The forward-looking management of jobs and skills (Strategic Workforce Planning) is a strategic issue that allows Human Resources Departments to manage the company's human capital.
Based on a forward-looking approach, it allows us to anticipate future changes and to prepare the adequacy of resources for tomorrow's professions. It is therefore essential to make this approach a collective project and to reflect on the innovative levers that will make the Strategic Workforce Planning an operational and unifying mechanism.
Strategic Workforce Planning : the HR management lever
How to define the Strategic Workforce Planning ?
The Strategic Workforce Planning is defined as an anticipatory management of human resources, according to the strategic decisions of the company in terms of development. Its objective is therefore to perfectly match resources and needs in skills. This alignment is considered in detail in our page"Identify the needs of skills ".
Before carrying out this strategic approach, the first step in the management planning process is to establish an in-depth diagnosis of your organization's strengths and weaknesses.
The initial diagnosis of the Strategic Workforce Planning
An initial inventory consists of asking the following questions:
- What are the most common skills and professional qualities of your employees?
- Which jobs are in tension today, and which will be in the future?
- Which functions will evolve?
- Are there any new jobs emerging in your ecosystem?
- What skills do you need to have in the coming years?
The Mapping of skills in your process Strategic Workforce Planning
Mapping the essential faculties is the result of the Strategic Workforce PlanningWhat are the 4 activities related to the mapping step?
- Define the objectives. Is it an ongoing transformation, to achieve dynamic age management or to renew your support practices for employability.
- Gather available data. How satisfied are you with your business repository? What is the preferred method of collection? How long ago was it updated?
- Structure your repository of skills. Is the wording of skills appropriate? Do the categories of skills need to evolve?
- Reveal the bridges between the professions. The map highlights the proximity of skills between professions and prefigures future mobility.
This step of the process Strategic Workforce Planning requires going into more detail. That's why we offer you this Complete Guide to create a mapping in 6 steps.
Strategic Workforce Planning : the keys to controlled management
A forward-looking approach to managing jobs and skills inevitably requires reliable tools that are shared between the Human Resources Department, managers and partners.
What are the tool categories of the Strategic Workforce Planning ?
There are three categories of Strategic Workforce PlanningThere are three categories of tools for the assessment of the impact of a project, from diagnostic tools to tools for setting actions in motion, including the identification of actions to be implemented.
Diagnostic tools
- The job descriptions
- The organization chart
- The age pyramid
Tools for identifying actions to be taken
- Mapping of key skills
- Annual and professional interviews.
- Business gateway mappings
The tools for setting in motion the actions decided
- Rise programs skills.
- The People Review
- The formalized succession plan.
Neobrain gives you access to several comparators of tools from Strategic Workforce Planning : see our"Guides and Tools" page.
Strategic Workforce Planning : a forward-looking vision of HR
Changes in the work environment are extremely rapid: 80% of the jobs of 2030 do not exist today. A well conducted Strategic Workforce Planning allows you to anticipate medium and long term transformations. Indeed, it is part of the company's 5-year strategic plan.
It is now time to think about training, mobility and recruitment policies. Artificial intelligence supports this anticipatory approach, and the skills emerging terms appear according to their occurrence on job offers. The prospective vision of your Strategic Workforce Planning depends on the ability of your HR tool to provide external data reporting from skills, as shown in the visual below.
The anticipatory vision also takes into account the internal mobility aspirations of employees. Skills are becoming increasingly important in the face of recruitment difficulties. Francis Boyer 's testimony on this subject is particularly enlightening.
Strategic Workforce Planning Digital HR solutions: support for digital HR solutions
More than 50% of large companies have implemented a tool to digitize their management processes skills. It is becoming essential, as the subject has become so complex.
All Human Resources departments are now concerned by the digitalization of HR tools.
For a dynamic and proactive management, you can turn to a specific management tool skills . Many suppliers offer today tools that allow :
- Aggregate data: DATA is an essential part of Strategic Workforce Planning. For example, ensuring links between data from skills and the levels of skills acquired during training.
- To manage your KPI's: through the dashboards, you can manage and communicate the results of your policy of Strategic Workforce Planning ;
- Facilitate the appropriation of the approach by all the company's stakeholders: by simplifying the processes, the management line and the employees will get involved with you.
Finally, don't forget that dynamic management requires continuous monitoring: by carrying out regular reviews and adjusting your action plans, you will have all the key elements at your disposal to optimize your forward-looking management of jobs and skills.
Do you want to go deeper into the construction of your Strategic Workforce Planning ? Here are our recommendations for support around this process:
- Read our complete page: Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois and skills.
- Jobs & Skills Management and Strategic Workforce Planning : The reasons for the transition.
- Harmonization with the management of skills : Strategic Workforce Planning and management of skills
- HR tools: the tools of the Strategic Workforce Planning
- Make an appointment with one of our consultants to discuss it.
