Workforce Planning Today and Tomorrow

Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) or simply Workforce Planning (WP) is somewhat similar to
ocean tides. Both come and go. The main difference is that tides are totally predictable. The
popularity of SWP waxes and wanes in tune with unexpected or unpredictable market changes.
Part of the reason that planning is difficult to launch and maintain is its complexity. Beyond
matching future jobs to the business plan a strategic workforce plan must include tasks such
as environmental scanning and capability analysis as well as taking into consideration resource
allocation and supply chain management.
A Short History
SWP had its start after WWII. Coming out of the War American industry took off on what was
to be an uninterrupted 20 year run. In 1946 the United States was the only developed country
whose manufacturing base had not been bombed to the brink of extinction. Anything we
could make we could sell and name our price. In addition, the science of management was
just emerging. Prior to the War a number of books on management theory had been written
by Henri Fayol (Administration Industrielle et Générale) , Frederick Taylor (Principles of Scientific
Management) , Chester Barnard (Functions of the Executive) . During the War, Peter Drucker
published his study of General Motors ( Concept of the Corporation) followed by (The Practice
of Management) . All this, along with prominent research studies such as the Hawthorne Project
at Western Electric in 1928-32, spurred a post war movement to shift management toward a
practical model.
Planning grew slowly until the mid-1970s when American industry discovered that in many
sectors it was no longer globally competitive. Thereafter, planning was pushed aside as executives
concentrated first on survival, namely improving productivity and then quality. Over the next 30
years planning came and went:
• Mid 1980s planning reemerged as America came out of stagflation
• 1989 planning sunk by the first round of layoffs that lasted into the mid-1990s
• 1998 the War for Talent drove organizations to plan ahead, but this arrived at the same
time as the dot.com and Y2K movements, which again overwhelmed many companies
• 2002 dot.com crashed and slowly planning began to be discussed
• 2007 the credit crunch again stole the spotlight

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