Workforce planning is a term that gets thrown around in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons. But what does it achieve?
It is crucial in small organisations where losing an employee or two can have a significant impact on the business, as they make up a large proportion of your workforce. A good workforce plan will give you a clear understanding of the demographic of your current workforce and how you should prepare for the future. It will show you who is in your workforce, what they do, the skills they have and the skills they need to develop or improve. In other words, it will show you the current state of your workforce. A workforce plan works for your business by showing you where you are most at risk of productivity and continuity losses and in what areas you need to train more employees to ensure you have a consistent and alternative supply of talent
It will help you to identify whether or not you need to improve your retention strategies for particular roles in the organisation and will maximise your workforce’s potential to achieve the goals you set out through your business planning processes. Your workforce plan should be a live document that is reviewed, tweaked and updated along with your whole-business plan. Workforce planning allows you to proactively manage your business’s budgeting process by linking workforce needs to financial and strategic planning. You will be more easily able to manage strategic planning by having the means to predict future staffing requirements and possible skill shortages or over supply which will allow for a planned recruitment strategy including time frames and costs. Being more in tune with your staff’s development needs enables you to close skill gaps in order for your workforce to remain productive. You will identify critical positions and talent in your workforce and enable your organisation to respond more strategically to change.
We found this article from CCI Small Businesses Advisory Services by Prina Shah.
