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Discussion on: Workforce Planning and Talent Planning

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Workforce planning is a core process of human resource management that is shaped by the organizational strategy and ensures the right number of people with the right skills, in the right place at the right time to deliver short and long term organizational objectives (CIPD, 2010). It is related with the systematic identification and analysis of what an organization is going to need in terms of the size, type, experience, knowledge and skills of its workforce to achieve its objectives. Workforce planning provides the basic for a systematic approach to accessing the number and type of people needed by the organization. It aligns business and human resource needs to execute the organizational activities efficiently and successfully. It provides basis for systematic approach to accessing the number and type of people needed taking in account the information on demand and supply of labor and scanning the environment for the preparation of recruitment, retention, management succession planning and talent management plans (Armstrong, 2014).

The driving forces for workforce planning are current movement and projected labor shortages, globalization, growing use of contingent, flexible workers, need to leverage human capital to enhance returns, mergers and acquisitions and evolution of workforce technology and tools (More Companies Turn to Workforce Planning to Boost Productivity and Efficiency, 2006). Workforce planning helps in eliminating surprises, smoothing out business cycle, identifying problems early and taking advantage of opportunities (Why You Need Workforce Planning, 2002). Workforce planning is used increasingly to help control labor costs, assess talent needs, make informed business decisions and access human capital and risks (More Companies Turn to Workforce Planning to Boost Productivity and Efficiency, 2006).

Talent planning is the subset of workforce planning that refers to the process of establishing how many and what of talented people are needed currently and in future in any organization (Armstrong, 2014). The capabilities, qualifications, expertise, personal qualities and terms and conditions are to be taken into consideration during talent planning. It helps to add real-time, enterprise-wide clarity to examine the workforce and then place talent where the impact is more visible and effective. According to (CIPD, 2017), the talent planning has helped increasing competition for well- qualified talent, developing existing staffs, increased communication and increased organization cautiousness in recruiting. It emphasizes on a wide range of position and number of employees across an organization. The talent planning cycle comprises of planning, selecting, developing, promoting and replacing. The core purpose of talent planning is to retain valuable employees. The four dimensions of talent planning includes career planning, talent development, leadership development and succession planning.

Management succession planning is the process of identifying and developing new leaders when the old ones resign, leave, retire, are fired or die. It increases the availability of experienced and capable staffs to fulfill the higher level managerial posts as they become vacant. In simple words, it is the process of preparing an organization for a transition in leadership. It involves integrated, systematic approach for identifying, developing and retaining capable and skilled employees in line with current and projected business objectives. The aim of succession planning is to avoid leadership vacuum at company during critical time. The things to take in consideration while planning for a successor is are enough successors available, are they good enough and do they have to right skills and competencies required for the position.

Talent planning and management succession planning are interrelated with each other. Management succession planning is also one of the dimensions of talent planning. It ensures that the people with right skills and competencies are prepared to take over the major positions of the organization as the need arises. As mentioned by (CIPD, 2017), the organizations anticipate a greater focus on developing more talent in-house and succession planning also contributes to the same.

References

Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice.

CIPD. (2010). Workforce Planning: Right People, Right Time, Right Skills.

CIPD. (2017). Resourcing and Talent Planning.

(2006). More Companies Turn to Workforce Planning to Boost Productivity and Efficiency. Newyork: PR Newswre.

Why You Need Workforce Planning . (2002, October 24).