When managers are looking at the current workforce they not only take into account its overall skills but also the balance of age, race and gender within the organization at each level. This allows them to carry out equal opportunity monitoring. Which means making sure that there is an appropriate mix of employees working within the business, and that there is no discrimination in employment or promotion against people of particular races, religions or genders.
Building up a workforce profile can also give clear information to the management team about potential problems in the structure of the workforce. If an area is identified as being a weakness within the organization, for example if the majority of the workforece belong to older age groups and many are due to retire in the next five years, plans must be put in place to recruit new employees to take the place of these staff if the job will still exist. There may also be concerns about heavy reliance on casual labor or on large amounts of overtime being worked. Relying too much on either of these ways of working may lead to the workforce losing motivation or becoming over-worked. Overtime is also an expensive way of paying for production, and increases costs to the business.
Workforce planning for the future, especially if technological changes are likely to be happening, may conclude that employees need to be moved within the organization to a different role. Deploying human resources successfully can assure that the workforce is developed to meet the business’s future needs.
Multi-tasking can also help the business plan successfully for the future. It involves training employees to do a number of tasks, so that they can be more flexible in coping with the changing needs of the business. Training employees to do as many different tasks as possible means that the business will become more flexible.
Once a skills gap has been identified management can plan the type of training needed. It can often take place inside the business, and can be provided by employees or managers while working (on-the-job training). That saves both time and money. Organizations may also have a training room and offer lectures or self study (off-the-job training).
External planning considerations
The business also needs to take into account what is happening to the labour force outside the organization and estimate the influence it will have in the future.
As a business plans its workforce for the future other businesses in that industry will be doing the same and if the industry is expanding there may not be enough potential employees to supply all the recruitment needs of the future. A lack of potential future employees means there will be a labour shortage and companies are likely to need to pay higher wages in order to attract the right people to work for them. If one organization pays less than others in the same industry its not likely to be able to attract the best recruits if demand is high.
A company needs to ensure that the pay and conditions it offers are comparable to those offered by others in the same industry. But there is a need to strike a careful balance as an increase in costs for the company may lead to lower profits in the future. Paying the appropriate rate to attract suitable employees must be balanced against managing funds carefully in order to make a profit.
When considering external infuences on human resource planning, it’s also necessary to consider what is happening to the nature of work on a local and national scale.
