MANAGING WORK FORCE PLANNING IN A TEAM

QUESTION

You are to prepare a report on how your organisation will Manage Workforce Planning

1. Place yourself in the position of the HR manager responsible for the development, implementation and management of workforce planning strategies within your workplace (or select a workplace of your choice). You may focus on the whole organisation, or if you within a very large organisation you may select a department/division.
2. Prepare a report to the Senior Management Team of the organisation outlining your proposal for the management of workforce planning into the future. You achieve this use the Worksheets and Templates provided.

Stage1: Context and Environment

Stage 2: Current Workforce Profile

Stage 3: Future Workforce Profile

Stage 4: Gap Analysis and Closing Strategies

Stage 5: Review and Evaluation

The Above Stages have been attached as guides  in separate files….information filled in does not have to be True and does not need be submitted with the report, but needs to be used  as guidelines!!!!!

3. Your Report should be written with the audience in mind (ie senior Management team). It should therefore be concise yet sufficient detail to ensure full understanding of your proposed strategies. As a guide you should aim for your report to be between 2000 to 2200 words (not including appendices), and be appropriately structured as a workplace document (formal report), as a minimum ensuring the following:

3.1  Introduction

3.2  Background of organisation/work area

3.3  Body addressing relevant points

3.4  Conclusion/recommendations

3.5  Bibliography/references

SOLUTION

Report to: Senior Management Team

Report Title: How to Manage Workforce Planning

Author:

Purpose of the Report: To develop and implement the guidelines for managing workforce planning at the workplace

Executive Summary:

The Financial Services Industry has seen a lot many ups and downs in the recent years; and the external environment continues to change continuously posing new challenges for the companies operating in this industry. Change management can be effectively done by carefully assessing the condition of our greatest resource i.e. human resources. Workforce Planning, hence, becomes pivotal for ensuring we have the right kind of people to cope with the new regulatory environment and changing client expectations.

The process of Workforce Planning has been described in this report, with the focus centered on the Finance personnel. The whole process has been divided into the following steps.

Context and Environment analysis was first done to assess the external environment in which the organizationis operatingand the need for workforce planning in the organization. The observations are: the environment is complex and dynamic; and the changing regulatory norms, new products, technological advancements etc. call for highly skilled finance personnel.

The next step was preparing the current and future workforce profiles and comparing them to find the gaps. The major gap that was found was in the skill level of the current workforce and future workforce. The current workforce have to equipped with more certifications in areas like audit, risk assessment etc. to be able to handle the challenges of dynamic regulatory environment and deliver efficient services to the clients. Some other areas of deficiency are the shortage of skilled manpower for new projects and need for more experienced management staff to handle newer products and geographical expansion plans.

Finally, an action plan was created to bring the organization to the desired state by filling the gaps. The high priority recommendations should be acted upon within the time frame of 1 year. Some of the top-priority recommendations include hiring skilled and experienced management and finance personnel; managing the work-load by hiring contractual workers; investing in training and development programs for the employees; and making certifications an important part of the Performance appraisal system.

1. 1.     Introduction:

The recession of 2010 has created a dynamic external environment for the Financial Services Industry. With newer regulations coming in every month, we as a premium provider of financial services in the industry need to be on our toes continuously. The most important resource for us during the recession has been our personnel, and their importance continues to grow by the hour. We now need to assess our position in our human resources so that we are empowered to fulfill the market demands efficiently. Workforce planning will help us locate, train and develop the right kind of people for the new challenging environment.

Workforce planning is done by first establishing the need for implementing it; understanding the context and the environment in which the organization is operating; assessing the demand and supply of workforce by preparing current and future workforce profiles; finding the gaps between the existing workforce profiles and the future profiles; and finally preparing action plans with time-frames to reduce the gaps and reach the desired state (A Guide to Workforce Planning and Development 2009).

1. 2.     Context and Environment:

2.1.The environment for the Financial Services Industry has been very complex and dynamic since the global recession of 2010. The Euro-crisis has made the matters worse. The Financial Services Industry is now operating under the microscope, with many regulations changing and new regulations coming in. Risk management, audit and compliance are getting increased attention from all the financial services providers (IBSA 2012). Need for industry-standards qualified personnel has increased with changes in IFRS, introduction of newer regulations like Basel III, Volcker rule etc. and the strengthening of Government scrutiny (IBSA 2012). The Carbon Tax can unlock various opportunities for us, provided we are prepared with the right-kind of trained and certified auditors and risk-analysts (IBSA 2012).

2.2.The need of the hour is, thus, to assess the human resources we currently have; and to determine how to obtain the personnel suitable for this complex and dynamic work environment. Right-sizing with the right kind of trained and certified people is very important for us now, as it will help us avoid unnecessary costs and increase work-force efficiency. Workforce planning at this time will also enable us to do succession planning for our top-management positions. This will help in the short-term as well as long-term organizational efficiency and establish a good repute in the industry.

2.3.The new products that we are planning to launch in 2012 needs added skills in our client-facing employees. Apart from training in the specific software and product knowledge, they need to have certain minimum certifications to be able to grasp the intricacies. The personnel also have to be adept in their communication and people-management skills. The company’s strategy of moving out into newer markets in Asia makes it essential to have people familiar with the financial reforms in the Asian markets. Workforce planning, thus, becomes an important phase before proceeding with our strategies of new product launches and geographical expansion.

2.4.The process of Workforce planning will affect our workforce in a number of ways. The need for highly trained and certified personnel will call for recruitment and training and development programs. A section of the inflexible and under-qualified workforce will have to be let go off. Succession planning will help us identify potential candidates for top management positions; this will be accompanied by further training and nurturing of these candidates.

2.5.In the present environment, the challenges to the workforce planning will mostly occur in the supply side. The uncertain economy has made the job-seekers more passive (Ambition 2012). Although this lessens our task for retaining our best employees, concentrated efforts on recruitment area will be required.

1. 3.     Current Workforce Profile

3.1.The current workforce of 2000 employees has an average age of 32 years, with 30 percent of the workforce female. The average tenure for a current employee is 8 years, with the company completing 20 years of operation this year. The lowaverage age of the workforce can be attributed to the young people working in the sales and marketing teams and the systems team. The top management has an average age of 50 years, with an average tenure of 18 years. The average age of the Finance professionals is 35 years.

3.2.90% of the workforce is of Australian nationality. The rest is of mixed nationality.

3.3.40% of our Systems professionals have M-Tech/MS degrees, and 100% have a B-Tech/MCA degree. 50% of our Sales and Marketing professionals have a MBA degree, while the rest are college graduates. Our Audit, Compliance and Finance Team are mostly MBAs with a minority 10% CAs and CFAs. Only 20% of the Finance professionals have additional certifications apart from their post-graduate degrees.

3.4.85% of our workforce are permanent, with the rest 15% being contractual and out-sourced employees.

3.5.The current workforce demographics suggest that we lack experienced Finance professionals. Apart from the lower percentage of finance professionals having extra certifications and training degrees, the average age is low at 35 years. The Systems and Sales & Marketing departments appear to have the right kind and age group of people required for the jobs; however they also lack high technical know-how in finance.

1. 4.     Future Workforce Profile

4.1.Some of the skill sets and competencies indispensable with the future workforce in financial services industry as described in the Environment Scan 2012 published by IBSA (2012) are:

• Technical skills like auditing, carbon tax reporting, business planning, financial advice and guidance, risk assessment and risk management.
• Management skills like client management, business methods social networking, innovation and ethics.

4.2.As the year 2012 and the following years will be full of product launches, the future workforce needs to be equipped with the above mentioned skill sets. CA and CFA certified personnel and people certified in risk management courses will be the ideal future workforce.

4.3.Moreover, keeping in view the plan of the company to move into newer markets in Asia, a team of experienced professionals needs to formed, who are comfortable and well-versed in the regulatory environment and client needs of those markets.The number of skilled personnel has to be large enough to handle the newer products and geographical expansion.

4.4.The role of sales and marketing people will be more significant in the future to attract more clients and penetrate the newer Asian markets. The future sales and marketing personnel should have expert finance knowledge apart from marketing skills to be able to deal with the clients and provide services efficiently.

4.5.The supply of skilled workforce in the near future is uncertain as the dynamic environment has made the job-seekers passive (Ambition 2012). With a growing demand for skilled professionals in most of the financial services companies, there will be shortage of the required workforce. Moreover, the costs associated with recruitment and retention of high-skilled experienced individuals can be large. Thus, most of the requirements have to be met by in-house talent development and appointing contract workers, with some of the top-management and experienced requirements met by recruitment.

1. 5.     Gap Analysis and Closing Strategies

5.1.The gaps evident from the comparison of the current and future workforce profiles are:

• There is huge gap between the skill requirements of the current and future finance personnel. While the current workforce has just their post-graduate degrees, they need to be equipped with the higher level technical skills like risk assessment, carbon tax reporting and auditing and management skills as well.
• The current sales and marketing personnel lack in expert finance knowledge.
• There is also a gap between the number of skilled people required due to new product launches and plans for geographic expansion.
• Team formation is required for handling the new Asian markets.

5.2.The top priorities according to the current and future workforce profiles are:

• Improve the quality of existing finance and sales and marketing personnel.
• Hire skilled and experienced personnel in finance.
• Increase the number of contractual workers to meet the demand for skilled personnel.

5.3.The key areas that require immediate attention for closing the gaps are:

• Recruitment
• Training & Development
• Rewards & Benefits
• Performance Management
• Succession Planning & Potential Appraisal

1. 6.     Action Plan

6.1. Action Plan for the Short-term

• The following actions are to be taken within a time-frame of 1 year

1. Twoexperienced management level people would be recruited to handle the challenges of new product launches and geographical expansion.
2. Five-six personnel with high technical skills in such areas as auditing, carbon tax reporting etc. are to be recruited to head the finance division in Australia as well as the newer locations.
3. Contractual workforce for the increasing workload needs to be arranged and made available for when the need occurs.
4. One workshop per fortnight would be conducted for the sales and marketing employees to familiarize them with the changing regulatory environments, new product features.
5. A refresher workshop on marketing skills and people skills would be conducted every 2 months for the sales and marketing people.
6. Certifications done would be introduced as an important criterion in the Performance Appraisal system.
7. Training workshops on regulatory norms, changing auditing and finance standards and innovations in the products would be conducted every month for the finance personnel
8. Completion of relevant certifications will be noted in Performance appraisal and rewarded.

6.2.Action Plan for the Medium-term

• The following actions are to be taken with a continuous approach, starting from present till 5 years

1. A workforce planning team would be set up that would continuously manage workforce planning.
2. Training workshops will be conducted on regular basis as discussed in the short-term plan of action.
3. Potential Appraisal would be introduced along with the Performance appraisal; this will help identify the potential candidates for the higher positions.
4. Employees not showing any improvement in their performance, and not doing any certifications would be let go off.
5. Alliances with certification and training agencies can be formed so as to enable mass-certification of the employees.
6. Sharing of the certification fee with the employees will be eventually introduced to encourage the employees to enroll for certification courses.
7. Retention of the trained and skilled employees would be given high priority by improving the salary and rewards structure.
8. Provisions would be made for gradually converting the high-performance contractual workers to permanent employees.
9. 7.     Conclusion

Workforce Planning will reduce the various risks associated with business execution; and enable us deliver our services to the clients efficiently. It will also create an empowered employee base functioning smoothly. At this juncture of our business cycle, as we look forward to expanding geographically and catering to more clients, it is essential that we assess and analyze our human resources to understand our present position and forecast our future needs, so as to continue to be a leader in the financial services industry.

References:

2009, A Guide to Workforce Planning & Development, Department of Trade and Economic Development in association with Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology, the Office for the Ageing and SafeWork SA, Australia

Ambition, 2012, Market Trends & Salaries Report 1H 2012: Finance, Ambition, Australia, viewed on 6 April 2012, available at http://www.ambition.com.au/market-trends/finance-market-trends.pdf

IBSA (Innovation & Business Skills Australia), 2012, Environment Scan- 2012: Financial Services Industry, viewed on 6 April 2012, available at http://www.ibsa.org.au/Portals/ibsa.org.au/docs/Research%20&%20Discussion%20Papers/Escan/EScan2012/IBSA%20Escan%202012%20-%20Financial%20Services.pdf

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