Workforce Planning Elevates To A Strategic Issue, Demanding C-Suite Priority

The 4 pillars supporting the evolving workforce

From skill gaps to gender equality, headlines today point to the increased complexity and volatility of workforce-related issues. Technology is adding to the disruption, redefining employer expectations, necessary qualifications, and compensation models.
 
Human Resource professionals frequently face these challenges with limited training budgets and minimal executive support. However, to build an effective workforce today, companies need to strategically align workforce planning and core business strategies. Only then will it be possible to achieve performance and productivity goals—while controlling labor costs.
 

 

Defining the Problem

Companies today, no matter the industry, must grapple with unprecedented levels of change and uncertainty. While economic recovery is spurring optimism in many sectors, workforce related issues--tangled in emotional rhetoric and legal implications--can impede growth. Social issues can generate awareness—and tensions. For example, gender and race equality, violence in the workplace, harassment and bullying, and the MeToo movement are important topics, which deserve more than a casual reference in an employee handbook.
 
Technology also brings a myriad of pros and cons to the workplace. Robotics, co-bots, and drones can perform tasks that are dangerous for humans, working in situations that are remote or in extreme conditions. Robotics and automation can also eliminate simple or labor-centric tasks, from self-scanning checkouts at the grocery store to kiosks for placing your order at the fast food restaurant. Even more advanced jobs, which require trade skills, such as bricklaying or driving a forklift, can be performed by machines equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Additionally, quality inspection, sorting, and routing can be done with the aid of sensors and optical scanners.
 
On the other hand, technology creates a serious demand for highly skilled workers, especially those with IT skills. Industries, such as manufacturing are facing a crisis-level shortage of skilled workers. A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) reveals that 72.9 percent of respondents say the inability to attract and retain a quality workforce is their top business challenge.

Get Strategic

Workforce planning can help companies develop the short and long-term business strategies they need to overcome such issues—and ones which may develop in the future. Institutionalizing operational flexibility will allow a company to address any dynamic pressures, which may arise. Best practices should be put in place immediately. This will help the organization adapt to anticipate and respond to future needs while staying true to the company’s core mission.

Four Pillars Supporting the Evolving Workforce

1. Tightly link workforce planning to core business strategy and objectives
Disconnects between C-level strategies and operational execution, including workforce management, can cause serious damage. If new initiatives are planned without thinking through the types of skills and training that will be required, the project may fall flat, wasting time and capital.

As recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce can be challenging, strategies for filling newly defined roles may require non-traditional thinking—which may require extra commitment of time and funds. This demands C-level support. Outsourcing, hiring contractors, revamping compensation plans, and enhancing benefits packages are among the tactics, which may need to be considered. Likewise, robotics and automation are also potential answers.
 
However, the foundation must come first. An underlying human management solution, fully integrated to the business system, is the first step in elevating workforce planning to a strategic level. The HR professionals—and the C-suite—need to view the workforce as a critical cog in the operational machine. This includes financial impact and the role in executing strategic objectives, such as building customer engagement or speeding product design.
 
2. Align short-term and long-term workforce planning
Some issues require stop gap solutions and other require more complex, lasting solutions. The ability to distinguish between the two comes from strategic insights, data, and predictive analytics. Modern workforce planning tools, integrated with business intelligence tools, help HR professionals formulate solutions, which meet objectives while staying within logistical parameters.
 
Creative problem solving can address some issues, such as the need to recruit highly specialized workers in a short time frame. Harvard Business Review recently reported that 60 percent of the jobs in the 21st century require skills possessed by only 20 percent of the workforce. Filling those positions will likely require short-term solutions. A Deloitte survey indicates that when asked about future hiring trends, 37 percent of respondents expect to increasingly turn to contractors, 33 percent fore saw an increase in freelancers, and 28 percent expected growth in gig workers.
 
3. Demand precision in your capacity requirements planning
Planning for the short-term labor requirements is relatively easy. Nonetheless, a long-term view becomes harder to achieve with accuracy. Business processes that cannot project labor requirements based on seasonal demand, production requirements, adherence to labor laws, and other compliance requirements can get in the way. Deploying an IT infrastructure that supports what-if scenarios and analyzes multiple considerations is more helpful.
 
Modern IT capabilities with business intelligence, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) play an important role in foreseeing future needs. A tech-savvy HR professional will be able to develop a granular view of projected labor capacity requirements and go beyond projecting generalized hunches of what skills will be needed. Also, BI tools will allow for more precision and address more complex issues, such as the tradeoff between reskilling existing workers versus hiring new recruits.

4. Deploy modern workforce planning technology and data analytics
Many organizations are trying to stretch the lifespan of outdated technology and cobble together disparate point solutions to try and postpone investment. However, a piece meal approach may cost more in the long run. As an IT team tries to apply band-aids to solutions which are no longer able to keep pace with the extreme pressures of today’s HR organization, outdated technology falls short on capabilities and forces professionals to make do with static spreadsheets, pseudo-accurate projections, and late nights of number-crunching and manually charting reports.
 
In contrast, modern workforce planning solutions and advanced analytics can help turn data into strategy, with speed, accuracy, and ease. The HR team can develop processes for ongoing analysis of skills needed, how they compare to the current skillsets of employees, and how best to manage the difference. AI, data science and algorithms, will be able to apply objective considerations to managing talent, identifying learning opportunities, and tracking training and education sessions, as well as soft skills, acquired.
 
Eliminating some of the tedious reporting tasks from the responsibilities of the HR Director means that they can allocate more time to personalized interaction with personnel and finetune the hiring and oonboarding processes. The entire HR team can be more strategic, using data-driven insights to achieve measurable results. 

Closing Thoughts

Workforce issues today are complex, and the stakes are extremely high. Workforce planning needs to be elevated to a strategic position within the organization, receiving support and appropriate funding from top executives. Legacy patched solutions are unlikely to have the functionality needed to take on today’s planning needs. 
 
For companies hungry for growth, a modern workforce is essential for supporting a transformation into the digital era. New skills are required of the workforce. New technology is needed to help HR professionals stay on top of evolving trends and demands. Out of the box thinking, including turning to AI and predictive analytics will be an important part of recruiting and retaining the workforce of the future.