Posts Tagged ‘Change Management’
Updating your workforce plan
Generally when you write a workforce plan you cover the same time frame as the organisation’s strategic plan which could be 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20 years depending on your industry and budget cycles.
I like to review my workforce plan every 6 months or if there has been a major workforce change or refocus of the business. For our workforce plan from 2009-2012 we are coming up to version number 4 as January 2011 will give us some time to see where we are up to and what we have achieved.
We haven’t changed our vision, mission, goals or values but the details in our strategic priorities have shifted a little bit as we have recently undertaken an exercise to simplify our brands and further segment our target markets.
As job roles change and we implement workforce development strategies, the framework that measures our workforce capability also needs to change and expand and we will revisit our demand and supply forecasting to see if we are on track.
The workforce planning process basically results in identifying strategies and actions to be put in places to bridge the gap between your current and future workforce. Here’s an easy to use workforce planning template or a checklist if you have already developed a workforce plan.
Recognition
Yesterday I attended a CEDA luncheon with Hugh Mackay on his new book What makes us tick: The ten desires that drive us.
Hugh covered the ten desires including:
The desire to be taken seriously
The desire for ‘my place’
The desire for something to believe in
The desire to connect
The desire to be useful
The desire to belong
The desire for more
The desire for control
The desire for something to happen
The desire for love
Mackay asserts that the desire to be taken seriously is the most important one, “Not seriously as in ‘Oh what a serious person!’ but seriously as in ‘Please recognise and acknowledge me as an individual.’ (p.2)
So how does this apply to workforce management? Well I’d suggest this desire relates to every aspect of working effectively with people – recognising their achievements, skills, performance, career aspirations, leadership, issues, ideas, work load, work-life balance and the importance of engaging people in decision making, problem solving and change implementation. A good reminder really of the need to practice recognising people every day.