Slides courtesy of Humaneso.
working with, but you can’t lose sight of the overall strategy.
Nonsimplistic Considerations
Now you have a framework for approaching workforce planning
in your organization, but there are other considerations possibly
affecting your workforce. I call them nonsimplistic considerations
because while some may seem obvious, they are actually complex
and must be evaluated closely to ensure that your organization
is prepared for them and ready to take the appropriate action for
continued success:
You may have tried something like this in the past and
gotten no further than replacement management, rather than
true talent management. You spend your time just putting out
fires. Your manager says, “So-and-so is leaving. We have to find
a replacement.” You find a replacement. You’re told that the
person won’t make enough money, so you go back and negotiate
the salary. Your manager says there’s no budget for renegotiating
the salary. You try to get another requisition. Before you know it,
three months go by before you finally get to hire the person for
the position.
Let’s say that a company is expecting no further growth. It is
going to keep the same number of people but open up an office
in London. It is going global, with a structure that’s very similar to
what it already has in its U.S. locations. It has forecasted staffing,
adding the same mix of people to London and possibly fewer
since it doesn’t know what it is dealing with.
These simple calculations don’t account for things like
growth strategy, but the numbers are firm. So, when leadership
says you need to hire for 37 stores, you can say, “No, I am filling
73 positions, and I have to ensure that each person has the
competencies needed to do the job right.”
If you want an expansion to fall apart, fill it with the wrong
people. You need accurate numbers so you know what you are
30 CERTIFIED
2014: Volume I
• Technological advances — A job that used to take five
people now takes three. What will that do to the workforce
in terms of retraining or downsizing? Will the systems allow
for a centralized approach? Will the IT department handle
internal customer service? Does it have the skill sets for
that? Can we reassign those people? Do we lay them off?
Do we make them noncontingent workers who support us
when someone is on leave?
• Mergers and acquisitions — In each company, who has the
knowledge set that is needed for the new entity? Where are
the gaps? What’s the expansion viewpoint? Whom do we
need for each job?
• Market changes — Examples include increases or
decreases in utilization, market saturation and economic
stability. Are these short term or long term? Maybe we
don’t replace people when they quit, and we just have more
work done by fewer people.
• Competitive forces — The challenging economy has helped
some businesses because it eliminated the competition.
Are we staffed to keep up with current competition? Do
we have too many employees or not enough? What is the
impact that ou