Great business owners are always thinking about growth. Unfortunately, an often-overlooked aspect of growing a business tends to be how those changes will require a different workforce than that which the business currently has in place. That’s why it’s so important for businesses that pay attention to the process of workforce planning as they consider growth, a process that helps to better position the business’ employee base for future success.
Internal restructuring of your workforce is an incredibly wasteful and time-consuming process. When you decide to pivot your business, you’ll be left with not only a host of redundancies but you’ll also be short on the expertise you need to succeed. Instead of panicking at the last moment, you can use this type of planning to streamline your hiring process and to prepare for the future. This type of workforce management cuts down on waste and allows you to create the workforce you’ll need to take your business to the next level.
Workforce planning is a process that hopes to answer the all-important question of how many people you need to hire and what jobs they will need to fill. What is workforce planning, then, in a practical sense? It’s a process by which you take a look at the type of workforce that you’re going to need to build a successful business in the future without constant staff turnover or reorganization. In many ways, this process is an investment in your company’s future, sacrificing planning time today in order to gain a more efficient workforce in the future.
The main goal when workforce planning is being able to compare the company’s future workforce needs with its existing pool of talent in order to determine the most efficient way to create a workplace staff that will meet the company’s future needs. In more basic terms, the goal is to figure out how to augment your current workforce in a way that will make your business future-proof.
Workforce planning always starts with data gathering. It’s important to get basic numbers from all the different parts of your business as well as any other information you might find necessary for planning. This is the data that you’ll use to move forward.
From there, you’ll take a look at what your current workforce looks like. If it doesn’t fit the profile that you’d like it to fit, you’ll want to create a plan to get your workforce where you need it to be by a certain date. After that, you will take the steps necessary to implement your plan, following your action plan to whatever degree is realistic.
The final, and perhaps most important, step is to monitor and evaluate how your plan is working. You shouldn’t follow a plan to its conclusion just because you feel like you’re stuck. Evaluate, monitor, and make changes as necessary.
There are a variety of great workforce planning tools out there, many of which are created to help out businesses just like your own. These tools help with data gathering, employee metrics, and even with your hiring forecasts. The best management tools allow you to gather data not after the fact, but rather when it’s most actionable. With the right tools, you’ll be better able to pivot when unexpected situations occur.
Figuring out how to implement workforce planning is usually the most difficult part of the process. You’ll need to stop and get those at the highest level of your business onboard, explaining how a bit of planning now can help your company to become more profitable and efficient in the future. You will also have to agree that you’re going to put a significant amount of time into the planning process, making sure that you don’t give up just because the results aren’t apparent. This is the type of process that requires truly long-term planning, but proper implementation can help you to create a far more successful company.
Figuring out the future of your business is never easy, but having outside help can make the process much more manageable. PayTech can assist your business with everything from data gathering to plan management, allowing you to oversee a planning program that will create real results. Whether you need help restructuring your workforce or processing your payroll, we can help you. Make sure to check out our pricing and packages today to see which one will suit your business needs.
