Amidst the specter of recession and ever-increasing corporate belt-tightening, cutbacks and layoffs are becoming the unfortunate companions of companies large and small. Simultaneously - not to mention ironically - talent shortages still loom on the horizon. Needless to say, the prospect of successfully grooming, developing and aligning a workforce to support business goals and develop or enhance a competitive advantage may seem nothing short of a Herculean task. Fortunately, the answer can be found when companies elevate their thinking about how to approach and handle workforce planning.

Doing Away with Manual, Haphazard Approaches
Currently, most companies' workforce strategy planning solutions come with limits, and those limits place governors on organizational growth. Although planning at the macro, strategic level is a good start, it must be followed with the ability to proceed on to a more granular, tactical approach: a systematic and simple way to implement strategy. In addition, most workforce strategy solutions fail because they rely on time-consuming and error-prone methods like email, spreadsheets and PowerPoints, which hinder rather than enhance collaboration. Imperative in any successful implementation policy is an ability to quickly and easily collaborate.

Overcoming these challenges starts with structuring a workforce and the organization for success. Without such a structure, processes are bound to be haphazard, unorganized and inefficient. In the instance of organizations where the immediate workforce goal is downsizing to save money, the problem is most often that there is no fast, easy, efficient and logical system for eliminating positions. As a result, there are delays, and with each moment the cutbacks are delayed, money is lost. In addition, employees don't like uncertainly, so when delays occur, productivity drops. Ultimately, without a robust system for tactically employing workforce planning, delays are inevitable.

The Better Way to Organize a Workforce
Useful workforce planning is about aligning an organization with its business goals and plans. This necessitates putting in place not just the right people, but the right culture - the kind of culture that is encouraging, challenging and logical enough to allow work to flow easily. Part of this is making it clear who is responsible for what: organizing a chain of command and roles and responsibilities. Those organizations that install a system for building and replicating a workforce with clear lines of command and authority and clear-cut mandates are that much closer to achieving their business goals.

For example, in order to support both growth and attrition, an organization must know the answers to such critical questions as:

" How many employees are needed and where do those employees need to go in the company structure?
" Who are the future leaders and how can they be groomed?
" Which employees are the most vital to retain in the event of downsizing?

But even with the answers to those questions, organizations are still at a disadvantage without a workforce management tool that allows the input of these metrics and then provides a system to allow managers to collaboratively execute appropriate strategy. This execution strategy, known as "tactical workforce planning, is reality-based, detail-oriented, more efficient and more likely to result in a winning workforce.

Similarly, organizations with a good integrated workforce management tool can make a template of areas of the company's success - such as a store, department, or company unit - and apply it elsewhere. In this way, organizations can template everything from reporting structures to the qualifications and skills of the people who are making individual stores or units a success. This type of templating can be used in both retail and corporate structures, and are especially helpful during a restructuring or workforce transition event.

Implementing a Workforce Management Tool
Not all workforce management tools perform the same. The right product provides the ability to enable multiple managers to plan and create "what-if scenarios. It must also codify and automate the process, which removes time and reduces guesswork. Such a system also reduces the personal and political nature of reorganizations, allowing managers to look objectively at the various departments and the end results they want to achieve.

Another key to a good workforce planning tool is the ability to plan by position, as opposed to by individual. Additionally, the process should automatically be tied to the dollars for better planning - something simple spreadsheets can't do. The goal is to quickly show the positions and people on the future org chart - along with the costs - so managers can visualize and understand all the changes. 

This informational data sheet has been developed by Irving, Texas-based Aquire, Inc., the leader in visual workforce management solutions. The original is available at https://crm.hr.com//en?i=1116423256281&s=&t=/Default/openExternalURL&url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hcXVpcmUuY29tL3ByZXNzL2RhdGFzaGVldHMvc2hhcGluZ19mdXR1cmVfd29ya2ZvcmNlLnBkZg%3D%3D". For more information on Aquire, visit www.aquire.com or www.orgpublisher.com.