Human Resource Planning:Ensuring your Organization

has the Right People

Thomas P. Holland, Ph.D., ProfessorUGA Institute for Nonprofit Organizations

What is Workforce Planning?

• Workforce planning is making sure you have the right number of people with the right skills, experiences, and competencies in the right jobs at the right times.

• It is a comprehensive process that provides managers with a framework for making staffing decisions based on the organization’s mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources, and a desired set of work competencies needed to accomplish goals.

Benefits of Workforce Planning• Enables managers to be proactive instead of

reactive to changes in organization and markets• Provides guidelines for selecting, developing,

retaining, and replacing staff to ensure that the needed competencies are available when needed

• Allows organizations to address systematically the issues driving workforce change (ie, aging of staff, retirements, changes in technology, competition)

• Guides staff development and training activities• Enables organization to accomplish its goals

and sustain excellence in performance• Supports accountability

Requirements for Good Workforce Plan

• Strong management leadership

• Clearly articulated vision, mission, strategic goals

• Cooperative, supportive staff

• Budget sufficient to gain and retain needed staff and competencies

Gap Analysis and Planning

• Examine the competencies of the present workforce.

• Identify the competencies needed in the future.• Compare the presently available competencies

with future needs.• Identify competency gaps and surpluses.• Specify and implement steps to build the needed

workforce.– Train current staff– Hire new staff– Recruit volunteers

• Monitor movement to needed competencies.

Defining a New Job Role

• Recognize need through problems in completing work assignments or

• Anticipate need when planning for new service or program

• Specify tasks and competencies through examination of current job roles and gaps

• Identify how new role fits with organizational structure, work flow

• Write job description• Estimate costs, including salary, benefits, taxes

Part II

Competencies

Competencies

• Competencies are sets of behaviors that include skills, knowledge, abilities, and personal attributes that are critical to successful work accomplishment.

• Identifying competencies needed to accomplish organizational goals serves to – describe the ideal workforce – inform management decisions about feasible

objectives– guide employee behaviors and expectations– provide basis for hiring and for staff training and

development– Identify work tasks that should be outsourced

Benefits of Competency Frameworks

• Underpins personnel selection and evaluation

• Helps employees achieve greater effectiveness

• Leads to greater organizational effectiveness

• Enables targeted analysis of training needs

• Supports effective career management

Defining Competencies• Occupational standards: The behaviors that employees

must have (or acquire) to carry out their work at a high level of performance.

• Define the expected areas, procedures, levels, and outcomes of work performance; what actions will be valued, recognized, and rewarded

• Must be stated in clear, specific, and observable forms• May include sets of skills in areas such as

– Communications– People management– Team skills– Customer service skills– Results-orientation– Problem solving– Use of technology

Developing Competency Frameworks

• Internally generate sets of tasks, requisite skills, and expected levels of performance for a job.

• Draw from existing models• Specify indicators of successful performance• Monitor performance to refine definitions• Assess how well it works in

– writing job descriptions– selecting among applicants– orienting and guiding their work– achieving high levels of performance,– assessing individuals’ capability and performance– providing feedback to guide skill development

training

Assessing Competency Frameworks:How well does it

• Communicate to employees what behaviors are valued and how they contribute to success

• Identify key themes and aspirations• Get conditions in place for success• Address key issues including knowledge, skills,

attitudes• Keep it simple and meaningful to staff• Allow observation and monitoring of successful

performance• Guide training (not blaming). Do staff and

supervisors make use of it?•

Part III:

Bringing in the Right People

Generating applicationsScreening them

InterviewingSelectingOrienting

Generating Applications

• Prepare job description• Decide if role is to be staff or volunteer• Advertise the position, starting internally• Provide sufficient information for reader to do

self-screening– Title and general responsibilities– Required skills, experience, education, limitations– Closing date for consideration– Identify application forms and supporting documents

required (ie. resume, recommendation letters, references)

– Contact information

Screening Applications

• Examine applicant’s career objectives• Work history, jobs, dates, gaps• Competencies match those needed by

organization?• On best candidates, gather and evaluate

reference letters• Get others’ views of applications• Select a few finalists for further

investigation

Interviewing Applicants• Contact those on finalist list to set interview times,

location, expectations• Prepare interview questions and follow them consistently

in every interview• Questions must focus on performing the duties of the

job, not about characteristics unrelated to job (ie. age, marital status, religion, handicapping conditions)

• Consider open-ended questions, such as– “Why do you thing your skills are appropriate for this

position?” – “What was your biggest challenge in past job and

how did you handle it?”• Introduce them to others in organization• Ask about salary expectations and when person could

begin work

Compensation

• A systematic approach to providing monetary value to employees in exchange for work performed

• Forms– Base pay– Commissions– Overtime– Merit pay– Travel, meals, housing allowances– benefits

Purposes of Compensation

• Helps recruit and retain qualified employees

• Contributes to staff morale

• Encourages top performance

• Supports fairness, equity among staff

• Encourages loyalty to organization, reduce turnover

Developing Compensation Plans 1

• Decide on general job categories and pay levels across them– Executives– Professional staff– Support staff– Hourly vs. salaried– Contingent pay (commissions, bonuses)?

Developing 2

• Conduct task analyses for positions• Specify assignments and expected levels of

performance for each position• Rank all positions within and among

departments• Establish levels within positions based on

criteria such as– Prior skill and experience– Knowledge– Performance– Length of service

Developing 3

• Estimate market demand and supply for each kind of position

• Estimate pay rates for positions• Compare with data from outside compensation

surveys, make adjustments• Specify pay for various levels of performance

within similar jobs, such as– Entry level– Acceptable performance– Outstanding performance– Longevity

Developing 4

• Identify types and extent of benefits for each position

• Complete summary of pay and benefits for all positions

• Present to manager and board for review and approval

• Specify implementation steps

• Monitor implementation and fine-tune plan

Benefits• Forms of tangible value awarded to

employees in addition to salary• Costs must be considered in total

personnel expenses• Examples of benefits paid by organization

or shared payments with employee• Insurance for health, life, disability• Pay for vacation time, holidays• Retirement plans• Leave for health reasons, maternity (may be paid

or unpaid)

Candidate Selection• Get impressions of everyone who saw

applicants, starting with interviewer(s)– Ask which they prefer and why– Ask about perceived gaps, problems

• Look for one with most positive recommendations

• Take recommendation to final decision-maker

• Inform finalist by telephone and letter

Possible Problems

• No suitable candidate or everyone turns down the job– Re-configure and re-advertise the job– Ask finalists about reasons for declining– Go back to top candidate with best fit and

negotiate for whatever needed to improve attractiveness of position (ie. higher salary or benefits, training opportunities

Orienting Newcomer• Go over in greater detail the position,

expectations, limitations, policies and procedures, resources, questions

• Take to office and provide keys, supplies, important documents, and individual copy of personnel manual

• Tour facility and introduce staff, including executive, supervisor, mentor

• Invite group to meet for lunch, encourage other social interactions

• Schedule any needed training• Meet with person regularly to resolve questions

about position, performance expectations and reviews, common challenges

SMARTER: Make sure goals and expectations are clear

• Specific• Measurable• Acceptable• Realistic• Time-framed• Extend capabilities• Rewards provided for

accomplishments

Make use of Volunteers

• Traditional “busy-work” not interesting or motivating to most people

• Begin with workforce needs and identify tasks at all levels that may be done by volunteers

• Must engage staff in planning• Follow similar steps of preparing job description,

recruitment, screening, orienting, training, supervising, firing

• Monitor performance and satisfactions, make adjustments to retain good volunteers

• Recognition and appreciation are essential for retention