1. AD16WM Workspace Management Lecturer: Daniel Wong MBA, MSc, BBus

2. Workforce Planning

3. Effective Workforce Plans
All share a 4-part theme:
Supply Analysis
Demand Analysis
Gap Analysis
Solution Development
The theme is under the orchestration of what is known about the strategic direction of the organisation….
Supply Analysis:
“Gaining a thorough understanding of your current workforce”
identify organisational competencies
analyze staff demographics
identify employment trends (…identifying how turnover will affect the organisation if no action is taken)
Demand Analysis:
“Envisioning the operating environment that will most likely exist in the future”
“Identifying the competencies that will move the org. forward to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and thrive in what will undoubtedly be a new world of work”
Measures future activities and workloads
Describes what future competencies will be needed in org.
Attempts to quantify the impact that the changing work will cause…whether it stems from technology or other sources.
Gap Analysis:
Compares the supply and demand analysis to understand the differences between “now” and the “future”
Identifies situations in which the current number of personnel or competencies will not meet future needs or where they exceed future needs.
Solutions Analysis:
“Developing strategies and implementing tactics for building this workforce.”
Developing strategies to close the gaps

4. Step 1: Review Strategic Plan…also mission, values, goals
Step 1: Review Strategic Plan…also mission, values, goals. In this step you also set the context and scope of your plan (which may need to be adjusted later as you gather more data.)
Step 2: Identify Work Functions. Identify work FUNCTIONS currently and needed in future.
Step 3: Identify Staffing Requirements…what SKA’s and competencies needed to accomplish functions…and what staff classifications (current and new) will be needed that contain those SKA’s and competencies.
Step 4: Project Workforce Supply…
Step 5: Analyze Workforce Gaps
Step 6: Develop Priorities and Solutions
Step 7: Evaluate the Plan

5. Step 1: Review Strategic Plan
Workforce planning identifies human resource needs and strategies for meeting those needs in order to ensure you achieve your strategic plan goals.
Step 1 provides the context and scope for your workforce planning efforts
Step 1: Review Strategic Plan
Workforce planning depends upon, complements, and logically follows strategic planning.
Your department's strategic plan identifies your mission, vision, and measurable goals and objectives, which translate into work functions. These functions form the basis of your human resource needs.
Just as strategic planning helps you map where you are, where you're going, and how you plan to get there, workforce planning identifies human resource needs and strategies for meeting those needs in order to ensure you achieve your strategic plan goals

6. Context of the Workforce Plan
What impacts your efforts?
Direction of the agency – Strategic Plan
Customer expectations
Emerging developments in technology
New legislation
Changes in funding
Changes in external environment

7. Scope of the Workforce Plan
Nature of Scope:
Individual key positions
Titles or title series
Occupations
Scale of Scope:
Single position
Program area or division
Agency as a whole

8. Step 2: Identify Work Functions
Clearly identify the functions you will need to achieve the goals of the strategic plan (within the chosen scope)
Focus on the functions, not the people doing them
Start with a clear understanding of existing functions of the organisation
Remember…
Inherent in this step is to be clear about your current functions…
be open to identifying functions that will no longer be needed.
because your department will no longer be providing a specific service, or perhaps because that function can be performed through the use of technology rather than human resources.
Function Example….

9. Step 3: Identify Staffing Requirements
Identify staff that will be needed to perform the functions within the scope. It includes:
The knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and personal characteristics or competencies staff must have to be successful in performing each of the functions
The number of staff needed with each KSA or competency set
Inherent in this step is to be clear about your current functions…
It is important that departments make the process of identifying competencies as inclusive as possible. Employees will have a greater understanding and ownership of the competency model if they are involved in the process, and will understand clearly what the department expects of successful employees.
KSA example (of Function identified in Step 2)
Competencies may be defined organisationally or on an individual basis
Identifying competencies on an organisational basis allows you to pinpoint the most critical competencies needed for organisational success. These core competencies should be embodied across the organisation and among job types.
When you finish this analysis, you will likely find that some percentage of the future work will be performed using existing titles. Some modification in expectations and capabilities may be needed. The remaining percentage may require position classification work to determine appropriate titles for the new capabilities.
EXERCISE: Name a position, what knowledge skills and abilities does it take to be successful in this position. How might that change in the next five years

10. Step 4: Project Workforce Supply
Profile your current work force (as defined by your scope), and determine what the supply will be after expected attrition:
Past actual attrition may or may not be an accurate predictor of future attrition; it is one variable to consider
Estimated attrition rates should be based on a number of variables, including demographic factors and historical patterns of attrition
It’s not enough to just come up with numbers…
Must analyze to determine what drove those numbers…why did people leave…why might they leave in the future.

11. Step 4: Project Workforce Supply (Cont’d)
In order to project your workforce supply, calculate past attrition by:
Adding up the number of employees who left the agency and
dividing by the total number of employees
Include in your calculation:
Retirements
Resignations,
Deaths
Transfers
Inter-departmental transfers
Dismissals
Etc.

12. Step 5: Analyze Workforce Gaps
Compare the expected staffing requirements (Step 3) with the projected supply (Step 4) and identify the gaps between the two:
The gaps will be mainly in these areas:
Inadequate supply of qualified people in jobs that will likely remain the same
Inadequate supply of people with the competencies to perform functions needed in the future
Excess staff performing obsolete or declining functions, or functions likely to be outsourced
In information technology, gap analysis is the study of the differences between two different information systems or applications, often for the purpose of determining how to get from one state to a new state. A gap is sometimes spoken of as "the space between where we are and where we want to be." Gap analysis is undertaken as a means of bridging that space.
(Background info…don’t need to share)
Among the various methodologies used to perform gap analysis is IDEF, a group of methods used to create a model of a system, analyze the model, create a model of a desired version of the system, and to aid in the transition from one to the other
IDEF (for Integrated Definition) is a group of modeling methods that can be used to describe operations in an enterprise. IDEF was created by the United States Air Force.

13. Step 6: Develop Priorities, Solutions and Implement
Develop potential solutions to meet staffing needs on your priority list and then implement the best solutions
Step 6 consists of three sub-steps:
Prioritize the areas with the most pressing needs
Identify solutions to close the gaps in these areas
Implement your solutions
Once gaps have been identified, your next step is to identify potential solutions. There is a quote from Einstein that is applicable here : You cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.
The solutions to this problem needs to be different than prior solutions. This is the first time any of us have worked where there were less people than positions. We need to be creative in our solutions to resolve the gaps that will be faced in the next 12 to 15 years

14. Step 7: Evaluate the Plan
To ensure that the workforce plan is effective on an on-going basis:
Assess what's working and what's not
Make needed adjustments to the plan and solutions
Address new workforce and organisation issues that might occur
Establish how you will continue to monitor the plan

15. START THE PROCESS

16. Why Change Readiness?
Workforce Planning is a continuous, long term process because:
There are not enough people to fill the positions being vacated by the Baby Boomers
The estimate is that it will be about 15 years before there are enough people to fill available positions
As this is a long term and significant program you need to understand the readiness of your organisation for the change
Change is inevitable in our work lives and we have all experienced significant change during our careers. This change is unique in that in is over such a long duration. It is important to know where your organisation is currently with regard to change readiness.

17. Change Readiness
It is important to know where your organisation is right now in order to develop an effective Workforce Program
There is not a right or wrong answer – there’s just what is so at the moment
Constantly moving targets
Think UP!!
20 MINUTES – Ask them to work individually on this process to begin with and then at their tables discuss how “ready” their agency is for this change and how this will impact their workforce succession planning next steps
After individuals complete the assessment, have a table discussion on how the results affect their agency’s workforce/succession program.
Debrief the table discussions asking if there are any key learnings from this exercise and how they might use this information in their agencies