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The 8 Steps of Workforce Planning and Its Benefits
Safira Adnin
September 6, 2024

Workforce planning is often conducted at the end or beginning of a year to prepare for the business needs of the upcoming period. It involves analyzing the company’s human resources (HR) and forecasting the need for additional manpower to support the organization’s goals and growth plans.

Workforce planning ensures the business has the right number of employees with the appropriate skills in the correct positions. It’s a strategic process that helps companies stay competitive by aligning human resources with business objectives.

What is Workforce Planning?

Workforce planning is the process of managing and forecasting an organization’s human resources to ensure it has the right mix of talent, skills, and capabilities needed to achieve its goals. It’s a essential part of human resource management, helping companies avoid both understaffing and overstaffing, improving efficiency, and supporting overall business success.

This planning process enables businesses to anticipate future workforce needs, prepare for market shifts, and proactively address potential skills gaps. It’s about ensuring the organization remains agile and adaptable, with the right people in place to tackle upcoming challenges.

The Benefits of Workforce Planning

A well-executed workforce plan provides numerous advantages that directly impact the success and stability of your business:

  • Prevent Overstaffing or Understaffing: By forecasting future needs, you ensure that you’re not scrambling to hire new talent or dealing with the costs of excess staff.
  • Improve Operational Efficiency: Having the right people in the right roles improves productivity and streamlines operations.
  • Cost Savings: Avoid unnecessary hiring or redundancy costs, and manage salary expenses more effectively.
  • Elevate Workforce Quality: Strategic hiring based on business needs leads to a higher caliber of employees, ultimately driving business success.
  • Adapt to Business Changes: Whether it’s expanding into new markets or adopting new technologies, workforce planning helps you pivot smoothly.
  • Boost Employee Satisfaction and Retention: When employees are in roles that fit their skills and career goals, they’re more likely to stay and contribute to your company’s long-term success.

Now, let’s break down the eight steps of workforce planning that can help you get the most out of your team.

1. Define Your Workforce Planning Goals

Workforce planning is not a standalone activity—it’s part of the broader business strategy. Your workforce planning goals should directly support your company’s overall objectives. For example, if your business is gearing up for international expansion or adopting new technologies, your workforce plan should include strategies for hiring the talent needed to support these changes.

Begin by asking:

  • What business goals are we trying to achieve?
  • What new projects or initiatives are planned for the coming year?
  • How do these goals translate into workforce needs?

These answers will guide your HR team in identifying staffing requirements and creating a plan that supports business growth.


2. Analyze Your Current Workforce

Before you can plan for the future, you need to understand where your workforce stands today. This step involves taking a close look at the current employees within your organization and evaluating their roles, skills, demographics, and performance.

Consider the following:

  • Headcount & Demographics: How many employees do you currently have? What’s the age distribution, especially regarding retirement?
  • Skills Inventory: What skills do your employees have? Are there any critical skill gaps?
  • Performance & Productivity: Who are your top performers? Are there any employees who need further development?

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your current workforce, you’ll have a clearer picture of where you may need to hire or invest in training.


3. Forecast Future Workforce Needs

Once you have a solid understanding of your current team, it’s time to forecast future needs. This is where you bridge the gap between your current workforce and your future business goals.

Ask yourself:

  • Do we have enough employees to meet our future goals?
  • Are there new skills we need that our current workforce lacks?
  • How many new hires will we need, and in which departments?

Several forecasting methods can help, including:

  • Trend Analysis: Looking at past hiring trends to predict future needs.
  • Ratio Analysis: Using metrics (like revenue per employee) to estimate how many employees are needed.
  • Workforce Modeling: Developing scenarios based on different business plans or potential market changes.

This step is critical in avoiding talent shortages that can slow down your business’s progress.


4. Create a Workforce Action Plan

After forecasting, you’ll need to develop a detailed workforce action plan. This plan outlines how you’ll meet future staffing needs, including recruitment, internal promotions, and talent development.

This step requires input from all department managers to ensure alignment. The workforce plan should detail:

  • Hiring Needs: How many new employees are required, in which roles, and what skills they should have.
  • Internal Moves: How many promotions are planned, and what roles need to be filled.
  • Budgeting: A detailed recruitment budget, including salary expectations, training costs, and annual wage increases.

Having a clear plan in place ensures everyone is on the same page and can execute the workforce strategy effectively.


5. Recruitment and Hiring

With the workforce plan in place, HR can begin recruiting the necessary talent. But recruitment today is about more than just filling roles—it’s about finding the right fit for your company culture, skills, and long-term goals.

Key considerations include:

  • Which recruitment channels work best for your business? For example, job portals are great for general roles, but headhunters might be more effective for highly specialized positions.
  • What’s the competition like? In competitive industries, you may need to focus on employer branding and offering competitive packages to attract top talent.

Combining various hiring methods—such as employee referrals, job boards, and executive search firms—will give you the flexibility to recruit strategically based on the type of role you’re hiring for.


6. Identify Skills Gaps

Once new hires are onboarded, it’s time to assess their performance and determine if they meet the role’s expectations. You may find that despite careful planning, there are still gaps in the team’s skill set.

Regularly assessing your team’s competencies helps HR identify underperforming employees or skill shortages. Addressing these gaps through targeted training or development programs ensures that your workforce is always aligned with the business’s evolving needs.


7. Invest in Training and Development

Ongoing employee development is key to ensuring your workforce remains competitive and skilled. Workforce planning isn’t just about filling roles—it’s also about investing in your people and ensuring they have the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.

Here’s how training can benefit your workforce:

  • Bridging Skills Gaps: Close the gaps between what employees know now and what they need to know for the future.
  • Employee Growth: Providing learning opportunities helps employees grow professionally and stay engaged.
  • Company Performance: A well-trained team is more effective, innovative, and capable of driving the business forward.

Your workforce plan should include a budget for professional development programs to help your employees stay ahead of industry trends.


8. Evaluate and Adjust Your Workforce Plan

Workforce planning is a continuous process. After executing your plan, you should evaluate its effectiveness regularly. Did your hiring and development efforts meet your business needs? Were there any unexpected challenges?

Regular evaluations allow you to adjust your workforce strategy as your business evolves. Maybe certain roles are no longer necessary, or perhaps new technologies have created a need for entirely new skill sets. Stay flexible and adapt your workforce planning as your company grows.


Conclusion

Effective workforce planning is essential to ensuring that your business has the right people in the right roles to drive success. It’s not just about hiring—it’s about understanding your business’s future needs, identifying skills gaps, and developing a comprehensive strategy to fill those gaps.

By investing in workforce planning, you position your company to respond proactively to market changes, adapt to growth opportunities, and build a team that’s ready for whatever the future holds.

If you’re looking to take your workforce strategy to the next level, Glints offers tailored recruitment solutions to help you find the right talent, whether you’re expanding into new markets or enhancing your team’s skills.

Build your borderless team with Glints today

Glints TalentHub is our complete talent solution that covers all aspects of talent acquisition, management, and development. Our team can help you access the extensive talent pool across Southeast Asia and build great teams quickly and affordably. Simply schedule a call with us and our dedicated experts will be thrilled to guide you in your journey towards building a borderless team.


This article is brought to you by Glints TalentHub. Leading companies are actively building their borderless teams in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and beyond. However, the prospect of going borderless can be daunting due to complex regulations and cultural ambiguities. With Glints TalentHub, you’ll have a dedicated team of in-market legal, HR, and talent experts by your side at every step of the way.

Glints TalentHub offers an end-to-end, tech-enabled talent solution that encompasses talent acquisition, EOR, and talent development. We empower businesses to leverage the strengths of regional talent efficiently to build high-performing, cost-efficient teams.

Schedule a no-obligation consultation with our experts to receive a tailored proposal today!

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