Can you forecast your talent needs?

Less than one-quarter of companies today undertake strategic workforce planning that aligns with their business decision-making. This figure is confounding, particularly when we know that:

1. Talent is, and always will be, a key defining factor in the success of any organization.

2. The need to find and develop new talent is constant.

3. As with any market, supply and demand dynamics have the ability to make or break you, particularly if your forecasts are inaccurate.

If companies wait for labor demand to peak before restocking their labor pool, they will miss out on critical opportunities. Yet, workforce planning can only be as accurate as the business plan it’s based on. And these days, most organizations' workforce planning efforts are limited to budgeting and headcount planning.

This is largely because business cycles have contracted—and continue to contract—with ‘change’ becoming an overarching constant. As this shift has occurred, some HR practices have fallen by the wayside. And regrettably, the answer does not lie simply in picking them up and dusting them off again.

So, what can businesses do about this planning gap? How do they get in front of the talent supply chain process and avoid the fall out of talent gaps?

Workforce planning is becoming more difficult, and we need to adapt. Organizations must revitalize their strategic workforce planning function to look across the entire workforce and align with those business goals that extend beyond their short-term, tactical needs. And, lessons from supply chain management can lead the way.

This post is extraced from: A Holistic View of Talent: How to enhance recruiting by building a talent supply chain. You can download your free version of this paper here.