What Is Strategic Workforce Planning?
Increasingly, organizations of all sizes are seeing the need to react quickly, think strategically, and focus intentionally on their staffing and overall structure. Senior executives, HR professionals and frontline leaders alike recognize the importance of seeing trends, building plans and staying ahead of the competition when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining the best talent possible. With labor markets continuing to tighten and macro-demographic trends not providing any relief, the need to face these challenges head on has never been more apparent.
This hands-on workshop will provide the tools and resources necessary for participants to create a strategic workforce plan that addresses both current challenges and future needs. This program will help participants better understand the demographic realities their organizations are up against, the essential elements of an effective process, and how to ensure broad organizational and stakeholder support. Participants will learn scalable and repeatable models and tools that can be applied immediately and will develop a plan for implementing a formal Strategic Workforce Planning process in their individual context. As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be uniquely positioned to help their leaders, teams and organizations address current challenges and prepare for future success.
Strategic Workforce Planning is available in person at our training facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a virtual training format, or onsite at your company anywhere in the country.
Who is it for?
What You Will Learn
This program is customizable for intact teams. In these sessions you will cover:
- EMBRACING REALITY: The goal of this session is to understand the demographic realities that currently exist and how they are impacting the participant’s organization specifically. As a result of attending, participants will be able to define Strategic Workforce Planning, articulate the specific external demographic realities impacting your organization and future trends you need to consider, and identify the specific internal people-related trends impacting current and future success. They will also be able to develop a draft business case for addressing these challenges, as well as articulate the six essential elements of an effective Strategic Workforce Planning process.
- EXPLORING EXPERIENCES: The goal of this session is to learn from the experiences of other organizations in developing a Strategic Workforce Planning approach. As a result of attending, participants will relate case study insights to their context and to their draft business case, identify key organizational characteristics of effective and non-effective Strategic Workforce Planning approaches, identify key leadership characteristics of effective and non-effective Strategic Workforce Planning approaches, and be able to augment their business case (developed in Session 1) with qualitative and quantitative data from other organizations’ experiences.
- THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS I: The goal of this session is to work through three of the Essential Elements of an effective Strategic Workforce Plan and to create a draft framework for your organization. As a result of attending, participants will draft an approach to stay up to date on current staffing considerations, challenges, and trends in order to optimize their workforce plan in real-time. They will also be able to ensure strategic planning includes workforce considerations that holistically address future needs, leverage data analytics in a context-specific manner to help make informed and strategic decisions, include innovative thinking that addresses unique opportunities throughout the full employee lifecycle, and drive a high-performance, high-engagement organization that attracts and retains the best employees
- THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS II: The goal of this session is to understand and leverage the key leadership characteristics that support an effective Strategic Workforce Planning approach. As a result of attending, you will be able to include innovative thinking that addresses unique opportunities through the full employee lifecycle, identify short-term and long-term innovative approaches to include in your draft Strategic Workforce Planning framework, drive a high-performance organization that attracts and retains the best employees, and ensure employee engagement initiatives address critical needs and increase overall retention
- PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: The goal of this session is for each participant to complete their overall Strategic Workforce Planning Framework, get feedback, adjust and plan for implementation. As a result of attending, participants will be able to identify the gaps between your current reality and what is needed for the futurePrioritize and build a high-level project plan for implementation, present their Strategic Workforce Planning approach to other participants, receive feedback on their plan and incorporate feedback as needed, provide feedback to other participants regarding their Strategic Workforce Planning Framework, and finalize next steps for implementation within their organization.
Benefits of the Strategic Workforce Planning training program
There are many benefits from the things you will learn in Strategic Workforce Planning, such as:
Building the Business Case for Strategic Workforce Planning: A key focus on this course is around building the business case for a formal strategic workforce planning process. Participants will work through creating this for their organization and will also learn how to effectively present and communicate this to their colleagues and executives.
Leave with your Plan Ready to Go: In this training participants will actually take the time to build their workforce plan for their organization. This program will walk them through this process, provide the template they need, and provide them the opportunity to receive feedback from peers and the program facilitator.
Strategic Workforce Planning Guide: Participants receive a strategic workforce planning guide they can use to refresh their strategic workforce plan as often as needed. They can also share this guide with others in their organization for their benefit.
Solving your Talent Crisis: In today’s labor market there is no silver bullet to quickly overcome the talent crisis facing most companies. However, the tools learned in this program will help participants create the plan they need to begin addressing these challenges in the short term and overcoming them in the long term.
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HRCI
This training offers 20 credits
SHRM
This training offers 20 credits
For multiple session training events, only the session start date will appear while registering. Check Upcoming Sessions for all session dates.
Customized Training
We offer customized training, both in person and virtual, for teams across the country. If you’d like a customized training on Strategic Workforce Planning for your team, contact us today. A great approach is to host a dedicated Strategic Workforce Planning session with your entire human resources team to build out your plan together.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
An intentional planning process that seeks to ensure an organization has the right people, in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills. It balances an internal perspective with external realities and seeks to align HR strategy with organizational strategy.
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