Sandra Crous | Managing Director | Deel Local Payroll | mail me |
When LinkedIn Research asked HR professionals whether their “executives are concerned that employees do not have the right skills to execute our business strategy”, 49% said yes. Companies need clear reskilling and learning pathways to align employee development with business plans.
These pathways must also support staff retention and the company’s strategic goals. Strategic workforce planning helps businesses identify the skills they need and prepare employees to deliver on their objectives.
Bridging workforce and business goals
These concerns can unlock more resources for learning systems. However, additional resources alone cannot close the gap between business needs and employee skills. Learning systems often remain underused or teach the wrong skills. Consequently, initiatives that initially look promising can produce disappointing results and experience delays.
As the renowned corporate learning book The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning states, “We are not in the business of providing classes, learning tools, or even learning itself. We are in the business of facilitating improved business results.”
Most workforce planning initiatives focused on skills and promotions fail this test. Poor planning and fragmented information prevent learning from aligning with business goals. As a result, organisations create a gap between employee development and business needs. Strategic workforce planning can help address this disconnect by linking skills development directly to organisational priorities.
HR’s power to direct development
Organisations can close this gap by using the right tools to measure and track employee progress. However, many businesses overlook an important resource. Their HR software should support workforce development.
What skills does the business need, and who is ready and appropriate for that training? What about promotions? Who are the best candidates, and what new skills might they need? It can take months to collect all the information needed to make the right calls. But the right HR platform will make that collection simple and continuous, so that you always have a clear idea of how to manage your employees.
It is important to distinguish workforce planning from learning systems. AI-powered, dynamic learning suites belong at a later stage of employee development. Before introducing these tools, organisations must establish a clear development pathway. Cloud-native HR platforms play a primary role in this process.
These cloud-based systems collect data from sources such as payroll and HR records. They consolidate the information into dashboards and reports that support specific functions. These include skills management, promotion prediction and succession planning. Leading platforms offer these features as standard modules in their basic services. Alternatively, businesses can access them as add-ons in higher-tier versions.
Most employee appraisal systems are chaotic, with emails and documents from different managers, org charts on one system, evaluation reports on another. An HR platform enables different people to submit information throughout the year, creating a continuous picture of where your workforce is.
Modern workforce management features
Does your HR software meet this standard? If not, consider the following key features and modules when evaluating your system:
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Performance management
Gather data to assess, develop and manage your workforce without relying on a separate appraisal system.
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Training and skills management
Record each employee’s training history. Maintain a record of workforce skills and competencies linked to individual employee profiles.
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Succession and talent management
Allow managers to assess each employee’s promotion potential and likely promotion timeline. Managers can also record reasons an employee might leave the organisation.
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Appraisal input
Enable managers and employees to record performance conversations, attachments, and motivations directly through appraisal portals.
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Organisation management
Automatically build and maintain organisational charts using employee information. This makes it easier to identify and map the roles and skills the business needs.
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Cloud analytics/power BI
Enable planners to create reports within the HR platform. They can also import HR data, including skills, performance, and payroll costs, into advanced analytics tools.
Continuous and strategic workforce development
With the right HR system, organisations can move from haphazard planning to continuous workforce development. Strategic workforce planning enables businesses to align employee capabilities with evolving organisational priorities. It also helps HR teams identify skills gaps, prepare employees for new responsibilities and support long-term business growth.
HR platform systems reach into different parts of the business, letting different people take part based on their responsibilities and insights. They let managers capture and maintain records that help support their teams. Employees can support each other by contributing testimonials and evidence to reviews.
When everyone contributes seamlessly, workforce planning and evaluation changes from annual events to something everyone works on throughout the year. This creates the foundation for strategic workforce planning that gives employees fulfillment and helps move the business closer to its goals.
