Tech-Enabled Strategic Workforce Planning – Do’s and Don’ts

Given the hot labor market and urgent upskilling needs across multiple industries impacted by the pandemic, strategic workforce planning has received increasing attention. Having implemented a workforce planning solution earlier this year and having served as one of the strategic workforce planning leaders at GE a few years ago, I’d like to share a few Do’s?and Don’ts from my experience.

Do…

1.?Align with the business planning process. Regardless of which tech solution and software you’ve chosen to implement or even if you choose to build a tool internally, it is critical to align workforce planning with the business planning process in terms of both input and rhythm. Successful strategic workforce planning needs to start with a clear understanding of the business strategy and ensuring workforce planning is part of the business planning conversation will go a long way. When companies are in growth mode or if there are significant M&A activities, it is even more critical to incorporate these changes in future business demand into workforce planning.

2.?Leverage technology to understand workforce skills and gap analysis. Skills are the new currency, and it is how companies have started to hire and develop talent. If you are only cost-focused and aren’t incorporating skills in strategic workforce planning, you may end up with the right number of people, at the right costs, without the right skills needed to deliver for the business. “In the past year, LinkedIn has seen a 21% increase in job postings advertising skills and responsibilities instead of qualifications and requirements in the U.S.” as Ryan Roslansky writes in the HBR Article “You Need a Skills-Based Approach to Hiring and Developing Talent”. I will go into details around measurements of skills and different vendor solutions in a different article, and generally encourage companies to leverage technology rather than opting for manual solutions if possible. ?

3.?Be clear on the metrics that will define success up front. When done well, strategic workforce planning can improve an organization’s business metrics, and if you are able to tie the success of workforce planning with business metrics, it will be much easier to continue to have stakeholders’ support because the value-add is crystal clear. As you are selecting a tech solution for workforce planning, make sure you have an easy way to track the success metrics appropriate for your business.??

Don’t…

1.?Underestimate the difficulty of demand forecasts. This is where out-of-the-box solutions of workforce planning often have a difficult time accurately forecasting the headcount and/or skills needs in the future. In industries where there is a clear productivity metrics of pieces of products per employee or revenue per employee, it is easy to forecast how many employees will be needed if you have the revenue forecast. In certain functions within the company such as engineering, it might have to be a different productivity metric, such as engineering hours per employee. It can get more complex with other functions and roles. Additionally, the skills demand may be even more challenging. If we take HR for instance, as the total number of employees increase, you may want to increase the number of HR professionals to provide adequate support. However, is it a linear relationship? Have you considered what activities can and should be automated in short- and long-term? Could investment in chatbots help reduce the number of tickets employees raise? Could out-of-the-box talent management tools help reduce the manual efforts today? In the strategic workforce planning decisions of “Buy, Build, or Borrow”, don’t forget we now have a 4th B for “Bot”.

2.?Assume what works for one group will work across the enterprise. Pilot in small groups with critical needs for planning and use the lessons learned to scale. Given the complexity of strategic workforce planning, it is key to test out the framework, process, and tech solution to ensure it works on a small scale. In my experience piloting workforce planning, I selected 5 pilot groups that represented different parts of the business, and used the learnings from pilots to create a proposal for enterprise-wide rollout. You can check out Ian Bailie’s article on workforce planning for helpful insights.

3.?Forget to include other valuable data sources. If you think employee wellbeing and burnout are topics that belong to the Benefits department within HR, think again. A timely HBR article titled, “It’s a New Era for Mental Heath at Work”, finds that 68% of millennials and 81% of Gen Zers have left roles for mental health reasons, compared to 50% of respondents overall. Glint’s Wellbeing Report finds employee burnout rose this past fall by nearly 4%, after previously having reached a two-year high in August 2020. At the leadership levels, women cited experiencing overwhelming workload 41% more frequently than men. Do you know what percentage of your workforce may be on the verge of burnout? Imagine the impact burnout has on productivity, innovation, and capacity. In your supply forecast, wouldn’t it be useful to know which groups are operating at overcapacity because of burnout? Another valuable data source companies have is work activity analysis. If you are able to figure out how different groups of employees are spending their time, it opens up possibilities to find ways to reallocate the work for efficiency, to consider automation as a solution, and to completely stop non-value-add work activities.

According to a recent McKinsey Global Survey , 87 percent of executives said they were currently experiencing skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years. As we work to shape the “next normal”, how will you use tech-enabled strategic workforce planning to ensure you have the right skills in the workforce to deliver for the business???

For other articles I’ve written, check out:

• Starting a New Job in the Pandemic – Tips for Success
• A Summer of Breakups?
• Navigating Career Crossroads - Three Questions to Ask Yourself
• People Analytics Career - Do’s and Don’ts
• Use HR Tech and People Analytics to Shape Your Post-Covid Workplace Strategy
• What Can Organizations Do to Help Employees Improve their Mental and Emotional Well-being?

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Dr. Serena Huang is currently the Global Head of People Analytics & HR Technology at PayPal. She is a thought leader in people analytics, HR technology, digital transformation, future of work, and employee experience with deep expertise spanning large multinationals including GE, Koch Industries, Kraft Heinz, and Deloitte. Her recent interviews appeared on People Matters ,?Data Chief podcast ,?HR Leaders podcast ,?Workforce.com ?and?Rallyware .

Follow her on LinkedIn here:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/serenahhuangphd/

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