www.workforceplanning.com.au

Now or Never

Strategic Workforce Planning and the

Contingent Workforce

Tony Wallace

Principal

Workforce Planning Australia

Recent Research Findings

Key findings

• Workforce planning is the number one driver of workforce

management efforts

• 42% of organisations indicate that HR is on strategic

workforce planning

• 54% of organisations still have manual or spreadsheet-

based workforce planning processes

• Less than half of organisations feed workforce planning data

into their recruiting processes

• Workforce planning ranks as a top priority for many

organisations today, but few really understand what it means

and how to make the most of it within their organisation

Aberdeen Group, Workforce Planning: Mapping the Road to Success, 2014

Workforce Planning Defined Differentiating Strategic Workforce Planning from other concepts

Resource

Allocation

Career

Planning

Strategic

Workforce

Planning

Performance

and

Development

Processes

Functional

Level

Individual

Level

StrategicOperational

It is:

• Future oriented

• Goes beyond the

one-year horizon

• Focused on pivotal

workforce segments

Workforce Planning – Foundations

The workforce plan should be based on:

• The organisational strategy

• Strategic and operational planning scenarios

• Current and possible target state operating models

• Data that provides an accurate view of the current workforce

(both permanent employees and contingent staff)

• Using multiple workforce types (permanent and contingent)

to generate the required capability

The “platform of success”

Bottom Line Benefits Benefit for both organisations and their people

Bottom line benefits include:

• Anticipate and plan for change

• Drive allocation of talent investment

• Align HR with organisational strategy

• Reduce vacant positions and increase workforce productivity

• Decrease hiring costs (also lower cost of turnover)

• Improve business operational decisions

Is it a Case of Now or Never?

Reflection

• What is my organisation’s imperative for workforce planning?

• How effective is strategic workforce planning in our

organisation? (Scale: 1 – hopeless or non-existent, 10 – fully

mature and effective)

• Does our strategic workforce planning consider all workforce

types including the contingent workforce?

How do we embrace strategic workforce planning and improve its success?

Old View

• Stable and Predictable

• Past trends can be used to

predict the future

• All stakeholders play by the

same basic rules

• The future is based on a

single right picture

• SWP supports the single

right picture – deterministic

and static

New View

• VUCA

• Data analytics – critical to

yield insights for success

• Many disruptors, and the

rules are fluid

• Future is uncertain,

requiring increased agility

• SWP becomes a playbook

of response options

Is Our Strategy Agile? What is the impact on strategic workforce planning?

Segmentation

• Limited Utility:

– Geographic or Organisational Unit

– Employee Type (Permanent, Casual, Contractor)

– Level

• Preferred: Two step process

1. Job Family, Function and Role (easy)

2. Skills Criticality or Importance (more difficult)

Key concept in workforce planning – different approaches

Skills Segmentation

Workforce planning often focuses on pivotal roles first, and then

other segments. Work is undertaken by multi-functional teams.

Interactions between the capabilities should be understood.

One method

• Few capabilities are vital for ongoing success

• Consensus about these roles is essential

• Do we have a talent pool and people ready to go? Contingent?

Pivotal

[Likely Ratio: 5 to 10%]

• Capabilities that separate your organisation from your competitors

• Often augment pivotal roles

• Contingent?

Differentiating

[Likely Ratio: 10 to 15 %]

• Keep the operational running

• Maybe taken for granted

• Loss would impact on efficiency and bottom line

Operational

[Likely Ratio: 65 to 75%]

• Roles that become obsolete as the organisation changes

• Need to take action to remove them

Movable

[Likely Ratio: 5 to 10%]

Skills Segments and Workforce Type What roles should be open to contingent workers?

Number

of Roles

Role Types Permanent

Employees

(yes/no)

(preferred ratio)

Contingent

Workers

(yes/no)

(preferred ratio)

Interaction with

Other Roles

Pivotal

Differentiating

Operational

Movable

Start by assessing the current roles in your organisation

Review the assessment for each planning scenario

Discussion

Table Discussion

• Using the skills segmentation model, what are the segments

where the contingent workforce can be used?

• Does the distribution and use of the contingent workforce

vary according to organisational and sector maturity?

• Is there a preferred upper level for the contingent workforce

ratio for specific roles? (e.g. No more than 50% of software

engineers can be contractors)

• What are the other considerations that need to be factored

into the plan from a workforce mix perspective?

Skills Segmentation and the Contingent Workforce

Future Capability Planning

Data required will include:

• Workforce size – permanent and contingent

• Knowledge

• Skills

• Experience

• Performance

Workforce data requirements

Data Collection

By Specific Roles Required Data

Data Availability

and Source

Impact on

Workforce Plan

Action Required

Number of Roles

- Permanent

- Contingent

Permanent

Knowledge

Skills

Experience

Performance

Workforce planning is based on data – understand its limitations

Contingent

Knowledge

Skills

Experience

Performance

Discussion

Table Discussion. Key issues to consider:

• What data do we have?

• Are permanent employees and contingent workers managed

in similar systems?

• Noting the temporal nature of workforce data, are we

confident that we have current, accurate and reliable data for

our contingent workforce?

• How do we validate performance data on the contingent

workforce?

• What other data do we need to improve our workforce plan?

The key question: What do we know about our contingent workforce?

Concluding Remarks Pressure will be on to make a difference

Workforce planning relies on adding value by:

• Considering the Contingent Workforce as an integral part

• Focussing on critical organisational decisions

• Getting serious about scenarios

• Mastering the art of monitoring

• Making smart investments in enabling technology

• Thinking performance management

• Staying on track and not being distracted

• Looking ahead and thinking opportunity

Final Reflection

• What are the three things that would improve your

organisation’s strategic workforce planning outcomes?

1. ____________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________

• What are the three things that you could do to improve your

organisation’s strategic workforce planning outcomes?

1. ____________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________

Improving Workforce Planning

www.workforceplanning.com.au

Workforce Planning Australia

55 Swanston Street

MELBOURNE VIC 3000

(03) 9206 8000

Tony Wallace

Principal

0427 039 306

twallace@workforceplanning.com.au

http://au.linkedin.com/pub/tony-wallace/26/30a/540/