Does your organization have the human capital capacity to conduct workforce planning?

In a work culture that expects us to do more with less, we face enormous challenges each day with meeting business objectives due to the lack of people who possess the knowledge, skills and competencies required to perform the job. A well-intended plan means nothing without the right people to execute it.

SWP requires skilled and knowledgeable individuals who can analyze an organization’s workforce and construct a narrative that allow executive and senior leaders to execute well informed decisions. Often, employees are trusted into SWP roles with little or no guidance just to fill a void. Both the employee and organization suffer from this approach.

So how does one avoid this business issue? In chapter V of my guide I address three talent management strategies (Build, Buy, and Borrow) for onboarding and retaining talent. When positions become vacant many managers look to fill a void rather than truly assess what is required of the position or if the position description need to be revisited and vetted against current and future business needs. I caution readers not to fall into the trap of people management versus position management. Position management is key! If you maintain a position management focus approach you can avoid many of the mistakes I have witness over the years of musical-chair management (shuffling employees) among some leaders.

Employing a build, buy, or borrow strategy allow leaders to manage risk among their talent management approach. Doing so, provide greater optimization of aligning talent with strategic objectives and enhances flexibility among leadership decision making.

• Building Talent – A long-term process that promote growth of existing workforce and present a low-cost solution through a broad range of training modalities, e.g. career ladders, job shadowing, job sharing, on-the-job-training, details, mentoring, etc.
• Buying Talent – A long-term organizational commitment and investment towards ongoing mission critical business objectives. This talent management strategy is a high-cost solution as it focuses on talent acquisition outside of the organization that seek candidates who possess specialized skills that are not currently in the organization.
• Borrowing Talent – A short-term, low-cost solution that allow managers to quickly close workforce gaps with talent outside the organization. This option also serves as a contingency-labor-force strategy and is intended to support short-term business requirements for non-critical roles to temporarily increase capacity or when certain capabilities does not exist within the organization.

These recommended talent management solutions may be employed separately or in any combination to meet the desired business outcome. What is crucial as workforce planning practitioners, is to ensure you have a clear understanding of your organizational climate and workforce business requirements that will provide a range of talent management strategies for attracting the best qualified talent for the position.

Let me know your thoughts. Please share your experience as related to the topic and any solutions you have use to address the issue. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Your SWP Guru: Kimbertly A. Jones, MBA, SWP