What is Workforce Planning? Viewing it as an Effective & Real-Time Solution

Have you ever pondered over the question: What is strategic workforce planning? Acquiring the best talent while maintaining your corporate budget has made workforce planning in business the new strategic proving ground. The days of tracking your workforce on a self-generated spreadsheet are gone. That method worked well from the industrial revolution until the mid-1950s. During that time the major economic engine was large-scale manufacturing. Companies invested significant capital in buildings, grounds, and manufacturing equipment. HR’s primary responsibility was to keep a steady supply of workers on hand for each manufacturing station.

But in today’s economy, the major capital investments are intangible assets: ideas, rights, and – most notably – talented people. HR managers no longer simply manage an employee headcount to keep up with production goals. In order to remain relevant and competitive, managers need to access and analyze as many data points as possible – in real-time. And they need to communicate changes and insights efficiently across the organization. The old management tools that encouraged each department to work in isolation are no longer sufficient.

Measuring with a Balanced Scorecard

In 1992, Robert Kaplan and David Norton from the Harvard Business School introduced the concept of the balanced scorecard (BSC). The BSC incorporates critical aspects of a business’s operations into a unified set of information among 4 key performance measures:

• Financial Performance
• Customer Relations
• Innovation & Learning
• Internal Business Operations.

This allows managers to see how decisions from one department affect and influence the results of other departments. Companies that implement a BSC see dramatic improvements in efficiency, responsiveness, and profitability.

Challenges of Data Silos

Yet many companies today still maintain departmental silos. The finance department uses its own budgeting software. The HR department uses its own scheduling software. Companies utilize some form of the BSC to review past performance, but planning and forecasting remain isolated activities. Imagine how much more effective your company would be if its budgeting software worked in conjunction with its workforce planning software. You would have a real-time, forward-looking BSC that helps managers work in unison.

Modern, Cloud-Based Corporate Planning Management Solutions

The cloud-based Kepion Corporate Planning Management software is a real-time BSC that allows managers to enter detailed information, review high-level summaries, and instantly communicate across the organization. It incorporates Personnel Management Software with business budgeting software to produce unified business decisions across your organization. Best of all, the software is built around each business’ corporate needs and operational model. The benefits of  Workforce Planning Software include enabling HR managers to plan for key hires, and the finance department to instantly see how projected compensation figures affect the company’s bottom line. It’s a true planning and reporting solution for today’s dynamic marketplace.

If you’re interested in seeing how workforce planning can be implemented for your company, we encourage you to get a demo of the Kepion solution. You’ll get an idea of what workforce planning looks like as it applies to you and your team’s goals. Schedule your demo today!