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Workforce planning

Working out what capability the organisation will need, when, and whether it currently has it. The gap between the two drives everything else in this object.

The idea

How it works

Workforce planning starts from what the organisation needs to be able to do, not from how many people it has. Headcount is the output; capability is the input, and reversing the two produces a budget exercise rather than a plan.

The horizon matters. Hiring takes months and competence takes longer, so a plan written for this quarter is already too late for anything that requires a new skill.

Working with it

In practice

  1. 01

    Start from the goals, not the org chart

    Take next year’s goals and ask what capability each one assumes exists. Most assume more than is currently held.

  2. 02

    Describe capability, not roles

    A role title says what someone is called. A capability says what they can do, which is what the plan actually needs.

  3. 03

    Compare against what you have honestly

    The current capability picture is usually more optimistic than the reality. Ask people what they can do rather than reading titles.

  4. 04

    Decide build, hire or partner per gap

    Each closes a gap at a different speed and cost. Making the choice explicitly is what stops it defaulting to hiring.

One level in

The components of workforce planning

A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.

  1. The capability map

    What the organisation can currently do, described in capabilities rather than in job titles.

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  2. The demand forecast

    What will be needed, when, derived from the goals rather than from last year’s headcount.

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  3. The gap analysis

    The difference between the two, with a decision attached to each gap.

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A workforce plan that produces only headcount numbers has skipped the analysis. The useful output is a list of capabilities and how each will be obtained.

The other modules in hr

Recruitment and selection

Finding candidates and choosing between them in a way that predicts performance rather than comfort.

Learn

Development

Building capability in people already present — usually cheaper than hiring it, always slower, and rarely planned as deliberately.

Learn

Retention and engagement

Keeping the capability the organisation has already paid to build, and understanding why people stay or leave before the pattern becomes a problem.

Learn
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