1.5 Workforce Planning in Practice

While most HR professionals understand the importance of effective workforce planning, one of the key roadblocks to developing workforce planning has been the lack of top-management support.  Human resource management can help overcome this roadblock with data and bottom-line numbers that demonstrate the effectiveness of workforce planning.  A second roadblock to effective workforce planning is the difficulty in integrating all HR activities. In other words, a challenge for many HR managers is to create an HRM system in which all the functions and activities of HR are integrated and coordinated with the business plan.  Finally, a common roadblock to effective workforce planning is the fact that there is often a lack of support and involvement from line managers. Failure to involve line managers in the design, development, and implementation of workforce planning is a common oversight for many HR professionals. 

It is important the HR professionals recognize that workforce planning encompasses the whole range of societal, demographic, economic, and government regulatory factors that influence changes in the workforce. Just as human resource management is concerned with the whole person, workforce planning must include the entire external environment that will shape the workforce. Some of the major changes that are currently taking place in the external environment include a shrinking supply of younger workers, increases in employees responsible for young children, increases in permanent part-time work (especially in Europe, Canada, and other parts of the world), changes in required training and job skills, changes in general economic conditions and increases in technology. 

In addition, values toward work are also changing.  While people still value work, the type of work that interests them is continually changing.  For the most part, workers today want jobs that provide a challenge and jobs in which they have the freedom and support to make decisions that they feel will help the organization reach its strategic goals and objectives. 

In sum, workforce planning activities are evaluated by how effectively they attract new employees and manage job loss. Since an important part of workforce planning is forecasting supply and demand, workforce planning itself is evaluated by how well its forecasts compare with reality. Without accurate forecasts, workforce planning does little good. Linking workforce planning activities to corporate goals is also important, and workforce planning can be evaluated on how well it connects them.