MU0008 (2 CREDITS)

SET 1

TALENT MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE RELATION

Q.1:- Write a note on 5 steps to strategic talent planning?

Ans:- A company’s most valuable asset is its employees and the knowledge that they
manage. It is therefore essential for any successful business to ensure that employers work
actively to minimize the departure of valuable staff by ensuring that team members remain
motivated in what they are doing. Correctly motivated staff perform better, stay longer and
positively affect profitability.

With recent report showing that departing staff can cost a company upto 150% of salary, The
Talent Manager provides you with cost effective, expert support that helps you to understand
how to reduce staff turnover and improve performance through understanding and measuring
personal Motivation.

Structural change and business retrenchment are amongst the most stressful times in any
business and it is only when this process is handled correctly that it is possible to draw
positive aspects from this process, not only for those moving to new tasks but also for the
team that remain. To achieve this it is essential for businesses to retain the motivation of all
staff throughout the process. This goal can be achieved by ensuring that retained staff are
moved to the right roles and that goodwill towards the company is maintained by others. A
well managed outplacement service will save you money, management time in the short term
and effect your bottom line in the long-term by ensuring that staff who have been allocated to
new tasks both remain with the company and remain motivated to perform what they are
doing well.

The 5 Steps to Strategic Talent Planning

Recruiting rarely is based on any sort of strategic plan. For most organizations, recruiting is a
tactical operation – a series of things that take place that result in qualified people getting
hired. It is mostly reactive, and few recruiters have the time or charter to look forward more
than a few weeks. To ensure that your organization has a chance at hiring the best people –
and to successfully operate in a global, competitive environment, organizations – you will
need a strategic plan coupled to appropriate resources and tactics. Here’s a quick overview of
the five essential first steps needed to put this plan together and to begin making it
operational:

The five key steps in strategic talent planning

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Step 1: Talent Plan

Workforce or talent planning is the first and hardest step. It means deeply understanding the
organization’s business goals and the competitive environment the organization functions in.
It is a combination of understanding and predicating demand, while at the same time being
educated and aware of the talent supply situation from all the sources that are available. This
step needs to be far more than simply listing the jobs projected in the annual budgeting
process and factoring in turnover. It is an evolving process, as opposed to an annual event,
and is the most dynamic and critical stage of any strategic process.

Step 2: Image and Brand

It is not true that if you build a great strategy or a great organization, people will necessarily
flock to your doors. Getting people aware of your organization is a tough job. It requires
having a consistent communication process as well as a plan to raise general awareness
through advertisements, promotions, or by getting listed as a "best place to work." You have
to be able to answer questions like, "What makes your company different or unique?" or
"Why would I want to come work for you?" Not only should you have answers to these
questions, but you should also make sure your advertising, web presence (which is essential),
and overall corporate advertising support this image. This has to be an organization-wide
effort. It takes time and an accumulation of messages to be effective. One or two
advertisements or a handful of posters will not do it.

Step 3: Sourcing Methods

Develop a multi-faceted sourcing strategy. Embrace active candidates who are responding to
your brand and image-building messages, but maintain the capacity and skills to tap passive
candidates. Decide based on past experience what works best for you in locating candidates,
and then build those sourcing channels to the max. Make sure you are using referrals from
current employees, your network of professionals, web-based search, your own web site and
also develop methods to keep in touch with potential candidates that you have no current
position for but might have at some later time.

Step 4: Screening and Assessing Candidates

Are you going to invest heavily in educating managers in behavioral interviewing? Are the
recruiters going to be the main screeners, or will you use testing and other tools? What role
will the Internet play, if any? Are you going to look into using web-based tests? How much
will you rely on candidates screening themselves out or in? What role does the hiring
managers play in screening and assessing, and what are the differences between what you do
and they do? This is an area where there can be great improvement with reasonable effort, but
where things are still done mostly the way they have always been done. A focus on

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automating screening to some degree reduces the volume of candidates and actually raises
candidate satisfaction.

Step 5: Market and Communicate

Candidates want to be in the know about their status and prospects. They seek out feedback
and information. Your organization’s website is an invaluable tool, but you will also need to
develop systems to communicate with candidates personally and to send out newsletters and
emails. Probably all the people you need at one time or another sent a resume or expressed
interest. They were most likely told that there were no current openings. Would it no’t be
wonderful if you could actually stay in touch with those people and let them know when there
is an open position? That’s what CRM (candidate relationship management) systems can do.
Unfortunately, they are not yet generally available or optimized for recruiting. But ask your
ATS vendor what they doing about this and urge them to provide you the tools you need to
effectively keep qualified candidates interested in you. Make sure that whatever systems you
choose fit your strategy and make economic sense

A few other things to keep in mind:

• Make sure all managers and recruiters have a simple system for deciding on a
candidate. As you know, speed is the real differentiator today, and the recruiter/manager
who moves the most quickly will usually get the candidate. Eliminate unnecessary
approvals, and make sure your selection criteria are clear to avoid slowing down the
process.

• If you are a decentralized firm, work out a system for who owns what. If you all agree
together then the areas of dispute will be limited. The rule I use is that the central or
corporate function should set standards and establish corporate-wide systems. Local
offices should participate in that process and have great autonomy on the day-to-day stuff.
They can supplement broad image and branding activities with local advertising within
the bounds of an agreement you all make with one another.

These initial steps and processes are what enable the back-end activities of scheduling,
interviewing, making offers, and on-boarding.

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Q.2:- Discuss different retention strategies in detail.

Ans:- Retention strategies

Some guidelines that one can apply in the Organization to improve the retention:-
Show employees that you have an interest in their success

60 to 70 per cent of workers do not feel that their companies help them to develop their
career. Managers of successful companies are acutely aware that even the most brilliant
business model will not work without skilled individuals motivated by a culture of
management concern.

Allow employees the room to develop their skills

Many employees find themselves trapped in a narrow job function so mission-critical that the
organization cannot afford to move them. Frustrated employees, unable to satisfy their need
for growth, resign, leaving holes that disrupt the company’s workflow in the short term. The
company also loses strong performers who could have filled other, more important, roles over
the long term.

Give employees a clear idea of the long-term goals of the company

Three quarters of unhappy employees do not believe that their company knows where it is
going. Companies should endeavour to change their perceptions by communicating
effectively to employees the direction it wants to take. This should be followed up with
behaviour that is consistent with what they have told employees!

Measure soft skills

Many companies say they value people and train their management team to cope with people
issues. Yet these same managers are rewarded based on their technical skills and financial
results. Too often, people skills are not rewarded and no measure exists to evaluate them.
Employees get the message that, “people skills do not matter” and so neither do people.

Fight turnover with smart training

Two principles can help companies score big retention wins through training. Firstly, keep it
relevant. Some firms act as though any training is better than none. From the employees’
perspective, that is not true. If training is not relevant to their jobs they feel it is a waste of
time. Secondly, use training to broaden experience. Companies too often provide training that
merely reinforces old skills instead of building new ones.

Develop your management team

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People see good bosses as the wind beneath their wings, and employees who lack confidence
in their bosses will leave the organization sooner rather than later. A key retention strategy is
to weed out marginal managers. Replace them with managers who can craft a compelling
game plan, communicate it effectively to their teams and deploy initiatives that are consistent
with company strategy.

Weed out poor performers in non-management ranks

Managers often under-estimate how strongly employees resent the presence of

underperformers within their work group. The productive employee often has to take on more
work to compensate for the poor performance of others, and they can feel that management is
either turning a blind eye to unjust practices, or does not have sufficient interest in what goes
on “below decks” to notice any disparity in working practices amongst employees. When the
slackers are weeded out, both morale and retention improve.

Q.3:- Explain Lore’s talent maturity model.

Ans:- The Lore Talent Management Maturity Model. The Lore Talent Management
Maturity Model (Lore TMM) is a diagnostic and prescriptive framework that allows
organizations to assess the current state of their Talent Management (TM) efforts, identify
what needs to be done to move to the next higher stage of practice, and develop the plans to
get there. The Lore TMM used in conjunction with Lore’s diagnostic assessments and
services provides a complete Talent Management roadmap for success.

The Maturity Model itself is based on an extensive array of research covering organizational
theory, technology and innovation adoption, and talent management practice and systems.
From this research, Lore has developed and validated a four-stage model of TM system
growth. The following graphic illustrates the four developmental stages of a corporate Talent
Management system. Associated with the progression from one stage of development to the
next higher stage of development is a specific crisis that must be successfully resolved in
order for the enterprise to advance (adapted from McClure, New Entrepreneur Guidebook,
1998 and Adizes, Corporate Lifecycles: How and why corporations grow and die and what to
do about it, 1988). The initial crisis is related to gaining organizational commitment. When
enough commitment is achieved, the new initiative starts, but a crisis of leadership must be
overcome before progressing to Expansion. When a strong leader has emerged, the Talent
Management system can progress to a stage of Professionalism. Organizations in this stage
face the crisis of autonomy, standardizing and ensuring consistent quality while allowing
leaders at all levels to lead. Many efforts falter at this point, remaining disconnected from the
business. Lastly, before reaching the Best Practice stage, organizations must address the crisis
of control. Addressing this crisis means that the entire organization is pulling in the same
direction, so that the Talent Management system is finally contributing its true value to the
business.

Talent Management Maturity Model (TMMM) Crisis Definitions

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Crisis of Commitment: The initiative idea dies if no one makes a real commitment to it. A
real commitment means giving of one’s self and/or vital resources to pursue the new idea
(initiative). Equally important as the commitment of time and resources is the reason for
making the commitment. At this stage, the founding leaders are committed to the dream, the
burning vision, of making the initiative a success and seeing it widely appreciated. The
founding leaders have to have desire in order to sell the dream and get others committed and
involved. Once this happens, the initiative can become a reality and enters the New Initiative
stage.

Crisis of Leadership: The founding leaders are usually risk takers with little or no patience for
administration. These founding leaders directly supervise or do everything themselves. The
founding leaders are the initiative. As the initiative grows, it becomes a mix of dreamers and
doers, without many checkers and organizers. Only when strong managers emerge or are
brought in will the initiative be ready for the Expansion stage.

Crisis of Autonomy: The new leaders flex their muscles and head off in new directions. They
decide things differently than the founders would have. Mistakes happen, and the founding
leaders feel blindsided and threatened. Control is pulled back to the founding leaders, but
eventually, delegation returns. If there are no guidelines in place, managers cannot use their
delegated power without getting crosswise with other parts of the organization. The
implementation of policies, procedures, and guidelines will be necessary to ensure that all
parts of the organization are headed in the same, correct direction and allows the initiative to
enter the Professionalism stage.

Crisis of Control: No amount of professional glue (i.e., policies, procedures, and guidelines)
can hold human nature in check forever. Strong leaders will want to run their own shows. The
initiative will require better coordination in order to rise to the Best Practice stage. This
means that coordination must be addressed structurally, through resource allocation, and
reward/incentive alignment.

The resulting stages of Talent Management system development, from New Initiative to Best
Practice, are used in the Lore Talent Management Maturity Model to organize the activities
that represent normal TM activities at that stage of development. Lore’s research has
identified three success factors that a comprehensive TM system must address:
Organizational Support Conditions, Talent Management Utilization and Talent Management
Activities. In each of these strands are critical components that must exist in the TM system
in order for it to be effective. So for example, within the strand of Organizational Support, the
attributes of Leadership, Alignment and Infrastructure determine the success of the TM
system in the organization. The Lore Model shows how each of these three attributes must
change from one stage to the next in order for the TM system to move to higher levels of
performance.

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The table below shows the full Lore Talent Management Maturity Model. The model
presents each of the four maturity levels in terms of the three organizational success factors,
and identifies the critical and measurable attributes in each factor:

Maturity Stage

Crisis

Organizational Support Conditions

Talent Management Utilization

Talent Management Activities

Stage 4: Best Practice

Control

Leadership: Full ownership and accountability at all organizational levels, CEO and Board
proactively involved

Metrics: Value-based metrics & ROI

Focus: Business Impact

Alignment: Aligned with business strategy, goals and objectives reinforced by compensation

Uses: Talent Management efforts are part of the business fabric and evolve continuously with
business

Components: Complete suite of Talent Management Components

Infrastructure: Integrated with enterprise IT systems and extensive support resources

including funding

Adoption: Enterprise wide

Integration: Seamless with business execution

Stage 3: Professionalism

Autonomy

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Leadership: HR, Executive Sponsor, ownership and accountability at most organization
levels

Metrics: Activity, Commitment, Results

Focus: TM Results

Alignment: Aligned with business strategy, customized to fit business needs

Uses: Data from TM efforts drive strategic decision making ensuring that Talent
Management efforts meet business needs

Components: Most standard TM components

Infrastructure: Set of IT systems or Separate TM system, appropriate level of support

resources

Adoption: Most business units, attributes

Integration: Activities are connected and integration with business execution has started

Leadership: HR, Some Executive Sponsorship, multiple pieces of organization

Metrics: Activity, Commitment

Focus: TM Development (developing new TM components)

Stage 2: Expansion

Leadership

Alignment: Aligned with pieces of business strategy or with units of business

Uses: Data collection from TM efforts to identify and address local and/or tactical issues

Components: Multiple components

Infrastructure: Some IT stand alone
applications, some support resources

Adoption: Some business units, attributes (Early Majority)

Integration: Mostly stand alone activities, maybe some activities connected

Leadership: HR, Program Owner

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Metrics: Primarily activity based

Focus: TM Activity Delivery

Stage 1: New initiative

Commitment

Alignment: Little alignment, may be “off the shelf” program activity

Uses: Data collection to identify and/or address local issues

Components: Single or a few components

Infrastructure: No or little IT, program support resources only

Adoption: Early adopters only

Integration: Little or no integration, likely a stand alone activity

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 ASSIGNMENTS - MBA – IV SEMESTER

MU0008 (2 CREDITS)

SET 2

TALENT MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE RELATION

Q.1:- Explain 360 degree feedback.

Ans:- For many companies, this time of the year is often touted as “the review season”. The
previous year’s financials have been determined and goals for the next year are set. Managers
are juggling their priorities – trying to balance their “real work” with HR pushing them to do
performance reviews. The happiest time of the year – or not, depending upon whether or not
like Santa Claus, you have kept a careful list of who has been naughty and who has been nice
all year long.

As a human resources manager, you understand the importance of having a strong

performance management process in place. Such a process helps align individual goals with
overall corporate objectives, reinforces desired behaviors and creates a more engaged
workforce. But if your company is one of the many where your current performance
management system consists of a word processing document that is manually collected by
HR, this no longer needs to be the case. More and more small and mid-sized businesses are
turning to HR technologies to improve their performance management processes. The
availability of affordable, web-based solutions automating the performance management
process is no longer just for very large employers

At the senior staff meeting one of the tasks we are working on is creating our own
Performance Appraisal form to use in the platform for our organization. And if you think it is
difficult to obtain consensus of an appraisal form in your organization, try getting 5 “HR
types” to agree on one to use. But, we all agree on how important it is.

Studies show that employees value clear, consistent feedback and acknowledgement as much
as they do the money. For those companies who have invested in a performance management
solution, the review season is not so bad and provides a number of benefits, including:

1. Recognizes your best performers

* Actual progress against performance goals is tracked so you can identify who is
delivering…and who’s not
* Reinforces continued positive behavior and set expectations for non-performers.

2. Provides clarity for employees

* Set goals, establish timelines, track progress, and identify obstacles to communicate
what’s expected of them

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 * Give employees a clear understanding of their individual goals and how they fit into the
bigger corporate picture
* Provide the link between overall business objectives and employees’ day-to-day actions

3. Protect yourself legally

* Provides documentation to support employment actions such as termination, demotion,

or lack of compensation adjustment

4. Stabilizes your workforce

* Reduces employee turnover and attrition

Q.2:- Explain the role of an HR Manager in talent acquisition.

Ans:- Today, many organizations are moving beyond the implementation of basic HR
service delivery into a more strategic use of HR technologies. Increasingly, this means a
focus on talent management applications and especially the growing use of manager self-
service (MSS) to deliver these applications, according to Towers Perrin’s 10th annual survey
of HR service delivery trends among global organizations. The survey drew responses from
275 organizations, 84% of them based in the U.S. The focus on talent management is made
possible in part because companies are reaping the benefits of their existing investments in
HR systems and are able to now focus on more strategic goals for these systems. Not
surprisingly, they are reporting improvements in efficiency and effectiveness that derive from
successful implementation of core upgrades of various HR service domains (e.g., benefit
administration, payroll) and the growing use of MSS and employee self-service (ESS). For
most companies, the time HR staff and employees spend on routine benefit transactions are
down.

This success in managing technology for basic benefit and compensation delivery programs
is in turn enabling large organizations to turn their attention from transactional processes to
more strategic and arguably more value-added areas, particularly people- and performance-
oriented processes. Mastery of these processes is essential to support effective talent
management programs in any organization.

Particularly, our data show that HR service delivery professionals – both those using
PeopleSoft and SAP modules – are increasingly focused on optimizing their processes and
systems, along with helping their organizations find, attract, retain and engage employees.
More specifically:

· The number of companies saying they want to devote attention to streamlining HR systems
and processes more than tripled, from 10% of those surveyed in 2006 to 35% in 2007.

· Nearly a third (31%) of companies said they were committed to improving their recruiting
and staffing systems this year, up from 24% last year.

· Talent and performance management systems were chosen as a priority this year by 30% of
companies, more than double the 14% in the 2006 survey.

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The survey found that only 15% of companies cited new HR systems as a top-of-mind issue
this year, and even fewer cited compensation and benefit systems, cost containment, payroll
systems and other traditional HR technology areas of interest. In fact, the number of
companies that listed compensation and benefit systems as a priority fell from 31% in 2006 to
14% this year.

Role of HR in Talent Acquisition

The worldwide market for talent management technologies is thriving. A number of factors
are fueling the exponential growth: a dynamic geo-economic climate that increases focus on
the workforce; a changing global labor market; and the need for organizations to transform
their workforce and build a climate and culture of performance and innovation.

The impact of organizational brain drain and the fear of a global talent shortage due to an
increasingly aging workforce have caused companies to focus on finding, developing and
retaining superior, talented employees. That makes talent management technologies must-
haves for organizations committed to developing a competitive human capital advantage.
Demand for talent management solutions is pervasive throughout North America, Europe and
Asia, where interest is high and adoption is brisk.

The talent management market includes HR process functionality for recruitment,

performance, compensation, succession planning, learning and other capabilities around self-
service, analytics and reporting. Many vendors have pursued a suite approach in an effort to
leverage the data and intelligence across the various modular capabilities while others have
chosen to go deep in distinct modular functionality.

It forecasts the growth of talent management technologies will nearly double by 2009 and
will exceed US$4.0 billion, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 26 percent
in the next four years. Based on the heavy influence of the on-demand, software-as-a-service
subscription model, many organizations are attracted toward talent management solutions
based on low upfront costs, limited deployment risks, and predictable pricing model. It
estimates over 2300 companies worldwide adopted some form of talent management
technology in 2005. Of those companies, approximately 65 percent of those companies
deployed their talent management solution in an on-demand model.

North America and Europe account for the majority of investment in talent management.
Recruitment and learning categories will fuel growth in Europe because of an increasing
talent shortage and focus on training and career development. North America and Europe will
continue to lead spending in talent management; Asia-Pacific also will invest and spend more
between 2006 and 2009.

Most attributes strong market demand in talent management to the following factors:

• Increased focus on retaining talent: High performing employees are always in demand.
More than 40 percent of HR managers surveyed in a recent Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) study said turnover has increased in the past 12 months; 55 percent
expect workforce retention to be a high or very high challenge for their firms in the next five
years. Companies are finally starting to align pay with performance for non-sales functions to
encourage high performance. Good recruiting organizations focus equally on internal
candidates and external candidates. Companies have placed additional focus on building

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value and quality within the recruitment function. HR leaders are gaining more influence over
organizational direction and value.

• Continued convergence of organizational expertise for strategic HR processes: Recruitment,

compensation, performance and learning have been disparate HR (and even non-HR)
functions with distinct and unrelated business outcomes. The ability to share intelligence
between HR processes and minimize data redundancy is the incentive many companies need
to pursue integrated talent management strategies. Organizations recognize the value of well-
integrated HR processes such as learning, performance and succession management and are
committing centralized resources to ensure planning and success.

• Renewed focus on acquiring and managing talent: CEOs and HR executives are
recommitting to talent management. Leading companies are deploying resources and capital
to talent and career development programs, including succession planning and management.

Q.3:- What are the different approaches that organizations generally follow for
workforce planning.

Ans:- Approaches to Workforce Planning: In general, organizations can take one of three
approaches to workforce planning or use a combination of the three:
– “Workforce approach” examines the current workforce and occupations and projects the
number and characteristics of jobs and the number of employees needed to fill them at a
specific point in the future.

– “Workload approach” focuses on the amount and type of work the organization anticipates
handling at a specific point in the future, and uses this information to project the number of
resources (people and skills) needed to perform that work.

– “Competency approach” identifies sets of competencies aligned with the organization’s

mission, vision, and strategic goals. This approach assumes the organization has already
considered workforce and workload and can focus not only on the number of people, but the
competencies employees must master for organizational success.

1. Workforce Approach – profile people and occupations, and conduct workforce forecasts.
With this approach, your goal is to analyze the following: the jobs that will need to be done,
the type of occupations needed to do these jobs, the number of people needed to achieve
organization strategies.

The current workforce profile is a starting point to assess the workforce your organization
will need in the future. Supply analysis provides the data needed for your current workforce
profile. A traditional job audit also may help you get needed information. Specifically, you
will need to evaluate: What jobs now exist? How many people are performing each job?
What are the reporting relationships of these jobs? How essential is each job? What are the
characteristics of anticipated jobs?

The next step is to project the current employee population into the future as if there were no
new hires. Make projections at whatever level the organization desires, estimating the
employee population over the next three to five years as if nothing were done to replace

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employees lost through attrition. The result will show your demand for new workers if you
institute no appreciable changes in work or workload.

2. Workload Approach – assess critical work, determine processes that drive work, and
forecast future workload. This approach starts with your organization’s strategic planning
cycle, which will identify critical work (type and amount) the workforce must complete to
achieve strategies. You will need to capture workload data such as cycle time, volume, cost,
and performance measures when feasible. Your organization also may want to create flow
charts for those key processes that will “drive the work” to aid in looking at efficiency and
effectiveness. Your organization may decide workflow re-engineering is necessary to reduce
redundancies or inefficiency, and this review will likely include considering further
automation.

Workflow engineering may affect the strategies your organization uses during the planning
period to project workload. You will want to consider all relevant metrics (time, speed, cost,
and volume) and translate the amount of work and the time it takes to complete that work into
the number of people and critical competencies needed to perform the work.

3. Competency Approach Competencies are sets of behaviors (encompassing skills,

knowledge, abilities, and personal attributes) that, taken together, are critical to
accomplishing successful work and achieving an organization’s strategy. Competencies
represent the most critical knowledge, skills, and commitments that underlie superior
performance for your organization and/or within a specific job. The competency approach to
workforce planning is futuristic and focuses on the “ideal” workforce. Competencies may be
defined at several levels:
Organizational: core competencies identified during strategic planning
Leadership: the behaviors your organization expects all leaders to demonstrate or to develop

Functional: competencies that cascade from the core competencies and are associated with
specific work functions or business units

Occupational: competencies that cascade from the core and functional competencies and then
are anchored directly to the needs of a specific occupation

Individual: what each employee brings to his or her function

Team: what members of a team, in the aggregate, bring to their work

Your organization will need to determine the competency definition levels essential to
ensuring critical work gets performed. Strategic planning usually provides the means to
pinpoint the most critical, or core, organizational competencies for success.

Examining the Workforce’s Competency Requirements: To use the competency-based

planning approach, your organization will need to examine its workforce for current and
future competency requirements. During strategic planning, managers will develop core
competencies at the organization level. Leadership/management, functional, and occupational
competencies should flow from the core competencies and align with operational and
functional work activities. Individual and team competencies are also critical components of
organizational competencies. If individual competencies do not match organizational needs,
your workforce planning effort will point out these gaps. You can assess current worker

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competencies through several ways: Performance management tools already in place 360-
degree evaluation instruments the organization can develop or purchase Assessment
processes designed to specifically determine employees’ current competencies, usually
involving interviews with employees and supervisors.

What is a Competency Model? One way to assess competencies is with a “competency

model,” which is a map to display a set of competencies that are aligned with your
organization’s mission, vision, and strategic goals. These models are simple, visual
representations of the most critical knowledge, skills, and behaviors that underlie and drive
superior performance in an organization and/or a specific job. The competency model is
future-oriented and describes an ideal workforce. The competencies that make up the model
serve as the basis for HR practices in the organization since they play a key role in decisions
on recruiting, employee development, personal development, and performance management.

A competency model helps an organization bridge the gap between where it is now and
where it wants to be. This occurs in two ways. First, because it is based on the competencies
that support the mission, vision, and goals of the organization, the competency model serves
as a guide for management decisions. Second, the competency model serves as a map to
guide employees toward achieving the mission of their organization and their functional
areas. The result is that management and staff has a common understanding of the set of
competencies important to the organization. A well-developed and documented competency
model will serve as the basis for organizational training and development activities as well as
recruiting new employees with critical competencies.

The Generic Workforce Planning Model The generic model shown in Figure 1 integrates the
concepts described above – workload, workforce, and competency assessment. To develop
this model, we researched and evaluated many models in use by federal, state, and local
government as well as the private sector.

The generic model assumes your organization has conducted strategic planning and has
documented its direction, including short-term and long-term goals. One of the strengths of
workforce planning is its ability to adapt to agency or departmental strategic and operational
planning processes. Aligning the workforce plan with your organization’s strategies will
connect your HR program to the operational needs of your organization and provide the
visibility and organizational support needed for overall HR program success.
Steps in Conducting Workforce Planning

Management leadership and support are essential at all phases of workforce planning.
Assuming this support is in place, there are four major steps to conduct workforce planning
using the generic workforce model. An overview of the four steps is presented first, followed
by an in-depth explanation of the activities associated with each of the steps.

Step 1 – Scan of the Environment (SWOT): As you scan the environment in which your
organization functions, you will collect information needed for workforce planning. Later,
you will apply this information to your planning efforts. Environmental scanning examines
internal and external Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT analysis). Of
course, budget must also be a major factor in this review.

Step 2 – Supply and Demand Analysis: The supply and demand analysis is based on the scan
of your environment (SWOT analysis), strategies, and operational direction. You can conduct

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this analysis whether you use the workforce, workload, or competency approach to workforce
planning. IPMA recommends focusing on competencies, but you will have to select the
approach best suited for your unique organizational needs.

The supply and demand analysis will allow you to assess whether there is balance in the
organization, or whether imbalances among the workload, workforce, and competencies exist
now or may exist in the future.

Step 3 – Gap Analysis: Gap analysis compares information from the supply and demand
analysis to identify the differences between the current and the future organizational
workload, workforce, and competencies. This analysis must use comparable workload and
workforce elements and the competency sets you developed in Step 2, the supply and demand
analysis.

Step 4 – Action Plan Action plans should be developed to address the most critical gaps
facing your organization so human capital can support organizational strategy. Each
organization should determine its own action plan based on the relationships between strategy
and the gaps identified. Depending on the gaps, the action plan may address some or all
aspects for HR, including recruitment, selection, compensation, training, performance
management, succession planning, diversity, quality of work life, retention, etc.

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