Workforce Planning Summary  |  DOI Workforce Planning Model  |  Introduction  |  Step One – Strategic Direction Setting  |  Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy 
 Step Three – Develop Action Plan  |  Step Four – Implement Action Plan  | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise  |  Summary  |  Appendices

This section provides conceptual information about workforce planning.

WHAT IS WORKFORCE PLANNING?

Workforce Planning (WFP) ensures that "the right people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time." This definition covers a methodical process that provides managers with a framework for making human resource decisions based on the organization’s mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources, and a set of desired workforce competencies.

Planning for human resource needs is one of the greatest challenges facing managers and leaders. In order to meet this challenge, a uniform process that provides a disciplined approach for matching human resources with the anticipated needs of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its bureaus is essential.

Workforce planning is a fundamental planning tool, critical to quality performance that will contribute to the achievement of program objectives by providing a basis for justifying budget allocation and workload staffing levels. As DOI develops strategies to support the achievement of both long-term and annual performance goals in the strategic plans, workforce planning should be included as a key management activity. WFP must be directly linked to broad-based management strategies that encompass several processes.

It is a dynamic process that facilitates planning for different scenarios. Thus, it can be as complex or as simple as the organizational needs dictate. An organization may choose to conduct workforce planning in an office versus a functional area or a division versus the entire organization. Similarly, it is critical to conduct workforce planning during times of budget reduction as well as budget increases. Staff reductions and increases without any planning in conjunction with the organization’s mission will only lead to the inability to fulfill staffing goals.

In order to achieve the optimum WFP product, the following have been identified as being essential organizational elements that provide a framework for effectively carrying out WFP activities:

• Organizational Readiness to do WFP
• Top management support
• Accountability at all levels
• Integration of other planning processes with WFP
• A simple, systematic and well-documented process

A review of several models has shown that, although WFP will vary depending upon the needs of an organization, the general processes appear to be alike. All rely on:

• Integration of other planning processes. In particular, strategic planning, budget, and human resources are key players in workforce planning. The strategic plans required by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) identifies organizational direction and articulates measurable program goals and objectives. The budget process provides information on the allocated funding to achieve objectives. Human resources provides tools for identifying skills/competencies needed in the workforce, recruiting, career development, training, retraining, outsourcing, etc. in order to build the workforce of the future.
• Workforce Supply - Analysis of projected workforce supply based on projected retirements and attrition data on the current workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides information on labor market forecasts (http://www.bls.gov).
• Forecast Workforce Need - Identification of skills/competencies needed in the future;
• Gap Analysis - Comparison of the present workforce skills/competencies to future needs to identify skill/competency gaps and surpluses;
• Strategies - Development of strategies and action items to address needed or surplus skills
• Evaluation - A dynamic evaluation process that ensures the workforce model remains valid and that objectives are being met in support of the organization’s performance goals.

Workforce Planning Summary  |  DOI Workforce Planning Model  |  Introduction  |  Step One – Strategic Direction Setting  |  Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy 
 Step Three – Develop Action Plan  |  Step Four – Implement Action Plan  | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise  |  Summary  |  Appendices

Workforce planning requires two important functional considerations:

• Planning Time Frame

Organizations need to consider how far into the future to project when carrying out workforce planning. Managers need to balance the certainty of short-range planning against the need to plan for longer-range objectives. Longer time frames may provide more flexibility in planning workforce transitions but also will require regular validation of the analysis of future workforce needs. Shorter time frames run the risks of requiring more drastic workforce transition management and of missing coming changes by not looking far enough into the future. [Note: the Department recommends a five- year time frame.]

• Planning Levels

What is an appropriate organizational level for developing a workforce plan? There is no single answer to the issue of appropriate planning levels. The most useful guideline in determining planning levels is to make sure that the outputs of workforce planning will relate to organizational or programmatic strategic objectives.

A workforce planning model should provide flexibility to DOI Bureaus and Offices to adapt models to their own organization. This includes the flexibility to determine planning levels that make managerial sense and support strategic plans objectives. The size of an organization, how it is organized, how programs are managed, and budgeted, all will impact on workforce-planning levels.

Bureaus should make a concerted effort to be consistent across regions when developing a workforce plan. All bureau functions or organizations should develop their plans the same way (i.e., by function, occupation, region, organization, etc.). Failure to maintain consistency may result in "holes" where no workforce planning data exists. [Example: A bureau conducts workforce planning functionally for all mission critical occupations. At the same time 2 of the 3 bureau regions conduct a "wall-to-wall" workforce planning effort on all positions. Such an effort would lack any data on non-mission critical positions in region 3.]

[Note: For budgetary purposes and ease of integration with the strategic planning process, the Department recommends that a bureau/office workforce plan be developed. Organizational or programmatic plans may be developed (and useful) for human resources program development purposes, but an aggregated bureau/office workforce plan has the most value for developing budget and strategic planning input.]

There are multiple reasons to conduct workforce planning:

• DOI Expectations. In FY 2001, 35 to 40 percent of DOI’s discretionary budget involved personnel compensation. It is important that budgeting emphasis can deal with both workforce management and workforce reductions. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is increasingly emphasizing the link between dollars and personnel and asks that agencies accompany workforce requests with documentation that ties these requests to overall staffing goals.

In order to meet this requirement, as well as present strong justification to appropriations, the DOI Budget Office will be asking Bureaus to apply workforce planning methods and techniques in developing staffing requirements. The expectation is that bureaus will include the outputs of workforce planning (including their workforce analysis) as supporting documentation in their budget justifications. The goal is to combine budget, program performances, and workforce priorities into a cohesive strategy that is presented in budget justifications.

• Strategic basis for human resource decisions. WFP helps the organization as a whole forecast future conditions and develops objectives for the human resource programs to meet the DOI/Bureau needs. It allows managers to anticipate change as well as provide strategic methods for addressing present and anticipated workforce issues. Changes in skills, competencies, and key positions can be anticipated as a result of retirements and natural attrition.
    
• Links expenditures to organization’s long-term goals and objectives. Human resources are expensive. The higher the percentage of the budget comprised of human resources-related costs, the more important is the need to plan. The cost of employee turnover, replacement, retraining, and retention further increases these costs. WFP can reduce these costs by ensuring more efficient and effective recruitment, training, and retention. It also provides other benefits such as background information for position management and succession planning; better identification of training and development needs for the long-term; linkage of training with performance goals; more cost effective programs; more useful information on EEO and workforce diversity.
    
• Links recruitment, development and training decisions to organizational goals. WFP provides a clear rationale for linking expenditures for recruitment, training, employment development, retention, and other human resource programs. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 focus on the outcomes and results organizations expect to accomplish. Improvements in skills, personnel, and procedures will assist organizations in achieving GPRA goals.

This is also emphasized in the General Accounting Office study, "Major Performance and Management Challenges," which notes: "Only when the right workers (employees or contingency workers) are on board and are provided the training, tools, structures, incentives, and accountability to work effectively is organizational success possible."

• Address changes in program direction that impacts the type of work being performed and/or how the work is being performed. WFP will help to identify work that can be contracted to the private sector (outsourcing) and opportunities to delayer management. Lastly WFP allows managers to identify ways in which technology and other business changes impact the skills required in the workforce.

Automation will continue to have a profound impact on the way we do business. It will enable us to conduct our business with ever increasing efficiency. Advances in computer hardware and software will allow us to extensively use interactive and intelligent systems. Major changes to the personnel data system, office processes, and training methods can be expected.

 

Workforce Planning Summary  |  DOI Workforce Planning Model  |  Introduction  |  Step One – Strategic Direction Setting  |  Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy 
 Step Three – Develop Action Plan  |  Step Four – Implement Action Plan  | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise  |  Summary  |  Appendices

This manual is written for people who are tasked with developing a workforce plan. This manual provides information and processes that can be applied to ensure a systematic approach to workforce planning. It defines fundamental steps to develop and implement workforce plans as well as identifies tools available to assist managers and leaders in the overall process. However, there may be varying levels of understanding, varying reasons to conduct workforce planning, and varying qualities of information available within an organization. As such, whole or parts of this manual should be followed as much as the workforce planners’ feel is necessary to accomplish their task, regardless of the complexity.

A sample model workforce plan can be found at Appendix A. Process steps 2-6 will help the user understand how to apply each step outlined in the manual. We recommend that each user refer to Appendix A for further clarification as you proceed through the steps.

Planning for human resources needs (competencies and capabilities) is one of the greatest challenges facing managers and leaders. In order to meet this challenge, a uniform process that provides a disciplined approach for matching human resources with the anticipated needs of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its bureaus is essential. Workforce planning is key to planning for these needs.

Program goals will not be achieved without having "the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time." Workforce planning is a fundamental tool, critical to quality performance that will contribute to the achievement of program objectives. As DOI describes the strategies that support the achievement of both long-term and annual program performance goals in the strategic and performance plan, activities such as workforce planning should be included as an essential component of a broad-based management strategy.

The following are common reasons to conduct workforce planning:

• Helps meet the organization’s competency/skill needs
• Provides focus for workforce demographics, retirement projections, and succession planning.
• Provides a clear rationale for linking expenditures for recruitment, training, employee development, retention, and other human resource programs to the organization’s long-term goals and objectives.
• Provides managers with tools to address changes in program direction that impacts that type of work being performed.
• Assists managers in creating a high quality workforce capable of continually growing and changing.
• Assist managers in identifying partnering, outsourcing, delayering, and reorganizing opportunities.
• Provides critical information for inclusion in budget requests and Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) strategic plans.

Although many approaches and techniques exist for doing workforce planning, the following have been identified as being essential organizational elements which provide a framework for effectively carrying out workforce planning activities. The workforce plan should:

• Reflect the management and organizational culture of the organization
• Have top management support
• Integrate other planning resources into the process
• Be user-friendly and systematic
• Seek accountability for results at all levels

The following are the steps that lead to a full workforce analysis:

1. Prepare for workforce planning

2. Organize and mobilize strategic partners

3. Collect data

4. Examine data

5. Envision the future

6. Project needs

7. Determine gap

8. Develop action plan
9. Implement plan

10. Project costs

11. Develop GPRA/budget information

12. Review effectiveness and Begin Again

Acknowledgement
We wish to thank the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who’s Workforce Planning Instructional Guide served as the model for this manual.

Workforce Planning Summary  |  DOI Workforce Planning Model  |  Introduction  |  Step One – Strategic Direction Setting  |  Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy 
 Step Three – Develop Action Plan  |  Step Four – Implement Action Plan  | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise  |  Summary  |  Appendices

Regardless of how complex or simple workforce planning will be in an organization or unit, it will require input from a variety of functional areas and levels such as strategic planning, executive officers, administrative officers, program managers, human resources, budget and finance, unions, and strategic planners, etc. Ideally, leaders should identify a multidisciplinary team to conduct workforce planning. However, one individual may also be tasked with this responsibility. Before you began conducting your analysis, you should begin with the following (or use ones that are more applicable to your organization) parameters regardless if it is a team or one individual:

• Clearly understand why you are doing workforce planning.
• Identify resources available.
• Adapt models, strategies, tools, and processes to your organizational environment and needs. Concentrate on planning outputs that are organizationally meaningful and which support program objectives, budget requests, staffing requests, and strategic plans. Training, coaching, technical assistance and other support will be required as offices prepare to use models, strategies, and tools.

• Begin with a set of assumptions that set the scope of workforce planning within an organization.
• The capacity to do effective workforce planning will only be developed over time. The time needed to conduct workforce planning will vary depending on the scope of the WFP plan. It is critical to begin carefully and to validate the analysis at each step. It may be helpful for an office to begin with a subset of the workforce and extend planning through the remainder of the organization. This subset may be organizationally based, (such as a State Office), occupational focused (i.e., dealing with all Park Ranger positions), or program focused (such as land reclamation activities).

After you have either adopted these parameters or developed your own based on your organization, you should discuss them with top management to ensure their support.

Now that you have established the parameters for the workforce-planning project, you should begin assembling the team of professionals to participate in the workforce study. At the very least, you will need specialists from strategic planning, financial management, budget, human resources, program areas, and a management analyst to assist you. Strategic planning sets organizational direction and articulates measurable program goals and objectives, the budget process plans for the funding to achieve these objectives, and human resources provides tools for identifying competencies needed in the workforce and for recruiting, developing, training, retaining, retraining, or placing employees to build the workforce of the future.

If working alone, notify subject-matter officials of this task and request their assistance when needed. Leadership should appoint specific offices and individuals to serve as key players, including employees from any targeted occupational groups that the plan is examining. This is also the time to discuss the roles, responsibilities, and commitment of each team member. The following information should be addressed for each team member:

• Name of each member
• Occupational group represented
• Specific role
• Responsibility
• Time committed to projected

You are now ready to begin workforce planning according to the following steps that are outlined in the remainder of this manual. Again, be sure to refer to the Sample Workforce Plan in Appendix A when you need clarification of Process Steps 2-4.

Workforce Planning Summary  |  DOI Workforce Planning Model  |  Introduction  |  Step One – Strategic Direction Setting  |  Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy 
 Step Three – Develop Action Plan  |  Step Four – Implement Action Plan  | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise  |  Summary  |  Appendices

2.1 Data Collection

Workforce planners must gather a variety of information and data in order to conduct comprehensive workforce planning to determine future needs as well as the projected workforce supply. In order to paint the picture of the future, you should begin by:

1. Examining planning documents (strategic plans, performance plans, etc.)
2. Reviewing current and projected financial/budget information
3. Determining major planning issues (external influences, trends, and anticipated changes in budgets)
4. Developing assumptions and setting objectives accordingly.

The following sections will guide you in collecting all the data you will need to precede with the other steps in conducting a workforce plan analysis.

Understand the scope of your study and exactly what information will help you develop a full workforce plan. It is recommended that you begin by identifying the Scope of Data and Scope of the Organization as outlined below:

SCOPE OF DATA

• Will the workforce plan focus on the entire organization, sub-unit, specific occupation, or functional area?
• Determine the number of years for which the workforce planning process will make projections (A 5 year plan is recommend.)
• Determine whether the "workforce" includes permanent, temporary, non-FTEs, contractors, volunteers, etc. [Note: This includes reviewing positions, organizations, and functions for possible outsourcing. It also involves looking for organizational delayering opportunities. It is recommended that all workers be included in the planning.]
• Examine diversity and/or cultural issues (ensure that the approach does not raise barriers for segments of the labor force)
• Identify baseline human resource and financial data, such as annual and projected budgets, FTE, etc., that will be used for the analysis.

Dealing with each of these issues will help you define the scope of your workforce analysis. This is a critical step in the beginning stages of understanding your workforce dynamics. While no formal protocol exists for capturing this information, it is recommended that these answers be documented as a section of the plan for future reference.

You will need to collect as many of the following documents/reports to assist you with understanding your organization’s vision, outlook, and overall workforce dynamics:

• Strategic Plan(s) including Mission Statement(s)
• Organizational Performance Plan(s)
• Financial Report(s)
• Budget Reports
• Vision Statement(s)
• Organizational Long/Short Term Goals
• Organizational Objectives
• Affirmative Action Reports
• Workload Reports
• All Organizational Studies
• Organizational Charts
• Staffing Plans
• FAIR Act Submissions

Once you have collected these documents, follow the instructions below to analyze each document. This information will be referred to throughout the processes and will be the driving force behind each step and strategy hereafter.

2.4 Examining the Data

You will need to examine and analyze the data to determine future needs, changes, and direction within your organization. To assist in analyzing the data you have collected, answer the following questions using the information you have collected.