3 Real-Life Lessons About Workforce Planning

The relationship between employees and employers has changed considerably. Low unemployment and plentiful job creation that outpaces available talent have created a new environment. Today’s employees, especially millennials, are willing to change jobs in favor of new ones that meet their career-development, compensation, and other aspirations. In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nearly 3.4 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in April 2018, with similar figures for other months of the year. And according to Gallup, at any given point in time, 60 percent of millennials are open to making a move to a different job.

For any organization, thoughtful workforce planning can hold the keys to retaining talent, meeting employee expectations, and reaching important strategic goals. While it may be a challenge to successfully connect workforce planning activities with long-term business objectives, here are 3 real-life lessons that can help you get started in making those connections:

1. Talent Shortfalls Have Major Consequences

One of the common pitfalls of workforce planning efforts can lie in failing to consider that the supply of talent may not meet company demand. For example, a company may be under pressure to quickly ramp up staffing in response to immediate market conditions, losing sight of how such plans impact broader company strategy or how quickly new positions can be filled with qualified candidates. In fact, in a survey conducted by Indeed.com), more than 40 percent of employers said they’re fearful they won’t be able to find the talent they need to fill open positions. One solution to this obstacle is to use workforce planning technology to create more transparency for the entire organization to understand open roles now and planned for the future. An organization’s best resource for new talent is referrals from existing employees.

2. Embrace Technology or Get Left Behind

Despite the availability of modern workforce planning technology, many organizations are still using static org charts that quickly become outdated as soon as an employee leaves or joins the company. And because traditional org charts often live in a file or system on someone’s computer, they can’t be shared internally among key decision-makers. As a result, companies that rely solely on static org charts to illustrate organizational structure risk lagging behind those that identify and use live org chart technology.

As organizations continue to find new ways to innovate and succeed in this digital era, workforce planning can be greatly aided by a dynamic org chart solution that helps you visualize who sits where within the organization and collaborate on different future workforce planning scenarios.

3. Make Better Data-Driven Decisions

Organizations today possess a lot of employee data, including employee compensation and job histories, workforce engagement and job satisfaction metrics, and much more. However, the sheer amount of data can be overwhelming, particularly when trying to utilize it to help make workforce planning decisions. Employee data is essential when it comes to business forecasting, predicting future staffing needs, and identifying talent gaps and other trends. Thankfully, live org chart technology not only helps to manage and keep track of important employee data but also organizes the data in a way that allows you to use it to make important decisions about how various teams should be organized.

Workforce planning is nothing new for organizations, but using dynamic, collaborative technology can bring workforce planning activities alive in a way not realized previously. Dynamic, live org charts help to provide new insights into your future talent planning exercises and also aid in improved data-driven hiring and restructuring decisions.

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