WORKFORCE PLANNING AND JOB ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

JOSEPH C. SANCHEZ

Workforce Planning Defined

● a process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labour and
evaluate the size, nature and sources of the supply which will be required to meet the
demand. (Reily, 1996)
● getting the right number of people with the right competencies in the right jobs at the
right time (Sinclair, 2004)
● “human resource planning, “succession planning,” and “building bench strength.”
(Sincalir, 2004)
● Strategic Staffing - the process that organizations use to identify and address the
staffing implications of their business strategies and plans

Benefits of Workforce Planning

1. Practical Benefits - direct and substantive effects
a. Ensuring replacements are available to fill important vacancies
b. Realistic staffing projections for budgeting purposes
c. Provide clear rationale for linking expenditures to office-related activities
d. Maintain and improve diversity in workforce
e. Prepare for restructuring, reducing, expanding workforce
2. Process Benefits
a. Provides org members opportunity to think about the future
b. Allows org to align and centralize efforts in the context of decentralization
c. Integrates various organizational actions on the purpose of strategy

Approaches in Workforce Planning

Traditional Workforce Planning

Analyze the supply/demand gap and create a plan to address future staffing needs (Young,
2006) Has four steps.
1. Collecting data about the ENV, the org’s strat and other aspects
2. Analyze data about the current (headcount, turnover, skills) to project the future
workforce
3. **not in book Develop Action PLan
4. **not in book Implement Action PLan

Three types of Gaps

1. Staffing levels (too much or too little people)
2. Gaps in skills/capabilities
3. Mix of both
Workforce Analytics
Gap analysis used in trad workforce planning looks at the following variables
● Employee demographics
● Cost
● Job categories
● Outcomes (turnover , performance, revenue)

Forecasting and Scenario Modeling

Based on multiple assumptions about the future. Each scenario has different implications on
staffing

Traditional Forecasting and Scenario Modeling

Sales is important; spend 50% of assets on Sales is important, spend 50% of assets on
sales sales

Sales is important, but what if we don’t meet

quota, spend 70% of assets on sales

Sales is important, but we exceeded quota,

spend 30% of assets on sales

Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic workforce planning emphasizes that workforce planning be actually embedded in the
strategic planning process of the organization. Senior leaders participate in the process to come
up with general workforce directions

Human Capital Planning

Concerned with the bigger picture, distinguished by
● Segmentation
○ classifying job roles in order of importance then matching with actions
● Less Specificity
○ Looks at job roles/families/functions instead of specific positions
● Time frame
○ 3 - 5 years (Young, 2006)
Job Analysis
Also called the formal process of understanding jobs; systematic process for collecting and
analyzing information about a job. Data is collected in these aspects
● Tasks or Work activity
○ Tasks - action / sequence grouped through time designed to contribute a
specified end result to the accomplishment of an objective
○ Task statements should indicate the ACTION and the RESULT
 ● Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
○ Knowledge - organized body of information that when applied makes the
successful performance of a job possible
○ Skill - proficiency in the manual, verbal, or mental manipulation of people, ideas,
or things
○ Ability - capacity to execute a job action/ performa job function
● Levels of Job Performance
○ Expected range of performance required for the job
● Workplace Characteristics
○ Char of the work ENV that may have a bearing on job performance
○ Does s/he have the tools to do this? Is the ENV conducive?

Uses of Job Analysis

1. Recruitment and Selection
a. Explains to recruiters and applicants what the job is and what are the
requirements
2. Training and Development
a. Determines the KSAs needed for the position and see where employee
needs help
3. Performance Management
a. Determines levels of performance which in turn determines pay levels
4. Organizational Management and Planning
a. CHange in org means change and updating of job descriptions
5. Litigation Protection
a. ****Western concept - makes hiring and training decisions free from
discrimination because we only look at the jobb
Job Analysis Methodologies

● Self Report -
○ job incumbent comes up with own JD
○ Prone to Fake Good/Fake Bad
● Observation
○ Direct observation; best for physical activities
● Interview
○ Great because allows analyst to explore the interviewees answers using probing
questions
● Document Review
● Questionnaire and Surveys

Strategic Job Analysis

Job Analysis should go beyond being a pure HR activity and should be aligned with the strategy
of the organization. Being strategic means:
1. Info about jobs are continuously gathered and updated
2. Tasks and KSAs are revised in anticipation of future changes
Job Descriptions

Parts of a Job Description

● Job Identification - title / name of the job
● Reporting Line - who the position is reporting to
● Org Structure - clarifies how many people report to another position
● Main purpose of the job - 2 sentences that state the primary purpose of the position
● Principal Responsibilities - Key abilities that are required for the job
● Performance Measures/Standards
● Constraints
● Statistics - exact numerical scopes
● Nature and Scope
● Contacts - who the employee is supposed to communicate with inside and outside the
org
● Working conditions - is it work from home? In a factory?
● KSA and EXP
● Competencies - observable BEH and skills necessary to be succesful in this job

Competency Modeling

Competencies refer to clusters of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) needed for jobs
(Campion et al 2011)

A competency should have a name or label, a definition that describes the competency in
behavioral terms, and proficiency levels that describe the levels of mastery of the competency

1. This should be contextualized to each organization and each position.

2. Always include behavioral indications and descriptive labels
3. Use the language of the organization
4. Make it understandable to the employees also
5. UPDATE MODELS AS NEEDED

Levels of Competencies

CORE Competencies that all employees in the organization should

have

TECHNICAL Focused on different functional areas of the organization

JOB Specific to the job position

LEADERSHIP **not in book Only for those in Leadership positions

Competencies should have behavioral indicators and levels of proficiency to asses if the
employee is hitting the targets

Competency Name: Communication

Definition: Conveys keme keme in a clear and direct keme keme

Behavioral Indicators: 1.) Practices Active Listening

2.) Maintains open Communication

Basic Intermediate Advanced

BEH BEH BEH

BEH BEH

BEH

Check if the employee has reached a certain level of competency

Job Design
Refers to the assignment of foals and tasks that are to be done by employees.

Approaches
1. Job rotation - move employee to perform different task. **content of job should be the
same.
2. Job enlargement (horizontal) - give more tasks to employee
3. Job enrichment (vertical) - give more complicated work
4. Autonomous work groups - have employees work as a group on interdependent tasks to
provide service

Considerations
● Technical - degree to which individuals can physically and mentally do the job
● Economic - degree to which cos of the job is less than the value it adds to the org
● Behavioral - does this motivate employee?