What is workforce planning?

There is extreme value in organizations recognizing and pinpointing voids between the supply and demand. When executed this enables organizations to make sure they have appropriately skilled employees in the right positions. This further helps to ensure companies are operating efficiently and are on track to achieving their specific goals.

Organizations often use workforce planning as a hiring strategy. It can help them properly define what types of employees they need to hire in terms of qualifications, experience, skills, and other critical factors. It also lets organizations know when they need to hire these specific employees, and why it is important that they join their workforce.

Workforce planning can vary depending on the specific organization and its industry. However, here are two very common workforce planning methods:

• Operational Workforce Planning

  This type of workforce planning seeks to streamline day-to-day employees' operations by focusing on individual planning concerning employees. This can be of great use to managers and supervisors who need to develop daily work schedules for their employees. It also helps in the area of employee comprehension of responsibilities and productivity related to each.

• Strategic Workforce Planning

  This type of workforce planning takes a more broad approach in terms of issues and problems within an organization. The scope encompasses all of an organization's employees and includes the organization's overall objectives, goals, and vision. This is a method that focuses on the long game, meaning organizations that use it may need to take months, or even years, to properly integrate all aspects of their business. Specific elements of this method include;

  • Evaluation and review of current employees

  • Evaluating current personnel needs and future personnel needs of the company

  • Recognizing and pinpointing voids between the supply and demand

  • Attempting to identify specific obstacles involved in hiring and development of employees

  • The implementation of an efficient and effective technique for analyzing and evaluating a workforce