Workforce Planning: A Leading Recruitment and Retention Practice
As a consultant who provides specialized
human resource and program evaluation services to public sector governments both
in Canada and across the Commonwealth, I believe that people are the foundation
of everything that organizations do. In this increasingly globalized economy
and mobile workforce, it is my observation that public sector governments must
place a strong emphasis on:
- attracting new talent not only as part of succession planning strategies but also to reflect the diverse population the organization serves;
- building capacity to be able to deliver core business, strategic priorities and respond to citizen expectations; and
- building
successful employee engagement strategies not only to achieve results but also
to retain good talent and inspire others to join the workforce.
Workload pressures, financial constraints
and other factors too often force managers to rush to fill a vacancy without
looking at the constantly changing needs of an organization. There is a fear of hesitating, of losing a
position and not being able to meet priorities and needs.
Workforce planning helps organizations know
why and when to recruit, whom to recruit and ways and means to keep good
talent. My belief is that workforce
planning comes before recruitment and retention.
Leadership in recruitment and retention
strategies begins with targeted and focused workforce planning. This enables a flexible workforce where
organizations can move resources, respond to and deliver programs and services;
where the organization is both agile and innovative and can deliver on an
increasingly challenging public service agenda.
Workforce planning provides public sector organizations the capacity to add
value to their strategic planning and results-based management processes by
understanding their current talent, future talent needs and candidate pools to
inform their decision making. It also
allows for identifying and analysing workforce and environmental trends before
they become an issue.
The workforce planning cycle has 5 phases and all underpinned by fair and transparent human resource practices.
Phase One: Define critical business changes
needed to deliver future programs and services
Workforce
planning begins with defining critical business changes needed to meet
expectations in future programs and services and how these changes will
ultimately impact your organization’s talent and resourcing. Workforce planning begins with reviewing what
your organization has today, with a scan on what your organization’s business
or programs and services will be in the future.
Phase Two: Review your organization’s
capacity to meet changing program and service expectations
Reviewing your organization’s current
capacity (the positions and people) against the needs you have identified for
future program and service delivery allows you to critically and objectively
assess your organization. Will your
organization have the capacity to deliver future business when you review all
the demands? Is your organization
flexible and nimble?
Phase Three: Compare your organization’s
current talent against future requirements
This phase allows your organization to assess its mix of talent and
skills it and how these may be aligned with any future workforce profile
changes you have identified.
Phase Four: Conduct a Gap Analysis
Identify and prioritize gaps which will
enable your organization to determine practical approaches to close those gaps
such as comparing your organization’s demand with its supply; reviewing
Strategic and Business Plans, Performance Measures and Benchmarks; conducting
jurisdictional comparisons; realigning staff to meet program delivery needs;
and developing knowledge management strategies.
Phase Five: Create strategies and
directions for highest and best use
Your organization will identify and develop its own unique workforce
planning strategies and directions.
However, there are four key strategies to consider in your organization’s
deliberations:
1) Build leadership capacity because great leadership is the foundation for achieving your organization’s workforce planning goals.
2) Create organizational alignment by designing mentoring programs, employee engagement mechanisms, succession planning and talent management in such a way that all are aligned, understood and embraced by all staff within the organization.
3) Develop targeted and modernized recruitment and retention approaches and strategies.
4) Design new learning and skills development approaches to enable staff to gain new skills and experiences.
Conclusion
Developing and supporting a culture of workforce
planning will allow your organization to successfully deliver results through
strong, ethical and effective leadership, engaged employees and leading-edge
human resource practices that will provide the foundation for achieving your organization’s
strategic priorities and results-based objectives.
Workforce planning will enable your organization to build capacity
and have the ability to respond to new and emerging trends through the judicial
deployment of resources as well as provide services in a more integrated and
efficient manner.
Fair and transparent human resource practices will be key and at the
centre of your organization’s implementation strategies.
Your organization will be a leader in recruitment and retention best
practices; a model organization that is nimble, flexible and responsive to
changing priorities, demographics and global issues.
Contact us if you would like further or
more detailed information about our approach to Workforce Planning.
