Weighing resources: technology can streamline workforce planning and cost analysis - HR Technology

HR Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Beth Patterson, Steve Lindsey

Second in a two-part series.

During the last decade, most organizations have implemented some form of HR information system (HRIS) to leverage significant advances in technology. By using this technology to assist 'HR with its transactional functions, many HR departments have been able to position themselves to become fully recognized business partners within the organization.

However, once they reach the executive table, few HR leaders have been able to provide the hard analytical data to support strategic business decisions, even though the data exists. HR executives are becoming much more analytical in their approach, and they are much more focused on business with recommendations and guidance. There is no question that leveraging HR data provides competitive advantage in the areas of turnover analysis, cost analysis, workforce planning and employee development. The question that remains is: Can HR provide the analysis in a timely and well-understood format? To survive in a competitive market, the answer should be a resounding yes.

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By marrying quality people information with key business data, decision-makers can gain a better understanding of business processes and drivers.

Last month's HR Technology column focused on two of four key nuggets in which competitive advantage can be unearthed through HR data mining-turnover analysis and employee development. This month's column will look at the benefits of effective workforce planning and cost analysis.

Workforce Planning

HR can achieve competitive advantage by having the necessary business-related talent available to execute business strategy. Workforce planning is the constant review and management of an organization's workforce needs. Effective workforce planning is accomplished when the process of maintaining current workforce data, forecasting future workforce needs and identifying current talent gaps is streamlined.

A fundamental function for most HR systems is to build positions and job descriptions, including the key competencies, educational and physical requirements, and experience necessary to successfully perform a particular job. Armed with this information, along with an understanding of the market forecasts and business strategy, an HR leader can more efficiently source, recruit and staff for future business needs. You can make technology work for HR to develop effective workforce management.

Here are some questions to which HR can find answers through a workforce planning analysis.

* Which employees speak a particular language fluently?

* How many employees are in a particular job classification?

* Which employees have a particular skill set?

* How many employees were rated with our highest performance rating and who are they?

* How successful are our various recruiting sources?

* Which employees have completed a specific development activity?

Succession Planning

Anticipating workforce needs is a critical component of filling positions quickly and, thereby, remaining productive and competitive. Leveraging existing HR data to anticipate and plan for future needs is absolutely critical. Once the needs are identified, the ability to quickly source individuals to fill positions can often be vital for an organization's success. Filling open positions internally is often the most expedient path to meeting immediate staffing requirements. Easy access to information showing the credentials and capabilities of internal employees--for example, their current roles, work experience within and outside of the organization, languages spoken and openness to relocation-- allows HR to quickly identify internal candidates for particular staffing needs.

Succession planning is another important program that can provide competitive advantage. It is important that an organization never be vulnerable because of the unexpected departure of a key employee. By early identification of individuals primed for advancement, an organization can effectively recover when a key individual leaves.

Leveraging data within the HR system can also provide valuable gap analysis information to guide development plans and assignments for succession candidates. Be proactive. Insist that your enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be queried to provide replacement candidates when necessary, as well as a fit/gap analysis for skills or competencies.

Learning From Past Success

Another key area of workforce planning is the analysis of HR data to understand past successes. For example, it is important to understand the success of recruiting sources to determine where to invest future recruiting funds.

Consider the case of a large global technology company that hired more than 29,000 employees within one year. Unfortunately, the company's executives had no idea how many of those new hires matched its critical skill sets. Recognizing talent acquisition as a critical business success factor, the company began to analyze its workforce planning, souring, recruiting and induction process data.