Strategic workforce planning; positioning businesses for competitive advantage (II)
The Strategic Workforce Planning Process
1. Start with Strategic Intent
It all begins with the strategy. HR, together with the line Executives, should review the business strategy at the Corporate, Business Line and Functional (Departmental) Levels, capturing critical business priorities and understanding the non-negotiable drivers of success.
2. Identify Strategic Capabilities
Strategic capabilities can be defined as the set of capacities, resources, and skills that build long-term competitive advantage for organisations. In simpler terms, this is a list of core areas any organisation must be so good at that they cannot be ignored and it is informed by the business objectives. Ideally, these should be no more than 3 – 5.
3.Determine Strategic Positions
• Do all roles contribute equally to strategy execution? Which ones contribute more? Less?
• Which roles have the potential to accelerate achievement of the business strategy?
• Which competencies are vital to executing strategy?
The roles identified here are the roles that are directly responsible for delivering on the strategic capabilities identified in step 2 above.
4. Identify Strategic Players
Certain individuals occupying strategic positions have excelled in their roles. These are the strategic players. The knowledge, skills and attributes they possess, which have helped them excel in their roles are identified and then becomes a success profile to be codified as a point of reference.
5. Conduct Strategic Talent Inventory
Roles are only as effective as the people who occupy them. Therefore, it is important to conduct an assessment of each incumbent in a strategic position, in a bid to determine whether or not the organisation has ‘A players’ in the ‘A roles’.
6. Close identified Gaps
By now, the 5 earlier stages would have thrown up gaps in the capabilities, quality and numbers of strategic players. The next step is to address them.
7. Report, Monitor, Measure & Adjust
Having clearly defined what is needed to deliver on your strategic intent,the next step is to develop reporting, monitoring, measuring frameworks and associated templates to ensure the process is self-sustaining. Software programmes that could ease some aspects of talent analytics could help at this stage.
Case Study; How HP Got it Right
At HP, long before HR Business Partners begin analysing workforce data and running the numbers, they sit down with the heads of HP’s business strategy, to discuss business strategy, the workforce implications and options for ensuring the company has the right people to execute the strategy. It’s a qualitative conversation that uses simple tools and everyday language to educate all parties. HR staff develop a deep understanding of the business, while executives discover exactly how changing business strategy creates new workforce demands. For SWP to succeed at HP, HR may facilitate the process, but the businesses own it.
They analyse past plans, not to show what they have done wrong as they realise that wrong is relative to what they are trying to achieve, looking back gets executives’ attention and it demonstrates that not planning might prevent them from being successful in the future. It also enables them make their workforce plans proactive, they can make more accurate forecasts and prepare rather than react when unexpected events occur.
They point out that proactiveness is not always possible, for instance in a start-up or high-growth business, but it should remain strategic.
They also note that although environmental scanning was an on-going process – gathering and identifying external factors that affect the workforce – it is important that such data be factored into the workforce plan.
Highlights
• There was a high-level discussion and tw0-way educational process between business leaders and HR where they emphasised qualitative over quantitative.
• They used simple tools to capture high-level overview of business strategy and its workforce implications.
• The final step was operational workforce planning.
Final Thoughts
In the words of Larry Bossidy‘We do not think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking’.
Deciding to embark on a strategic workforce planning is one thing, successful implementation is another. The good news is that several organisations have faced similar challenges, and the way they have met these challenges provides valuable lessons for us.