In 2023, Talent was the #2 cause of business change, citing challenges such as skills shortages and lack of employee engagement, according to the Accenture ‘Pulse of Change Index’. While technology is uniformly recognised as the leading factor for business disruption, businesses are increasingly concerned about how talent, resource and skills can support technological advancements, and the benefits this may bring. As we begin 2024, the pace of change is expected to grow at an unprecedented rate. This demands new business capabilities, and a renewed focus on organisational resiliency and agility.
Resilient organisations are those which have already started to build the structures and capabilities to solve the current talent management challenges, and those which are forecasted. Strategic workforce planning is a holistic approach to assess, analyse and critically evaluate business drivers and goals in order to provide the framework to adapt to changing demands, increasing complexity and evolving markets. About 45 percent of organisations are anticipating skill gaps within the next five years, and about the same number are reporting skill gaps today.
It’s time to act.
Why is Strategic Workforce Planning important?
Expectations of work, and the workplace have changed
- The responsibilities of managers have drastically changed, with a wealth of new realities impacting their roles
- Since 2020, employees in many industries have enjoyed having choices about where, how and when they work, since the growth of hybrid and remote working
- We’ve seen a global rise of atypical career paths, as digital pathways have bypassed geographical borders
The ‘why’ behind motivators for work is evolving
- Employees increasingly seek out opportunities which make a meaningful impact
- Initiatives to increase engagement and contribution to social innovation inspire inclusivity and brand exposure – both of the employee, and the employer
The demands of work are a diversifying skillset
- Digital dexterity and multiskilling benefits employees and businesses as they shift into new areas and drive innovation
- While automation will grow, the relationship between people, technology and customers will facilitate a competitive advantage
Customer needs are shifting all the time
- Gen Zers enjoy the high level of mobilisation which technology makes possible, and demand services and products to suit
- Consumption is increasingly served by access, rather than ownership, bringing new challenges and opportunities for B2C organisations
- Personalisation and social value rank highly amongst Gen Zers, meaning brands must deliver improvements across sustainability, diversity, inclusion and experience
How do businesses seamlessly integrate Strategic Workforce Planning?
It’s imperative to gain clarity of your current business requirements and expected business needs. This is achieved through:
- Comprehending your company vision and strategies
- Enabling routine skills gap assessments
- Identifying possible scenarios which may impact your resource requirements
- Gaining deeper insight on the skill sets of your employees
Strategic Workforce Planning must be woven into budgeting cycles and planning processes
- The process of strategic workforce planning begins long before scheduling
- Challenges such as process ownership and technology shortfalls must be overcome
- Communication and collaboration between business units and functions enable a consistent implementation
- The ability to exhibit exceptional adaptability and resilience is a leading competitive factor in a rapidly changing landscape
Embracing new technologies to close the skills gap and facilitate safe transformation
- Taking action rather than getting stuck in overthinking is often the better approach; leveraging data to enable agile decision making is the smarter approach
- Synchronising business needs with workforce demands must become a common goal, supported by a solution which empowers leaders to act collaboratively to achieve shared objectives
Targeting a resilient workforce, equipped to meet the need of evolving operations demands consistency and targeted data-led actions. What we know for sure at SWL…it’s critical for businesses to achieve transformation safely by:
- Mitigating risk at every turn
- Simplifying complexity
- Facilitating management consistency in change delivery
- Drive action with tangible measures
Get in touch to learn how collaborating with SWL’s expert team can facilitate your workforce transformation journey.