Workforce planning: 5 steps to effectively manage staff

5 of September, 2022

The last few years have been unpredictable for employers, to put it lightly. Pandemic conditions, remote working and the great resignation have made even the most carefully laid plans completely irrelevant. As we emerge from a moment of dramatic change in how we work, workforce planning is more important than ever.

What is workforce planning?

If taking a snapshot of your company today gives you a weather report, workforce planning is a farmer’s almanac. By assessing revenue, profitability, number of employees and sales teams’ objectives, a leadership team can set goals. These goals, matched to the skills needed to achieve these goals, will likely show gaps in staffing or training. Take those gaps, figure out how to fill them and your workforce planning has begun. 

Workforce planning helps with one of the most costly parts of doing business: employee retention. Having a careful and data-led plan shows where skills are lacking and where there are simply not enough people to do the work. Employees who are being properly trained, fairly paid and supported by their co-workers are more likely to stay in jobs, contributing to the overall health (and profitability) of an organization. 

5 steps to workforce planning

Deciding on a direction

The first step to workforce planning is a top-down exercise to establishing goals. Leadership gathers strategic and organizational data to create future-facing goals. Where do we want to be in one year? What will revenue look like? What will output look like?

Examining current workforce

Considering the number of employees and their skill sets is the next part of workforce planning. What does productivity look like? Where do we need help? 

Developing the plan and spotting the holes

Combing through data and laying it on top of a map of goals will start to show gaps in an organization’s workforce. How many people are needed to achieve the goals that have been set? What skills are team members missing?

Implementation

Next, it’s time to find the people who can do the work outlined and fill those gaps. The first efforts should go towards positions that are harder to fill, generally more skilled, experienced and specific workers. 

Monitor, evaluate and repeat

Once the new workforce plan is in place, it’s time to gather data again as staff members adjust to their new positions and responsibilities. The data will show which parts of the plan are functioning as desired and which parts still need some help. 

Workforce planning, that is, effectively keeping up with employees’ needs and organizations’ health, is an art as much as it is a science. The art comes into play with the culture of a company and the human connections that push business forward. The science comes from data capture and analysis. Sesame HR can cover data needs for all workforce planning and evaluation with reporting tools integrated right into its dashboard, pulling working hours, overtime and profitability quickly and accurately. And that makes for fair weather for any business.