Strategic Workforce Planning for business success

What is Strategic Workforce Planning?

At the most basic level, strategic workforce planning or strategic HR is determining what people or skills you need to realise a strategic business plan, meet the needs of your customers, and remain profitable in a changing business environment.

Effectively, it’s about creating your ideal future workforce, ensuring you get the right people in the right jobs, when you need them.

Our proven methodology in Strategic Workforce Planning is backed by Human Resources New Zealand and is used by successful organisations around the World.

Is your business changing direction, or does it need to?

  1. Are the staff you have now going to be all that you need in 5-10 years’ time?
  2. Do you have the skills in your team to realise your business objectives, or meet customer demand in the future?
  3. How attractive is your business to a skilled worker?
  4. What will the future look like if your business does not have the right staff?

How will the changing business environment impact the workforce and, therefore, business success?

Ageing population

Baby boomers are retiring, taking with them work ethic and commitment to getting the job done. Younger people are less interested in more menial work, it’s less money and less attractive.

Underinvestment in apprenticeships

Businesses are not investing in apprenticeships as much as they did in the past. Where will these fundamental skills come from?

Non-targeted industry training

Industry training needs have been poorly identified in recent years. Where will the necessary skills come from?

Increased automation

With increased automation, your business may require people with IT skills or mechanical knowledge in the future.

Closed borders

Little or no access to migrant workers creates a shortage of human resources in a variety of industries. How will this affect your business?

Sustainability awareness

Customers are increasingly aware of environmental sustainability and that places more pressure on businesses to change. Do you have a plan?

Increased government regulation

Compulsory immigration employer accreditation, changing employment laws, compliance – human resources compliance can be a minefield. Is your business compliant with legal minimum requirements and HR best practice?

Businesses with a strategic HR focus will be better positioned for success.

How we can help

When you work with us on a Strategic Workforce Plan, we look at your business holistically and produce a forecast, showing you what skills will be available in the future with a roadmap to show you what steps to take to ensure you either have, or can attract, the necessary human resources.

In a nutshell, your strategic workforce plan will:

  1. Identify key roles you need to staff, now and in the future
  2. Give you the latest local industry analytical data, enabling sound decision making about the future of your business and your employees
  3. Provide awareness of future trends that may impact on your business, with a plan for the unexpected
  4. Give you tools to make your company attractive to skilled workers, giving you a competitive advantage
  5. Match demand with supply
  6. Enable HR to contribute in a tangible way to the bottom-line while building workforce agility
  7. Ensure recruitment is planned rather than reactive

How we work on a human resources plan.

There are 4 basic steps in the strategic workforce planning process:

  1. Analyse the business plan
  2. Assess current HR capacity
  3. Forecast HR requirements to meet business objectives
  4. Estimate gaps & develop talent strategies – how will you get the skills you need?

Want to know more?

We welcome the opportunity to discuss your business plan, your challenges and tell you a bit more about the benefits of strategic workforce planning for business success.
07 839 6666