Workforce Planning and Budgeting

Why Attend

Workforce planning is one the most important HR processes and is necessarily linked to every other function in HR management. Yet, in spite of its importance, it is often implemented haphazardly due to organizational and market complexities. In addition to surveying the drivers for workforce planning and its key performance indicators, this course presents and elaborates on an operational model for forecasting demand and supply of employees and demonstrates how resulting gaps can be bridged with a variety of controllable staffing initiatives. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to learn and apply the forecasting techniques that are normally used in workforce planning.

Course Methodology

The course uses a mix of interactive techniques such as lecturettes, group activities, case studies, scenario analysis and team presentations

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define workforce planning within the context of human resources management
• Explain how HR planning is related to the overall strategic plan of the organization
• Identify the economic concepts of demand and supply and how they apply to the labor market
• Apply forecasting tools to the demand and supply of different types of human resources, both in terms of quantity and quality
• Recognize the relationship of HR planning to the staffing process
• Describe why an understanding of the external labor market is important in workforce planning
• Formulate staffing strategies to fill labor gaps whether shortages or surpluses
• Apply budgeting techniques for workforce planning

Target Audience

Recruitment and workforce planning managers and specialists, HR professionals and strategy analysts with at least three years experience in workforce planning, general HR management and business partners. This course is also useful to corporate planning managers who want to make sure their strategies are implemented successfully.

Target Competencies

The course targets the following related competencies:

• Relating and networking
• Persuading and influencing
• Presenting and communicating
• Analytical thinking
• Applying expertise and technology
• Formulating concepts and strategies
• Planning and organizing
• Achieving goals and objectives

Overview of organizational development

• The glue that makes an organization
• Organizational objectives
• Key terms in organization
• Departmentalization
• Mechanistic versus organic organization
• Strategy and organizational structure
• Choosing the right organization
• The economics of the organization

Fundamentals of workforce planning

• Workforce planning to get, keep and grow
• Defining workforce planning
• Strategic planning and workforce planning
• It is all a question of demand and supply
• Workforce planning and forecasting employee needs
• Aims and phases of workforce planning
• Drivers of workforce planning
• Benefits of workforce planning
• Keys to successful workforce planning
• Workforce planning Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

An operational model for workforce planning

• Workforce planning analysis
• The strategic staffing process
• Causes of supply and demand gaps
• Static versus dynamic workforce planning

Demand analysis and forecasting staffing needs

• Trend analysis
• Ratio analysis
• Scatter plot
• Zero manning methodology
• The supply analysis phase
• The gap analysis phase

Workforce formulation: application of the basic model

• Defining required staffing gaps or surpluses
• Defining required staffing actions
• Producing the staffing plan
• Beyond staffing plans
• Using workforce planning to support management successions and development planning
• Proactive talent management
• Measuring staffing effectiveness and efficiency

Budgeting: process and approach

• Importance of budgeting
• Types of budgets
• Master budget components
• Approaches to budgeting
• Characteristics of effective operating budgeting
• Tools of budget estimation
• HR budgeting
• Cost control
• Control systems
• The control process
• Variance analysis