Workforce planning

• Recruitment
• Assessment
• Training and development
• Deployment
• Retention
• Affirmative action
• Succession
• Reduction-in-force
• Employee performance management

• Classification
• Compensation
• Performance incentive
• Programs
• Statutes and rules
• Policies and procedures
• Collective bargaining agreements

• Reorganization
• Work process redesign

• Values
• Diversity
• Change management
• Employee engagement

• Critical incident
• Preparedness
• Workplace violence
• Workplace safety
• Employee health and wellness
• Employment litigation

While employers may develop stand-alone strategies around a single topic such as succession planning, commonly they will ‘cluster’ interrelated strategies around a complex issue or problem. This is often preferable to single-strategy efforts that only partly address an issue. For example:

Issue: Expected management retirement bubble.
Goal: Minimize the impact of anticipated management retirements.
Objectives:

1. • Maintain management turnover at or below 5% for next three years.
   • Maintain the average management ‘time-to-fill’ under 45 days.

Strategy cluster:

• Reorganize reporting relationships to expand managerial span of control and reduce the number of vacancies that need to be filled. (Organizational Development – Reorganization Strategy)
• Implement a retention incentive program to encourage mid-level managers to stay past their retirement eligibility date. (Staffing – Retention Strategy)
• Develop a management training program for succession planning to create a pool of prospective replacements. (Staffing – Succession Strategy)
• Develop a management recruitment program to proactively identify and build relationships with prospective candidates before vacancies occur. (Staffing – Recruitment Strategy)
• Develop new recruitment marketing strategy to source management candidates from out of state. (Staffing – Recruitment Strategy)

Example:

Issue: High turnover of core technical staff.
Goal: Reduce turnover.
Objective: Reduce and maintain core technical staff turnover at or below 7% for the next three years.

• Analyze employee survey and exit interview data and develop an employee engagement program to build employee satisfaction. (Organizational Culture – Employee Engagement Strategy)
• Propose salary increase for levels 3 and 4 of technical job series. (Infrastructure – Compensation System Strategy)
• Propose geographic assignment pay for King and Snohomish counties. (Infrastructure – Compensation System Strategy)
• Develop a performance pay program (via. performance management confirmation) to create an incentive for high-performing employees to stay. (Infrastructure – Performance Incentive Program Strategy)
• Propose a change to current Collective Bargaining Agreement, allowing recruitment and retention pay for employees in represented positions. (Infrastructure – Collective Bargaining Agreement Strategy)
• Develop a targeted outreach program to specific colleges, hiring sophomore and junior level students into ‘advanced placement’ internships. (Staffing – Recruitment Strategy)

While there are many ways to develop strategies and action plans, most include action steps that detail the following information:

1. Who is accountable for completing each action step?
2. What specifically needs to be accomplished in each action step?
3. By When does the task need to be completed?

Example:

Goal: Minimize the impact of anticipated management retirements.
Objective: Maintain the average management “time-to-fill” under 45 days.
Strategy: Develop and implement a management training program for succession planning to create a pool of prospective replacements.

Identify how many staff are needed to meet deliverables, outputs, and performance measures. The most accurate forecasts are one to three years into the future. Consider:

1. Staffing Level: How many positions will be needed in ‘core’ job areas?
2. Regular Turnover: What is the projected turnover rate due to competition?
3. Retirement Turnover: What is the projected turnover rate due to anticipated retirements?
4. Knowledge and Skill Loss: What percentage of staff’s knowledge and skills will become outdated without any training or development?

Identify what and how many staff will be available to meet staffing needs. Consider:

1. Internal Availability: How many employees will be promotable within the target timeframe?
2. External Availability: How many people are doing similar work in the target recruitment area? How many people are regularly hired away from other employers?.
3. Future Labor Supply: How many people will be entering the qualified labor pool from schools and training programs in the target recruitment area?
4. Current Training and Development: What percentage of core knowledge and skill loss is presently being mitigated by training and development efforts?

There are demand-side and supply-side staffing strategies. Consider a combination of strategies when addressing staffing gaps.

Demand-side strategies

Demand-side strategies reduce the number of positions that need to be filled. They include:

• Retention: Reduce turnover through retention incentives and employee engagement strategies.
• Reorganization: Reduce the number of management positions by expanding supervisory span of control.
• Work process redesign: Reduce staffing needs by streamlining workflows and methods.
• Employee performance management: Reduce staffing needs by improving individual productivity.

Supply-side Strategies

Supply-side strategies help fill the remaining staffing gap once demand-side strategies have reduced the number of positions that must be filled. They include:

• Recruitment: Expand applicant pools through enhanced marketing (e.g., broadening the target recruitment area, increasing advertising venues, and improved branding strategy).
• Modified qualifications: Expand applicant pools by considering a broader range of experience and education.
• Workforce development: Grow future applicant pools by supporting schools and apprenticeship programs.
• Training and development: Keep current staff up to date in their knowledge and skills through on-the-job and other training and development programs.
• Succession planning: Grow new internal applicant pools through training and development programs.

Subtract the projected supply from the projected demand. A negative result indicates the need for a new strategy.

Hiring controls are staffing reduction strategies that involve holding vacancies open when incumbents leave.

When implementing hiring controls, consider:

• Scope. Which programs are subject to the controls? Will the revenue source(s) be considered? Will all vacancies be held open, or will managers be allowed to fill a percentage of vacancies?
• Target and duration. Is there a target number of positions that need to be eliminated? Will the hiring controls be lifted when that target is met? Is there a time limit? Will the controls end after a certain date?
• Special appointments. Will the controls cover special employment arrangements such as internships, work study grants, and supported employment?
• Seasonal and non-permanent positions. Will the controls cover seasonal jobs, back-fills behind disabled, injured, or pregnant employees, and other nonpermanent hires?
• Internal transfers. Will the controls cover internal appointments resulting from transfers or reallocations?
• Exemptions. Are there mission-critical positions that will be exempted from the controls? What is the process for supervisors to request exemptions? What criteria will management use to approve or deny exemption requests?
• Monitoring. How will separations, hiring activity, and total headcount during the control period be tracked and reported?
• Communication. How will expectations be communicated to managers and hiring supervisors? How will the message to job seekers be managed?
• Change management. How will employee perceptions be managed? How will morale be sustained in light of increasing workloads?

Redeployment is a staffing reduction strategy that involves reassigning positions. The reassignment may or may not result in changes to:

• Work duties
• Work unit
• Geographic location

Redeployment typically occurs as a result of good faith reorganization or program elimination.

Factors to consider when redeploying filled positions include:

• Change management. How will the perceptions of impacted employees be managed? How will morale be sustained in light of changing duties, expectations, and the environment?
• Performance management. How will staff be informed of new expectations? How will new position descriptions and performance plans be shared with staff? What will be the new performance measures and targets?
• Job assignments. Can staff assignments be redistributed within the work unit in a way that takes advantage of existing knowledge and skills?
• Competencies. Do impacted staff satisfy the competencies and other requirements of the new positions? Can impacted staff be retrained within a reasonable timeframe? If not, impacted staff must be given layoff rights per the employer’s layoff procedure.
• Geographic location. Will impacted staff be relocated to a new duty station? Is the new duty station within a reasonable commute distance according to the employer’s layoff procedure? If not, impacted staff may need to be laid off and given layoff rights per the layoff procedure.

Consult the Civil Service Rules for details on the different placement, competition, and layoff rights and options.