Since March 2020, we have seen significant changes in the workforce landscape for most businesses. Whether it’s new shift patterns, fluctuations in staff, significant new health and safety measures, expansion of home working or complete redesigns of shop, factory and office floor plans. This huge shift, has had a real impact on companies being able to effectively people manage or ‘Workforce Plan’, and it continues to be a major challenge to most brands in these uncertain times.
How do you manage a dynamic workforce in times of uncertainty?
One way is through taking a ‘Strategic Workforce Planning’ approach – which is about aligning your people strategy with your business strategy. By integrating your strategy, plans, data and technology you can make workforce decisions which meet your companies financial, productivity and HR targets. By taking this approach, workforce planning doesn’t just sit with HR, it spans the entire business. This alignment enables you to optimise your workforce, react quicker to change, highlight risk areas sooner and prepare your organisation for future resilience. People are one of the biggest, if not THE biggest expenditure and asset of any company, so maximising this area of the business is crucial. From Financial to Operational Planning and Change Management to Workforce Planning – everyone needs to be able to plan, project and maximise productivity – if a business wants to maximise its workforce.
Is your workforce planning integrated into your business planning process?
If not, you could be missing out on crucial competitive advantage, efficiency gains and business growth opportunities. Forward thinking brands know that integrating budgeting, planning and forecasting with Workforce Planning, is essential in today’s changing and uncertain world. Join our On-demand webinar, Strategic Workforce Planning – Then Vs Now, to see the benefits that the right technology can deliver.
Why is it essential, and what benefits do you gain from integrating Finance, Business and HR planning?
- Predict the future…. of your workforce needs! – Identify future scenarios and understand how changing factors will impact the business and your workforce.
- Agility and ability to adapt to change – Creating scenarios around possible workforce changes and needs, will empower you with the ability to be able to move quickly, and adapt to change if/when it happens. Giving you the edge over competitors who don’t have a clear workforce planning strategy.
- Accuracy of projected data – Payroll Expenses represent a significant portion of the Expenses within the Income Statement (Profit & Loss) of each company therefore, It is very important to quickly and precisely calculate projected payroll expenses within the planning timeframe.
- Cost efficiencies – managing this vast resource with more in-depth knowledge and agility, will help you to identify where you are incurring unnecessary costs, and therefore make necessary changes.
- The right mix, at the right time – You will be aware of, and able to combine the right mix of people skills, experience, and roles to match your business needs. Confidently and easily manage and plan everyone, from your full-time employees and remote workers to contractors and freelancers.
- Highlight gaps and potential risks – You will be able to identify gaps in your workforce easier and quicker, along with knowing when you will need them and how long it will take to obtain them.
- Strategic recruiting – Armed with more insight, you will navigate through this, often grueling, process. A strategic approach can identify how new recruits will impact your business financially in both costs incurred and value or productivity gains will be generated.
- Productivity efficiencies and increased quality of output – Delve into the detail to find out where time is being wasted, productivity could be boosted and where applying the right technology could massively reduce manual tasks and upskill your workforce.
- WIN-WIN employee reward schemes – Combining company data and goals along with employees’ needs will lead you to create a reward scheme which boosts productivity, keeps employees motivated whilst being kind to your budget.
Alongside a robust strategy and process, you will need the right technology in order to unlock the true potential of your strategic workforce planning process. Having the ability to access insights quickly and confidently will help you to drive business growth in times of turbulence and change.
What should you look for when choosing Strategic Workforce Planning software?
Firstly, to gain the benefits we have talked about, we suggest that it should be integrated with your Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting software. At HAYNE, we partner with leading Planning software brands, and will be showcasing these tools in our On-demand Webinar, Strategic Workforce Planning – Then Vs Now on 17 September. This 40-minute webinar focuses on 1) The Theory – Strategic Workforce Planning and its place in the wider business planning process, 2) The Tech – How the right technology can deliver real benefits, efficiencies and competitiveness and we will Demo the tech too. You will see first-hand how you can manage your Strategic Workforce Planning effectively through powerful software. If you are a Senior Finance, Operational Planning, Change & Workforce Planning Professionals responsible for workforce planning, this webinar will help you to link the ‘theory’ to the ‘tech’.
What next?
If you’d like to explore Strategic Workforce Planning software and technology more, then please:
• Watch On-Demand Webinar: Strategic Workforce Planning Then vs Now
• Contact us to discuss your requirements
