Although every organisation is different, below are a number of steps you may wish to consider when creating a workforce plan to meet the staffing needs of your company.

• Workforce analysis
• Forecasting
• Bridging the gap – making a workplace planning checklist
• Tracking staff turnover
• Succession planning

Workforce analysis

To commence your workforce analysis, consider answering the questions and completing the actions listed below:

• What are the characteristics of your current workforce? (Including job titles, tasks and responsibilities; skills, experience and aptitude required; the extent of multi-skilling throughout your business; recent turnover figures, and so on.)
• What is the current skills profile of individuals within your organisation?
• What demographic data do you have on your workforce? (Including age profile, male/female, languages, duration of employment, and retirement intentions.)
• Can you analyse attraction, retention and development issues that impact on your workforce? (Survey data may be helpful here.)
• What workforce capabilities will be required in the future? What options would address gaps in your workforce numbers, capabilities, skills or expertise requirements
• Revisit any step whenever necessary, always bearing in mind that workforce planning is a continual process.

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Forecasting

As part of this process, it is helpful to identify future business directions and workforce needs by asking:

• What business capabilities are going to be required?
• What workforce data is available on future demographic trends?
• Does my workforce consist of a broad mix of ages?
• Have I compared my workforce profile with those of my customers? Do they match?
• Have I assessed organisational and problem-solving skills as well as technical qualifications?

The second step is to forecast the competencies required for your organisation to be successful in the future. For example:

• Forecast your need for talent - think of the various scenarios, both internal and external that will affect your organisation, and then predict your company’s growth using budgets and past performance data.
• Prioritise which key people and jobs are most critical to your business - in other words, if a certain person resigned or a particular task was done poorly, how much would it damage your business?
• Predict your potential turnover and identify internal and external replacements. Develop a succession plan for internal replacements, and if you will need to hire, think about the type of person or skills you will need so that if the situation arises you have already done some of the groundwork.

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Bridging the gap - making a workplace planning checklist

This stage looks at any gaps between the first two steps, to determine workforce capability surpluses and deficiencies in your business, and to develop strategies to close these gaps and build the capacity of your workforce.

Below is a checklist which may assist in prompting you to think about your business, the work you do and the employees you have or need.

You may wish to work through this checklist for each position you have to help determine your workforce needs or you may wish to wait until you have a vacancy.

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Tracking staff turnover

This is integral to an effective workforce plan as staff turnover can result in:

• separation costs,
• replacement costs,
• lost productivity,
• lost business opportunities,
• training costs.

Remember, keeping quality mature age workers in a business can be a highly effective strategy in improving your performance and bottom line results.

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Succession planning

In organisational development, succession planning is the process of identifying and preparing suitable employees, through mentoring, training and job rotation, to replace key personnel within an organisation if they leave.

All small and medium-sized employers need to consider the issue of succession planning to ensure that no part of the business is at risk should a particular member of staff leave the organisation.

With good succession planning, employees are ready for new leadership roles as the need arises. Moreover, when someone leaves, a current employee is ready to step up to the plate. In addition, succession planning can help develop a diverse workforce, allowing decision makers to look at the future make-up of the organisation as a whole.

Develop a succession plan for internal replacements, and if you will need to hire, think about the type of person or skills you will need so that if the situation arises you have already done some of the groundwork.

In your succession plan you may wish to consider:

• staff interchange - where employees swap jobs within the organisation in order to have experience in multiple positions;
• formal or informal mentoring arrangements;
• coaching of staff;
• identification of suitable professional development activities for high-performing staff;
• making agreements to introduce flexible working arrangements;
• creating forward-thinking internal promotion policies;
• supporting staff to take increased responsibility;
• the allocation of higher-grade duties or assignments.

It is also important to ensure that the owner/operator has looked at their own plans should they decide to downsize their involvement in the business or wish to leave it entirely.

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