Strategic workforce planning – anticipate needs, set priorities, and allocate scarce organizational resources

Prior to beginning work on this discussion,Read Chapter 10 in Applied Psychology in Talent Management. Read the 3 Keys to Closing Workforce Planning Gaps article. Review the Strategic Workforce Planning—A Vital Business Activity article. Watch the KellyOCG—Strategic Workforce Planning (YouTube)video. The purpose of workforce planning is to anticipate needs, set priorities, and allocate scarce organizational resources (Cascio & Aguinis, 2019). Consider that you are the vice-president responsible for talent acquisition of a midsize organization located in the United States. You have been tasked with presenting a forecast of what the organization will need to hire within the next 12 months. Incorporate the four components of workforce planning, as outlined in the course textbook, as you address the key points below in your forecast:How will you to anticipate needs, set priorities, and allocate scarce organizational resources? Is it more prudent to hire contractors or in-house? Which arrangement produces the highest return for the invested resource? Support your response with at least two scholarly resource in addition to the text.

Over the next 12 months, the first process should be using past data to assess the changes in demand and company labor capacity. Forecasting is a crucial process here because it can result in a better understanding of seasons and variations. Knowing when the company might experience high demand can be essential for proactive measures. The other step should be determining the main objective for the company and setting the priorities accordingly. If the aim is to lower operational costs, the focus should be to reduce the number of new employees. The available employees should be allocated to the most deserving departments or units to maximize productivity and minimize cost. If there is a demand for new employees, it is necessary to identify the appropriate skills and knowledge to ensure they match the job responsibilities. Such can raise innovation and performance, boosting the company’s competitive advantage in the industry (Huang & Lin, 2006). Additionally, it is necessary to ensure there is diversity by hiring employees from different backgrounds, such as minorities. The company could advertise the vacancies in places where diverse potential candidates can see them, such as colleges.

Hiring contractors is preferable to in-house because it would be cheaper. The firm would incur a substantial cost for an in-house approach, such as office space and equipment. The option also gives the company’s staff the ability to handle an increase in workload or seasonal fluctuations. Employees are covered by various rights stipulated by state and federal laws. These may result in claims against the company, such as compensation and working extra hours. Most of these laws do not apply to contractors; “independent contractors are presumed to have the power—economically, professionally, and individually—to negotiate the terms and conditions of work that employees, on their own, typically lack” (Kennedy, 2016, p. 999). Using contractors with short-term agreements produces better returns on investment because it eliminates long-term expenses and results in a better vision for everyone. Because 12 months is generally a short period for a company’s strategy, the short-term agreements could be cheap and save the time required for recruiting new employees. There is a need for constant worker performance evaluation to ensure flexibility in case of industry changes. It should be possible to anticipate changes and future hiring needs and build a stable staffing level across all departments with the required knowledge and skills to produce a high return on investment.

References

Huang, E. Y., & Lin, S. (2006). How R&D management practice affects innovation performance. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 106(7), 966-996. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570610688887

Kennedy, E. J. (2016). Employed by an algorithm: Labor rights in the on-demand economy. Seattle UL Rev, 40.