SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR |  RSS | | REPRINT
|
Strategic Workforce Planning Means Smarter HR Decisions?
August 12, 2009
Many companies make human capital decisions without the data and analytics that can best position their business—a mistake avoidable by using Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), according to a recent report by The Conference Board.
When looking to reduce human capital's share of a company operating budget, drastic cost-cutting measures such as slashing headcount, freezing hiring, and suspending training can cause long-term collateral damage. Avoiding rigid, across-the-board targets, SWP allows companies to make selective, strategic decisions about where to invest and where to trim, and whether to buy, rent, build, or redeploy talent to meet future needs.
"Strategic Workforce Planning helps companies look beyond short-term budget or headcount planning to examine organizational capacity issues," says Mary Young, senior research associate, human capital, The Conference Board. "It also helps identify and manage human capital risks. Unlike older, more operational HR approaches, the primary beneficiary of SWP is the business."
"By providing a vital link between business strategy and workforce strategy, SWP can re-frame the HR agenda," says David Learmond, executive fellow at The Conference Board. "It provides a unifying context for decisions on reward strategies, learning approaches, diversity and inclusion issues, and other related and important HR issues."
The report features four case studies of companies that successfully employ SWP:
• IBM's Workforce Management Initiative manages an extended workforce of roughly 500,000 (including contractors) as a single talent-supply chain, delivering a 4:1 ROI.
• Starbucks anticipates long-term changes and aligns workforce investments with business priorities—ensuring the right talent to execute business strategy.
• Canada Post, facing 50 percent attrition over the next 10 years, zeroed in on key and vulnerable positions.
• Australian Mining Industry and fellow mining giants set aside competitive issues to overcome a national workforce crisis that threatened their ability to meet booming demand from China and India.
|
SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR | RSS |
|
|
| Back to Training Index |
|
|
