From the course: Certification Prep: Professional in Human Resources (PHR)®

Workforce planning

From the course: Certification Prep: Professional in Human Resources (PHR)®

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Workforce planning

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- Say your organization decides that it's in their best financial interest to open a location in Hong Kong. As the HR lead, you've got to snap into action and recommend how to best staff this new location. This is called workforce planning. Workforce planning is a continual process that organizations engage in to ensure alignment between the company's strategic goals and priorities and the needs of the workforce, both now and in the future. During the planning process, HR pros discuss staffing projections, the skill mix employees need, analyze both the internal and external workforce, and determine staffing priorities. The workforce planning process is a collaborative effort between human resources and leaders of functions. Staffing, also referred to as talent acquisition, is a specific set of activities that HR pros embark on to execute the workforce plan. This involves attracting and hiring existing or new talent into needed roles. Staffing has a direct impact on a company's financial condition because of the cost associated with hiring the right people to carry out the company's strategic plan. Costs include recruiting, training or retraining, and the time it takes to get a new hire up to speed on both their job function and company policies and procedures. This is why an internal hire into a key position is highly desirable. While there are still costs and risks associated with the employee ramping up enough to be effective in their new role, the right internal hire can minimize the length of time it takes to adjust to the company culture. This is where succession planning becomes important. Succession planning is a process companies engage in to identify and develop high-potential employees. Traditionally, succession planning activities will focus on key leadership roles. Now it's advised that HR encourage senior leadership to plan for any role that, if vacated, would derail the company's strategic plan. Generally speaking, the performance management process will reveal information that helps you determine who your high potentials are. HR pros should have ongoing dialog with senior leadership about what happens if a key employee leaves and a critical position becomes vacant. Can the company's strategy stay on track to being actualized if you lose a molecular biologist at NASA? Or if the chief information officer, who is the executive sponsor of a massive IT implementation decides to retire? PHR candidates will spend a great deal of their time involved in talent planning and acquisition activities because it's important for HR pros to determine a staffing strategy that supports the company's objectives.

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