Workforce Planning and Forecasting

• Workforce (or employment or personnel) planning - is the process of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.
• 1. Reviews the client’s business plan and workforce data
• 2. Identify what positions the firm will have to fill and potential workforce gaps
• 3. Develop a workforce strategic plan - to prioritize key workforce gaps
• 4. Implement the changes and use various metrics to monitor the process.
• “MAPS” - software to facilitate the workforce planning process.

  • To monitor key recruitment metrics, and to conduct a detailed analysis of the current workforce and historical workforce trends.
• Three sets of employment forecasts:

  1. Personnel needs (demand)
  2. Supply of inside candidates
  3. Supply of outside candidates
• The basic process for forecasting personnel needs is to forecast revenues first. Then estimate the size of the staff required to support this sales volume.
• Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor Demand)

  1. Trend Analysis
  2. Ratio Analysis
  3. Scatter Plot
• Trend analysis - means studying variations in the firm’s employment levels/ needs over the past few years.
• Ratio analysis - making forecasts based on the historical ratio between

  1. Some causal factor (like sales volume)
  2. The number of employees required (such as number of salespeople)
• Scatter Plot - shows graphically how two variables—such as sales and your firm’s staffing levels—are related.
• Computerized forecasts - enable managers to build more variables into their personnel projections.
• The manager must forecast the supply (availability) of inside and outside candidates.
• Position replacement card - A card prepared for each position in a company to show possible replacement candidates and their qualifications.
• Personnel replacement charts - Company records showing present performance and promotability of inside candidates for the most important positions.
• Big company cannot tract hundreds of employees, that’s why they computerize it. They use Survey Analytics’ Skills Inventory Software.
• Skills inventory programs help management anticipate staffing and skills shortages, and facilitate workforce planning, recruitment, and training.
• Skills inventory Items Include:

  • work experience codes,
  • product knowledge,
  • the person’s industry experience,
  • formal education,
  • industry experiences,
  • foreign language skills,
  • relocation limitations,
  • career interests,
  • performance appraisals.
• Markov Analysis - a mathematical process that has the ability to forecast availability of internal job candidates.
• If there won’t be enough skilled inside candidates to fill the anticipated openings you will turn to outside candidates.
• Forecasting workforce availability depends first on the manager’s own sense of what’s happening in his or her industry and locale.
• The manager then supplements such observations with formal labor market analyses.

  • Economic projections online
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Predictive Workforce Monitoring

  • Some of the companies have yearly or twice a year evaluation of employees.
  • Paying continuous attention to workforce planning issues.
• Matching Projected Labor Supply and Labor Demand

  This plan lays out the employer’s projected workforce and skills gaps, as well as staffing plans for filling these gaps
• Succession Planning - Is the ongoing process of systematically identifying, assessing, and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance.
• Succession Planning entails three steps:

  1. Identify key position needs
  2. Develop inside candidates
  3. Assess and choose those who will fill the key positions