Preparing for the Challenges of Tomorrow’s Workforce
Both senior executive leaders and HR leaders know that it’s time for human resources to go break the old mold. Gone are the days when the bulk of HR’s responsibility lay in filling open positions and conducting new-hire orientations.
Over the past 12 years, labor costs have increased nearly 40%. The workforce is becoming increasingly complex. Four generations, each with differing needs and values, are working together. Nearly 1/3 of the workforce is contingent and that number continues to grow. Jobs will exist tomorrow that did not exist today.
On the other hand, the swift pace of innovation presents a unique set of challenges. Gone are the days of 10 year plans, and even 5 year plans are losing traction among business leaders. The business environment is simply moving too fast.
How do you strike a balance between what your company needs today and what you think, or hope, it’ll need in the future? We’ve heard it said over and over that it’s time for HR to have a seat at the table and be a part of strategic business planning. But many companies haven’t taken any steps to make it easier for HR to be a part of developing strategic plans.
The answer seems easy—we need workforce analytics! Surely, analytics are the backbone to any successful workforce planning program. And so they are. Analytics support workforce planning by uncovering trends and insights, enabling data-driven decision making, and measuring the results of initiatives. But the reality is, many organizations are still not committed to implementing analytics in HR.
Without a strong analytics capability, organizations are prevented from engaging in any sort of strategic talent planning. It’s impossible to look to next year and make determinations as to labor supply and demand when HR’s primary focus is to backfill positions that are open right now.
There are three major phases in the workforce planning journey. The first, of course, is analytics. Many organizations aren’t quite ready to move into analytics, but there is still a lot to be learned from working through existing data to identify trends and issues. Rather than aggregating data from across multiple systems for the sake of aggregating data, look at the problem you are hoping to solve and develop questions that need answers. Then, seek out the data specific to those questions and use it to develop a picture of where you stand today.
The next step is to seek alignment with stakeholders. Using your data-backed insights, suggest a solution to the problem you’re hoping to solve. Demonstrate how your solution aligns with business priorities and desired outcomes. Collaborate across departments to avoid unintended consequences.
Lastly, act. Measure progress and continue to draw useful insights from the data you collect. Be proactive and engage in continuous innovation—make changes to processes and procedures as necessary. The benefits of workforce planning are innumerous—reduced costs, reduced unexpected surprises and increased performance are just a few. To learn more about how HR can contribute to workforce planning, join the webcast “Strategic HR: How to Advise the Business through Data-Driven Workforce Planning“ with Ian Cook of Visier on Wednesday, September 23 at 4pm ET.