Workforce Planning

In Part 1 of this article, I outlined the first six of 13 key factors that differentiate great workforce planning efforts from mediocre workforce planning efforts. Here are the remaining seven points to note. Factor #7   Demonstrate the likelihood that your recommended actions will actually work. In addition to designating an action plan for each forecasted issue, workforce-planning efforts …

Few would argue that workforce planning is not a hot topic these days. Just five short years ago, it was nearly impossible to find a titled role for workforce planning in corporate America. Yet today, more than 54% of the Fortune 100 have dedicated FTEs to the activity.   Even more impressive is the fact that the growth in the …

Lack of Leadership Bench Strength: A Growing Problem As the second phase of the War for Talent slowly builds momentum, more and more firms are going to experience havoc directly related to the absence of leadership bench strength. The problems that have crippled smaller firms historically will establish a footing in every major enterprise, as the competition for management and …

Beyond this commitment, what follows are the major steps: 1. Make the business case for external succession planning. The first step is to present arguments to your senior leadership about the need for including external talent and development opportunities in your succession plan. Generally that means documenting current development problems/shortages, and putting an estimated dollar cost to each. This business …

Patience Is Waning Senior leaders thoroughly understand that building an organization or changing one takes vision, planning, patience, and flawless execution. To that point, they have given HR five years. All indicators are that HR has yet to change or plan to change anything, and that the patience of senior leaders is wearing thin. Around the globe, corporate leaders — and …

Readers responding to Part 1 raised some very valid points: R. Bistrick noted that many in HR have no associated industry work experience, which limits their understanding of the business and its issues to one of keywords, often without the benefit of context. (This is certainly true for many corporate recruiters!) “It is not a new concept that HR is, …

Do you remember the war for talent in the late 1990s? Well get ready, because it’s about to return with a vengeance. If you read my articles and books, you are aware that I do a good deal of forecasting. In the past, I’ve forecasted the beginning and the end to the last hiring boom and the hiring turnaround that …

Offshoring has become a major topic of conversation lately as more and more firms look to leverage the economic benefits of lower labor costs and availability of skilled labor abroad. While politically many see offshoring in slow economic times, when jobs for U.S. workers are scarce, as taboo, for many firms currently considering or utilizing offshoring, it is the only …

As an author and corporate advisor, I receive several hundred questions a week from firms looking for advice, direction, and assistance on recruiting issues. Recently, I was contacted by a firm who posed the following questions after reading article I had previously written on preparing for the second installment of the War for Talent. They were interested in sharing these …

As authors and corporate advisors, it is rare that a week goes by without someone asking us about which firms we think are breaking new ground and establishing soon-to-be-talked-about best practices. Since we both like to tell stories, we are always searching for success stories that we can highlight in our writings and talks. This is one such success story …