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Home Uncategorized Strategic workforce planning: Why future proofing always trumps firefighting

Strategic workforce planning: Why future proofing always trumps firefighting

by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
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By: Daniel Mason, Vice President & Regional Sales Director, EMEA at Visier

The financial services industry is in the midst of a well-documented skills crisis. In fact, a recent study commissioned by Visier found that as many as 84% of UK HR professionals in financial services companies believe it is causing major issues within their organisation. For this reason, highly skilled employees (both existing and new) have become prized assets that organisations are keen to attract/hold onto at nearly any cost.

However, as a consequence, there’s a growing emphasis on HR firefighting current issues, as opposed to long-term future proofing; if left unchecked, this has the potential to do more harm than good down the line. While quick HR fixes, like filling an empty role with an expensive contractor or instantly meeting demands for pay rises from existing employees may offer short-term wins, they can soon lead to an unbalanced workforce and a costly wage bill. This is particularly true if they are applied to roles that end up being less valuable to the business over time.

With our estimates suggesting the ongoing talent shortage won’t be solved for an average 3.5 years, organisations throughout the sector need an effective strategy that goes beyond simply getting ‘bums on seats’ as quickly as possible. Fortunately, with strategic workforce planning, it is possible to consistently plan ahead instead of firefighting in a rapidly changing business environment.

What is workforce planning? 

If you were to ask 50 people to define workforce planning, there’s a strong likelihood you’ll receive 50                 different definitions. Despite the nuanced differences, workforce planning is ultimately the process of ensuring an organisation has the right number of people with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time to deliver on business goals. Going one step further, it’s also about having the capacity and discipline to think well ahead, so organisations can react quickly and effectively whenever they need to.

There are two main components to an effective workforce planning strategy:

  • Operational workforce planning: This looks at the short-term – typically 1-2 years out – and helps organisations map existing skills, capabilities, and resources back to more near-term requirements.
  • Strategic workforce planning: This focuses      on both the number of people required to execute the business strategy, and the skills/capabilities those individuals will need in the long-term.

Ultimately, strategic workforce planning is an ongoing, fluid process that business and HR leaders can use to ensure the talent within the business is aligned to where it’s going/needs to go in the future. Importantly, it isn’t intended to replace operational planning, but complement it and enable data driven decision making that balances both short and long-term needs. Often companies lurch towards workforce planning as a quick fix, due to the pressures of digitalisation and the great resignation, but it is a mature process that builds from a trusted set of data. Businesses need to make sure that they accurately capture what’s happened within the company to then be able to confidently predict the future.

From firefighting to forward planning

Many business and HR leaders understand the need for strategic workforce planning, but only have the capabilities to plan at an operational level. Moving towards a more strategic approach isn’t always easy and buy-in      from key stakeholders such as HR, operations, senior management and finance is crucial. However, once achieved, the result will speak for themselves. Below are five key tips for getting the ball rolling:

  •  Focus on actionable information

Business leaders get far more excited about actionable information than theoretical scenarios. As such, when building an adoption model it’s crucial to understand the business strategy and go from there. For example, if the goal is to build business presence in a new global region, strategic planning can be used to accurately map out key roles and the time needed to fill them, the cost of investment required and numerous other considerations as well.

  •  Strong relationships with key stakeholders are crucial

When rolling out workforce planning for the first time, there’s a risk that key stakeholders who haven’t bought-in to the process will see it as just another task on their to-do list. For this reason, it’s crucial to build strong relationships beforehand and ensure they understand the true benefits on offer. Without it, any early efforts may fall at the first hurdle.

  •  Don’t let the grass grow under you

Effective planning requires a sense of urgency, combined with strong knowledge sharing across the business. For instance, facilities need advanced warning on any new staff that could be joining – and what departments they’ll be in – so they can ensure there’s enough space/desks available. Likewise, IT needs to make sure computers and login credentials are ready to go from day one. 

  •  Don’t overload the planning team

As the saying goes, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, so don’t overload the planning team with redundant members. Instead, focus on creating a small, streamlined team that can get the job done quickly and efficiently. At least one member of the team should be dedicated to workforce planning, in charge of configuring the original plan, refining it on a regular basis and collaborating with contributors.

Within larger organisations, other employees – including HR business partners – can then act as part-time capacity leads. Each capacity lead is capable of supporting several VP-level leaders by providing data, translating demand into people numbers, and fitting that demand to the plan. HR business partners are naturally suited to this role. The capacity leads can also run regular staffing governance meetings with the leaders, facilitate planning discussions, and make sure plans – and outcomes – are progressing as intended.

  •  Getting ahead of the talent acquisition curve pays huge dividends

In some advanced organisations, the planning process is so effective that talent acquisition teams don’t even need to wait for requisitions to know they need to hire. That’s because headcount targets in the workforce plan already take into account turnover assumptions like resignations and retirements, allowing recruiting teams to predict future hiring needs and budget requirements more accurately.

As the financial services industry continues to struggle with an ongoing talent shortage, the premium placed on a reactive ‘attract/retain at all costs’ mentality is understandable but ultimately unhelpful to long-term success. Implementing strategic workforce planning not only lets businesses anticipate staffing issues well in advance – thereby giving them far more time to solve them – it enables them to respond more quickly to the rapidly shifting business landscape and ensure the resources they invest in today will pay dividends tomorrow.

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