Failing to plan is planning to fail

19 Mar 08

Your security company – or, if you are reading this as the in-house security manager, your corporate organisation – can be riding on the crest of a wave, with successful projects and programmes currently on the boil and a healthy list of future contracts in the pipeline. All well and good, but you also need to have a similarly strong pool of future employees on the books or you could well find standards dropping, costs rising and the ‘conveyor belt’ of new stars for the future grinding to a juddering halt.

As your company grows, it should be seamlessly recruiting people that immediately improve your service offering. To this end, at its very best workforce planning is all about understanding what your business is aiming to achieve and creating a people plan aligned to that goal.

This will ensure that the right type of talent appears on the doorstep at the right time and at the right price. We’re not talking about reams and reams of paperwork here, but rather a simple spreadsheet incorporating each division of the business, a headcount and expected costs (set, for example, to a one-to-three-year plan).

Human Resources becomes actively involved

In my opinion, the most significant by-product of workforce planning is that the Human Resources Department becomes actively involved in the security strategy for the company, not to mention the overall business strategy. You need to sit down with the executive directors and other senior members of the company to find out about future projects, future recruitment requirements and, indeed, any planned cuts that may be in (or affect) the mix. By keeping a regular dialogue open, your workforce plan becomes a constantly evolving business tool that will improve recruitment immeasurably. Don’t forget, though, that it needs to be reviewed every 3-6 months and, most significantly, aligned to the core goals of the business.

It’s all-too-easy to fall into a reactionary approach to recruitment if you don’t have the right system in place. A long-term plan for the future of the workforce can seriously reduce this problem. It will have noticeable benefits, not least in terms of the dealings with your recruitment company.

If you can approach an agency with a schedule of works for the next couple of years, say, alongside a comprehensive outline of the type of skills you’ll need, you will have a substantial negotiating tool with which to cut a more agreeable deal.

Earmarking those fit for promotion

I believe the most important and interesting element of implementing a workforce plan is that you’ll be able to look at your schedule of projects over the next few years and be in a great position to nurture existing talent. Obviously, this will then have a positive knock-on effect with the budgets. Once again, it also places the Human Resources team at the core of the business.

Some of my clients think this is all a huge waste of time, but if you know how much business you intend to deliver across the next three years then you can easily calculate projected headcount. Naturally, you’ll do so with the assistance of the invaluable finance guru!

Workforce planning is a strategic piece of action that allows the Human Resources team to really benefit the whole business. It will help middle managers to understand what shape the company will begin to take over the next few years and, therefore, pinpoint the opportunities arising within their own teams.

In addition, it will reduce recruitment cost through better negotiations – and that affords you a far larger budget for the Christmas Party!

Alyson Pellowe is the founder and managing director of People Vision, a leading provider of cross-industry Human Resources management and development expertise

Get the latest stories first with info4security's newsletters: Click to signup

Post and bookmark this story at the following sites:

What is this?

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit	Google	Newsvine