Tool 5. PLANNING A RESOURCE SUPPLY CHAIN

About This Tool

Resource Planning is an important foundation for any organization's operating plan. A number of factors are causing it to be even more important, and more difficult, than it has been in the past. One factor is the dramatically changing workforce demographics in terms of a larger ready-to-retire population, greater diversity, differing values and expectations. All of that exists against a global industry that's increasingly dependent on knowledge workers, and a competitive landscape that's highly fluid. It's true that any plan in such an environment is a short-lived plan at best. But an organization without a plan may be short-lived as well.

To achieve their objectives, organizations need a realistic assessment and projection of their talent needs, risks, and the processes they'll follow to get their required talent. This is more than a list of vacancies. It's more than a recruiting plan. Effective resource planning requires a close review of numerous inter-related areas including a projection of the demand for talent, internal movement, turnover, succession planning, current vs. missing skills, and others. These are all critical components of the resource supply chain. This tool looks at these components, discusses their connections to one another, and suggests an approach for pulling them together into an integrated resource plan.

Using This Tool

The purpose of this tool is to provide a framework for thinking through, discussing and developing a broad-based resource plan. The tool makes it clear that resource planning goes far beyond a recruiting plan. It prescribes a balanced approach to planning for and using both internal and external sources of talent. There are several arguments discussed in the tool to help you make the case for more rigorous planning and a more objective view of future requirements. It also provides several tables that can be used to track related data that in turn will help future planning efforts.

The tool only uses a handful of jobs as an example throughout, but it can be applied to all jobs in an organizational unit or the company as a whole. For large organizations, however, it's suggested that the tool be used for select positions or skill sets that represent particular staffing challenges. Such challenges might be due to any number of factors including: the large number of vacancies needing filled; the scarcity of the required skills; jobs with the weakest bench-strength; or positions that typically have high turnover. It's also suggested that this entire model not be dropped on department heads and line managers all at once. Experience shows it's easier for them to experience it gradually - learning one aspect of it and building from there.

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