Maximise Your Workforce Productivity = Capability x Capacity + Contribution

Blog courtesy of Wendy Perry, Head Workforce Planner, Workforce BluePrint who presented Maximise Your Workforce Productivity and Uncover Funding Opportunities at a breakfast event in Townsville on 17 April 2012 sponsored by DEEWR and the Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE.

QLD is nearly twice as likely to be having difficulty in attracting staff in regional towns/cities (48.6%) than the national average (25.8%). The mining states of WA & QLD are also facing difficulty in attracting staff to rural and remote locations, with twice as many respondents in these combined states saying this is the case (17.9%), compared to the rest of Australia (8.9%). Labourers have been much more difficult to recruit in QLD (20.3%), which has recently suffered considerable damage from flooding, than the other states.

Source: Bank West Skills Shortage Report, April 2012

Why Workforce Planning? Why for you?

  • Risk management
  • Significant employer or small employer
  • Dynamic and complex economy
  • Legislative and contractual environment
  • Significant growth or downsizing
  • Challenges with shift in demographics and age profile
  • Industry and policy directions (national, state, local)
  • New project, site, facility
  • Problems attracting, recruiting and retaining staff
  • Improve quality, workplace health and safety
  • Example of good practice and increasing requirements for contracts/client expectations
  • Evidence based approach for capability, tenders and proposals

Business Health Check – strengths and development needs

At a high level where are the strengths and where are the development needs?

From 0 – 10 rate your organisation across the following areas:

  • Strategic Direction
  • Development of Business Processes
  • Human Resources
  • Finances
  • Customers
  • Market Analysis

What is Workforce Planning? What is Workforce Development?

Workforce Planning is the process of taking stock of the current workforce, forecasting future workforce requirements and identifying gaps or issues.

Workforce Development relates to strategies and activities that bridge those gaps.

Develop a workforce plan in 5 easy steps

  1. Context and environment
  2. Current workforce profile
  3. Future workforce profile
  4. Gap analysis and closing strategies
  5. Review and evaluation

Who should be involved?

  • Business owner/manager and/or executive commitment
    • Whole of business? Slice/sample? Depends on the size of your organisation
    • Utilise communication mechanisms across the organisation – executive, management, general staff, clients
    • Incorporate existing information e.g. Staff surveys, performance management, job descriptions
    • An approach that works well is a working group representing job roles
    • Development of a project plan
    • Over educate & over communicate

Design workforce development strategies to attract and retain your workforce – build capability and capacity plus contribution. Gap closing strategies may include:

#1 = Retention

  • Ageing particularly if you have an outside workforce with Workplace Health and Safety issues
  • Succession planning, knowledge management, communication, career paths
  • Training needs analysis, learning and development plans, leadership development
  • Work Life Balance – packaging benefits of flexible working arrangements, phased retirement
  • Employer of Choice, reward and recognition
  • Common employee views – not feeling valued and respected, could attract a higher salary elsewhere, don’t like internal politics
  • Check on excessive hours, stress management
  • Priority occupations – demand vs. supply + or –

#2 = Attraction and Recruitment

Maximise Your Workforce Productivity by building on Capability x Capacity + Contribution through a workforce plan and take control. Already have a workforce plan in place? Use this checklist to compare your plan against a good practice approach.

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