Workforce Planning: What to Know
Generally speaking, workplace planning merges your current organizational structure and your future hiring needs. Commonly, workplace planning falls to the human resources department. However, this strategic planning must align with the overall goals of the organization.
This is a continual planning process, not a one-time project. Companies must continue to evaluate their staffing needs for skills and talent to meet industry, technology, legal, and organizational requirements.
Here are some key points to know about developing a successful strategy for workplace planning.
How to Identify Your Needs
Strategic workplace planning usually spans a three to five-year period, whereas operational workplace planning focuses on the next 12-24 months. When planning for the short-term and the long-term, companies should examine market trends, technological advances, current product or service offerings, and current talent and skills while keeping an eye on their competition.
Furthermore, companies should carefully examine their current employees. For example, does your workforce have tenured talent that may retire soon? Is your team trained on new technology and market trends? Have you identified gaps in skills or talent? Can you keep up with customer demand? What is the cost of a new hire for each position in your company? How much does a bad hire shave off your bottom line?
How to Recruit Top Talent
Before you begin hiring to satisfy an immediate need, take some time to reflect and see what your business needs. You must understand what skills you have enough of, and areas your teams are deficient. Do you need new skill sets to supplement your team? Are you in growth mode needing to support increased customer demands?
When searching for new talent, utilize every avenue you can to spread your reach. For example, provide job information on your website, post on social media, and ask for referrals. Be creative; by adopting new recruitment methods, you gain access to a larger pool of talent.
How to Scale Your Business
Not only should you assess skills for recruiting, but you also need to assess the skills of your current employees. Do you offer job training? Do you offer soft skills training, such as leadership and communication? You may have some ripe talent within your organization that you can train and promote without looking for external candidates. By developing your current talent, you position yourself for future growth.
As you grow, make sure you continually reinforce the company’s culture and goals. People can get caught in the day-to-day. By talking to your employees about the bigger picture, you’re reminding them of why they’re there and how they contribute to the overarching company goals.
Growth is exciting but it can also be exhausting. You can’t do it all yourself. Consider how you can delegate more tasks and projects. Considering hiring or outsourcing some accounting, IT, or social media marketing functions. By capitalizing on the talents of others, you can achieve growth and scale thoughtfully.
The Lynch Law Firm offers a customized approach to handling your organization’s strategic workforce planning. Specifically, Susan Word, HR Specialist, engages with the company to understand the unique needs of the small business. After Susan has done much of the heavy lifting, Attorney Natalie Lynch reviews the work for legal appropriateness. In this way, smaller companies receive the protection they need at a more palatable price.