Workforce Planning: The Benefits, Process and Free Templates

Believe it or not, workforce planning is one of the most influential factors for business growth. Despite that, a substantial number of organization owners still aren’t completely aware of their current or future staffing requirements, limiting their abilities to reach main objectives.

Otherwise known as human resource planning, workforce planning ensures the right employee is in the right job role at all times. By analysing, forecasting, and planning current and future workforce needs, you stand your business in good stead for reaching success.

This type of planning works best when utilising talent management apps like Operandio. While there’s nothing wrong with going it alone, digitising can streamline the process, make reporting easier, and aid in measuring outcomes.

The Benefits of Workforce Planning

Workforce planning gives you a chance to assess your current staffing situation, identify skill gaps, and pick up on potential vulnerabilities (e.g., current employee turnover rate) to offer these advantages:

• Helps identify risks before they impact your business operations
• Defines the impact of decisions to better manage upcoming investments in your future workforce
• Gives you a clear understanding of the supply and demand challenges
• Identifies issues that could limit employee productivity, allowing you to rectify them promptly
• Provides an advantage over your competitors
• Consistent workforce planning strategies offers outcome reports to assess measurable results

5 Top Tips for Effective Workforce Planning

To get the most out of your workforce planning efforts, you need to be strategic and involve executive-level members from all corners of your business. The plan should be aligned with your business goals, depicting all hiring and employee management challenges.

To do that effectively, we suggest you:

1. Be specific and decisive when creating short- and long-term business goals — The more detail you pack into your business objectives, the better your workforce planning strategies will work. You can then measure the metrics once you launch the plan.
   
2. Take advantage of HR analytics — They’ll cover your employees’ work contracts, performances, quantities, seniority profiles, and demographics, providing valuable insights into your current workforce.
   
3. Ask for external guidance — Business leaders should reach out to their network to ask for assistance from those in similar roles. You may even opt to hire a workforce consultant who specialises in this type of planning.
   
4. Utilise workforce scenario planning too — Preparing for different scenarios is essential. Do this by modelling various potentially harmful situations and considering how your workforce would cope.
   
5. Always monitor your workforce plan — Workforce strategies are fluid, so always keep an eye on them and make adjustments based on your findings.
   

The 4-Step Workforce Planning Process

Your staffing plays a major role in your company’s future. So, follow these steps to make sure your workforce plan aligns with your wider visions:

#1 The Supply Identification Stage

Consider employee attrition and market growth. How will your current and future workforce change in reaction?

Determine how well your existing staff supports your current goals and the number of employees at each level. We also suggest determining the difficulty of filling certain positions.

#2 The Demand Analysis Stage

At this point, you’ll identify your current and future talent needs. You must think about how many

employees you need to perform tasks and any relevant regulation or policy changes that could affect how you operate.

#3 The Gap Analysis Stage

Here, you compare the supply and demand to notice staffing gaps and identify the most crucial. How can you address the gaps to keep competitive? Which jobs require skills that are hard to find?

Retirement is also on the agenda. Note how many employees are up for retirement and when that’s likely to take place. 

#4 The Solution Stage

Finally, you implement interventions to close your identified staffing gaps and make sure your company meets its objectives!

Consider which metrics monitor risks and how you can measure your plan’s success. Also, figure out whether you’ll recruit extra employees or retrain current staff members to cover skills gaps. 

Free Workplace Planning Template

Streamline Workforce Planning with Operandio’s Human Capital Management System! 

There’s no denying that effective workforce planning takes time and effort. So, why not speed things up? With our all-in-one powerhouse of a platform, you can manage your workforce better than ever before. 

Staff progress is easy to track, allowing you to better implement performance-enhancing tuition. Not to mention our easy built-in templates make strategizing a dream. Simply request a demo now to see what we can do for your business!

How Can Operandio Help With My Workplace Planning?

Operandio gives you everything you need to effectively manage your workplace planning, including features that allow you to:

• Clearly establish goals for your staff, and track their completion
• Create a knowledge base full of resources that your employees can access at any time
• Communicate with all of your staff Enhance Staff Communication

There are currently two pricing plans for Operandio.

• Business, a cost-effective way to manage day-to-day business operations, including the following:
  • Unlimited process & task management
  • Team communication & news feed
  • Business Knowledge Base
  • Manager dashboard & notifications
  • Unlimited 24/7 support
    
• Enterprise, intended for large or complex organizations that require custom configurations, where you receive everything in the business plan plus:
  • Detailed reporting
  • Bespoke roles & permissions
  • Custom organization structure
  • Custom billing terms
  • Dedicated Enterprise support

Request a free demo of Operandio today.