Workforce Planning

Workforce Planning is a planning process which ensures that a business always has the optimum number of workers, with the right up-to-date knowledge and skills in place when required. The main aims of workforce planning are:

To ensure key business plans are not undermined by failure to retain or recruit key staff.
To anticipate the problems of potential excesses or deficits in employee numbers and plan to minimise the impact of this on business effectiveness.
To "horizon scan" and thereby anticipate changes in the business environment e.g. new competitors, changes to legislation etc. which might impact on workforce requirements.
To constantly monitor business plans and ensure the linked workforce plans are continually reviewed and updated.
To ensure the business takes pro-active actions to ensure it always has the workforce it needs.

Effective Workforce Planning requires a sound framework to ensure it is properly incorporated into the business and robustly project managed. Human Resource Solutions has developed a Workforce Planning Model which provides clear stages, direction and worksheets to guide organisations through the process. This has now been made available for free. It can be downloaded below.

Workforce Planning Model - for free download

This Workforce Planning Model has been developed while working with a number of small and medium sized organisations. It is simple to use and ensures managers are fully engaged in the process through the use of worksheets to gather information and facilitate good project management.

Useful Links

NHS Six Step Methodology
The main aim of this Six Steps Methodology to Integrated Workforce Planning is to set out in a practical framework those elements that should be in any workforce plan. It is a somewhat complex NHS model, but has some useful information and tools which might be helpful.

Local Government Workforce Planning Model
Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly IDeA) has produced an introduction and six-step workforce planning guide to help councils through their workforce planning process. Some useful links and case studies are included.

Workforce Planning - Recommended Reading

"An Operational Process for Workforce Planning" by Robert M Emmerichs

This US based book is a short focussed - step by step guide to getting results from workforce planning. It presents a four step process for workforce planning and looks at the key success factors.

It is fairly dense but presents useful material in getting to grips with workforce planning.

Available from the Amazon link on the book cover for £14.24, but there are much cheaper second hand copies available there.

Human Resource Solutions offer these documents to UK organisations only as a service, but cannot be responsible or liable to any person or entity in respect of any cost, loss or damage caused, consequential or otherwise, directly or indirectly by the information contained in the policies and procedures or their component parts, to include any mistakes therein.