Work Force Planning 4 Ways

Talent shortages have many organizations revisiting their approaches to work force planning.

APQC’s Work Force Capabilities survey revealed that a majority of participating organizations are experiencing talent shortages [1] and that most of these organizations see work force planning as part of their answer to the talent shortage challenge [2].

If your organization is seeking to improve its work force planning process, Deere & Company, Qantas, Hewlett-Packard, and Boeing are four best-practice examples to explore.

Deere & Company's Global Succession Planning Process involves identifying pools of employees for pools of jobs, rather than creating replacement charts or “ladders” for specific positions, which can limit employees’ career choices and the diversity of candidates an organization has to choose from.

Qantas' Seven-Step Work Force Planning Process is aligned with its business strategy and heavily embedded in its business planning process.

HP's Work Force Planning Process is a three step approach which addresses both short- and long-term work force needs and is carried out by the organization’s work force planning group in collaboration with the finance organization and HP’s businesses, functions, and regions.

Boeing's Strategic Work Force Planning Framework guides business units in linking their strategies with Boeing’s strategic direction, determining the skills that will be required to carry out strategy, identifying skill gaps, and crafting mitigation plans.

All of the articles featured in this blog post will be free to both APQC members and nonmembers for the next month. Happy Planning!

[1] “Talent Shortages: Where Are They Now?,” APQC, 2011.
[2] “Talent Shortages: What Can Be Done?,” APQC, 2011.