HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES

DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING WORKFORCE PLANS

“If you are planning for one year plant rice. If you are planning for ten years plant trees. If you are planning for 100 years plant people.”

Indian proverb. Anon

“Develop the business around the people; build it don’t buy it; and, then, be the best.”

Richard Branson

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DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING WORKFORCE PLANS

IN THIS TOPIC YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT:

Components of workforce plans

Assessing internal and external influences on workforce plans

The value of using workforce plans

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WORKFORCE PLANNING

The process of assessing current and future staffing needs

Allows management to be proactive and plan for any changes in the future size or nature of the workforce

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Current workforc

e:Size and

skills

Future workforce:Size and

skills

How? What steps can a business take in

preparation?

Where are we now?

Where do we want to be in the future?

How are we going to get there?

WORKFORCE PLANS

A detailed plan of the strategies that the HR department will undertake to ensure that future workforce needs are met

Remember future workforce needs may be more or less than the current provision

Strategies may include Training Redeployment Internal promotion External recruitment Natural wastage Relocation Restructuring

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COMPONENTS OF WORKFORCE PLANSSTEP 1 ANALYSING THE CURRENT SITUATION

Internal staff auditSkills audit

Existing skills Under utilisation

Personnel performance indicators Recap AS : Labour turnover

Nature of workforce Age Ambitions

Labour market trendsNumber and skills of

entrants Qualifications Skills shortages

Changing demographics Net migration Ageing population

EU directives and UK legislation Working time directive Age discrimination

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COMPONENTS OF WORKFORCE PLANSSTEP 2 PREDICTING LIKELY FUTURE CHANGES

Impact of internal and external audits and trends Are existing staff likely to leave? Who will be available in the market?

Review of corporate and functional objectives What staff will be needed to achieve these? Will staff cuts help achieve these?

Analysis of future requirements Detailed plan of what staff will be needed in the

future How many? What skills? Where?

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COMPONENTS OF WORKFORCE PLANSSTEP 3 WHAT STEPS WILL BE TAKEN?

Having gone through the process of working out what will be needed in the future the business can now decide on the strategies needed to make the transition as smooth as possible

What strategies should be taken: to ensure existing workforce meet future

needs? to ensure any additional requirements can be

fulfilled?

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INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON WORKFORCE PLANS Financial Objectives

Cost minimisation HR budgets

Training budget Maximising

shareholder returns Operational Objectives

New technology Innovation Lean production

Kaizen groups Team work

Marketing Objectives Market growth Market development Low cost strategy

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lansDiscuss how each of

these functional objectives could impact

upon future staffing needs.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON WORKFORCE PLANS

Legislation Minimum Wage Health and Safety at Work Paternity rights Discrimination acts

Labour market trends Demographics EU expansion Education

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You will need access to the internet to watch this clip

Bill to expose gender pay gap

You will need access to the internet to watch this clip

What impact will this have on workforce planning?

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING WORKFORCE PLANS

Employer/employee relations How are plans communicated with the

workforce? How will staff be affected?

Training Redeployment Promotion opportunities Redundancy

Are employees involved in decision making? Are employees fairly represented?

Employee representation will be looked at in more detail in BUSS3.19 Effective Employer/Employee Relations

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ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING WORKFORCE PLANS

Cost Recruitment, selection and training Reducing labour turnover Relocation Redundancy payments

Potentially high short term cost to achieve long term savings

Corporate image Media attention

Redundancies Relocation Staff bonuses

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You will need access to the internet to watch this clip

What evidence is there of workforce planning at Rolls

Royce?

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING WORKFORCE PLANS Training

Motivation Market failure

Having invested in training and development might the business’ employees seek better positions elsewhere? With the competition!

Opportunity cost Financial cost

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Each of these issues can have positive and negative effects

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS WORK IN PAIRS TO COMPLETE THE GRID BELOW

Positive Effects Negative Effects

Employer/EmployeeRelations

Cost

Corporate Image

Training

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VALUE OF USING WORKFORCE PLANS

Informs decision making Managers know how functional objectives will

influence future workforce needs Adopt suitable HR strategies

Natural Wastage Can save future redundancy costs

Respond to changing nature of the labour market

Sufficient staff with the right skills to allow the business to run efficiently

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ACTIVITY WORKFORCE PLANS / SUCCESSION PLANNING Read the case study – Fly High Kites

Questions1. What is meant by the term “succession

planning”?2. Analyse the possible reasons why Amir

wants to share his reading of the article from “Management Today” with the managers of other functional areas.

3. To what extent do you think the advice offered in the article will help Amir in his position as HR manager? Justify your answer.

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