons e.g.  actual staffing levels against forecast staffing requirements.  Actual personnel flow rates against desired rates  Ratios of action programmes benefits to action programme costs. HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning19

TO BE CONTINUED HR Saturday - SU 4 Workforce planning20