Workforce Planning & Adjustment

Establishing and changing the shape of the workforce to meet current and emerging business needs and realities.

The reality of operating any organisation is that over time the expectations and demands of the on it do change. For most organisations, the biggest expense and the main source of production of products and services is its people.

Most organisations don't take the time to think about the future, as they are very busy dealing with the day to day operations. So, when changes to the products and/or services that they provide are required, they often need to react urgently. In these circumstances, better practice people management practices can be disregarded in favour of reactive and often counter-productive measures that might appear to fix the short term (often budget reduction based) needs, but have much more longer lasting negative impacts for the business as it seeks to 'level off' and continue to operate into the future.

Examples of the frequently seen reactive approaches include:

• Across the board 'hands up' invitations for voluntary redundancies.
• Targeting apparent underperformers for separation in order to reduce staff numbers.

The APSC in its 2011 document 'APS Workforce Planning Guide' [ APS Workforce Planning Guide - Implementation and monitoring, evaluation, review and adjustment www.apsc.gov.au ] reinforces the continuous review and improvement associated with proactive workforce planning. At page 10 of the Guide they state:

Our assistance might include consideration of the current or proposed internal audit program, reviewing the existing internal controls or dealing with an emerging an organisational-wide issue, we often begin an assignment with our clients by helping them to answer some key questions, such as:

Monitor, evaluate, and review and adjust

Monitoring, evaluating, reviewing and adjusting (as necessary) apply after your workforce plan is completed, approved and implemented. Some key elements you will need to undertake include:

monitor your workforce:

• are the workforce drivers still the same as when you developed the plan?
• are the supply and demand forecasts tracking as expected?
• how is your workforce plan implementation progressing?
• regularly evaluate whether your workforce planning strategies and initiatives are achieving the desired business performance outcomes.
• review and adjust your workforce plan to reflect necessary changes identified in the monitoring and evaluation process, or in business direction.
• determine if any of the changes need to be approved by your executive or governing body.

HBA Consulting has provided advice, assistance and training in a wide range of national and international contexts, including:

• the alignment of organisational structures with the legislative objectives enshrined in new laws passed by Parliament.
• the design and delivery of public courses in Workforce Planning in Singapore and Canberra.
• the review of existing structures and functions of key Federal Parliamentary support services to ensure that current capability and funding would meet expected future workload demands.
• Targeted workforce adjustment plan and implementation strategy to align the workforce of a specialist government agency with the future business strategy and budget allocations. This was achieved without a general 'hands up' redundancy program and without significant industrial or business continuity issues.

The extensive senior experience within our consulting team, together with our practical and industrially aware approach to addressing HR matters, means that we can deliver workforce adjustment outcomes that minimise risk, maximise process efficiency and timing, demonstrate respect for those employees involved, work from a solid and understandable rationale and deliver the requisite outcomes for the organisation. With trained and qualified team of consultants working across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, we can help you scale your business to the emerging needs no matter your business location and size.