Workforce Planning Lecture Notes PDF

Introducing People Management Module Code: HURM07001 Lecture on Topic 3: Workforce Planning DR Aleksandra Webb  Learning objectives Describe the elements of human resource planning Explain how human reso...

Introducing People Management Module Code: HURM07001 Lecture on Topic 3: Workforce Planning DR Aleksandra Webb  Learning objectives Describe the elements of human resource planning Explain how human resource planning relates to the business strategy Describe the process of forecasting HR supply and demand Describe the concept of the internal and external labour market information 2  Defining Workforce Planning Workforce planning can be defined as: “a process to ensure the right number of people with the right skills are employed in the right place at the right time to deliver an organisation’s short- and long-term objectives” Does it seem like a straightforward activity? What kind of activities and decisions can it involve? CIPD (2016)  Defining Workforce Planning ctnd. Workforce planning involves the following activities: Labour demand and supply forecasting Recruitment and retention planning Skills audit gap analysis Up-skilling, development, Job (re)design, flexible working patterns Outsourcing Talent management and career planning Succession planning Scenario planning Risk management CIPD (2016)  Corporate business strategy and workforce planning The corporate strategy and the detailed business plan, which flows from the strategy, cannot be enacted unless the organisation has the number and type of people it requires for its future needs. The HR plan will compare current profile of skills and competencies with the predicted future capabilities. This information is then fed back into the corporate strategy and thus business plan. The workforce plans flow from and thus complement the business plan.  Hard and Soft Workforce Planning Hard workforce planning: focused on defining numbers of appropriately qualified people (workforce statistics), importantly, data needs to be analysed and understood in context CIPD (2016). Soft workforce planning: focused on understanding the context of people management (factors that influence business strategy such as people development, culture, attitudes, as well as numbers and skills (Armstrong & Taylor, 2017) 6  Traditional approaches to Workforce planning There are four main activities involved in the this process: 1. Analysis and investigation 2. Forecasting 3. Planning & Resourcing 4. Implementation and Control (Leatherbarrow & Fletcher, 2018) Stages in the process of Workforce Planning Adapted from Pilbeam and Corbridge (2010) and Bramham (1994) and reproduced with kind permission of the CIPD Chapter 5: Workforce Planning  Stage 1: Analysis and investigation The Internal Labour Market In addition to the financial and productivity related information, the following is useful for analysis workforce needs with the organisation the number of employees within the organisation the nature of the skills and other qualities of employees the level (seniority) or status in the organisation of employees the standards of employee performance employee attitudes and versatility employees’ potential for promotion or development employees’ likely time-frame for requesting flexible working or retirement.  Stage 1: Analysis and investigation (cont’d) The External Labour Market Where the results of the HR demand analysis produces shortfalls in staff numbers and required competences, information is gathered from the external pools of potential future employees The nature and levels of the jobs that are, or will be, affected by the shortfall means that the HR planner needs to search the labour markets at three levels: Locally Nationally Internationally Lack or Mispatch of skills = triggers needs for recruitment (note: but scanning of external market can happen regardless (contingency)  Stage 2: Forecasting Forecasting: a sets of activities leading to prediction about a future of a specific organisation; an estimation, guesswork [can be imperfect but it’s a common activity, happens all the time] Why would we need to make forecasts? If corporate business strategy changes - new workforce planning cycle need to be instigated. Corporate business strategy might stay the same (or evolves little), but the circumstances might change and the workforce characteristics (contingency planning)  Stage 2: Forecasting techniques According to Armstrong (2017, pp241-2), there are four basic demand forecasting methods for estimating the numbers of people required: ❖ managerial judgement ❖ ratio-trend analysis (utilisation of ‘historical data’) ❖ work study techniques (see diagram) ❖ Forecasting and forseighting skill and competency requirements  Stage 3: Planning It involves the planner getting to the actual work (making plans) It has implications for recruitment in terms of the geographic scope of the search for talent Planning (triggered by skills audit of the current workforce) considers whether there are capabilities within existing staff to retrain or up-skill The planner takes numerous factors into account, including: future developments (e.g. planned changes to organisation structure) work patterns needs (flexibility) policies and procedures such as those for managing reward, diversity, training and development.  Stage 3: Multiple-plans Not one plan but a series of plans: Supply plans Talent management and mentoring plans Organisation and structure plans Employee utilisation plans Training and management development plans Appraisal plans Reward plans Employee relations plans Communication plans (Leatherbarrow & Fletcher, 2018)  Stage 4: Implementation and control Implementation could mean: 1. Recruiting and training people from outside the business 2. Retraining and perhaps redeploying employees whose jobs are no longer required 3. Making employees redundant who are surplus to the needs of the organisation. 4. Promoting and training existing and new staff It is likely that some of the above could potentially occur simultaneously. Evaluation: Did the plan worked? The planning process should be revisited and evaluated after a period of time and in line with strategic cycle.  What will future jobs look like? How will this impact HR planning? Part 1 Group discussion: What factors are currently changing the labour market and how? Exchange the findings of your research [media headlines] Part B Group exercise: As a group pick one work context. Then: make a a simple map of current work processes (from the workforce perspective: what’s the job who does the job?) identify few change factors (PESTEL): what could change in this context in the near future? map out how these factors could change jobs and work processes you made earlier.. Identify implications for HR planning and provide estimated characteristics of future workforce.  Tutorial Exercise 17 Thank you.