Staffing Forecasting and Planning (Book Review)

ORGS 6200
MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES

Synopses: J Phillips and S Gully start this well researched and practical book by stressing the importance of workforce planning through recognizing the value of strategic staffing on the company’s ability to improve its capabilities and survive any economic environment while reducing its labor related costs as well as many other expenses indirectly associated with its employees. It is further stressed that talent and its acquisition are to be treated as investments not costs of doing business. It is argued that a single most important factor in order to ensure an organization’s strategic goals are met, is its ability to hire the right people at the right time in order to enhance the firm’s return on its investment. The authors then further expand on this theory by defining a set of common goals for staffing forecasting and planning activities that can benefit any company in any industry and economic life cycle. In addition, the book discusses the importance of understanding a company’s strategy, goals and competition in order to identify what type of talents will the firm need and when. “Ensuring that the right people are in the place at the right time, requires understanding and forecasting the firm’s labor demand and maintaining an awareness of relevant pipelines of labor supply and talent. Action plans can then be developed to address any gaps between labor supply and labor demand.” (Jean Phillips, 2010) Once the common goals of staffing forecasting are determined for a given firm, then the process begins by first determining the demand and supply for the labor depending on the company’s line of business and its overall strategy. Following this process, any gaps between supply and demand should be identified and action plans should be set in place to address any forecasted shortage or surplus of labor force. Once the action plans have been determined, and in order to ensure its thorough implementation, it is essential for the organization to continuously monitor, evaluate and revise these forecasts and action plans as they see fit.
Review
The authors of this book have made an excellent point with respect to the fact that forecasting the number, type and quality of employees that are required for an organization’s strategic direction is critical to the entity’s success. The book has then gone in great detail, and explained the steps required to be taken in order to ensure the success and effectiveness of the company’s staffing and planning strategy. The authors have outlined the workforce planning process to include identifying the business strategy and competitive advantage followed by articulating the firm’s talent philosophy and strategic decisions. Furthermore, conducting a thorough workforce analysis by forecasting both labor supply and demand and identifying any inherent gaps in between is required in order to develop and implement action plans, which require continuous monitoring, evaluation and revision. Having read the book and performed further research however, I find the methodology of the book not to be very cost conscious, be overly simplified in order to provide an explanation for an inherently complicated task, and devoid of any consideration to the risks associated with this idea not to mention its historical success rate amongst its adaptors. While I find the premise of this book of noble values, I find the practicality of some of the approaches to be questionable at best. I recognize that workforce planning is not a very new phenomenon and has been around for a number of years now. However, in recent years the use of this practice has increased within organization perhaps as a result of more turbulent economic conditions. (Jean Phillips, 2010) For example, I recall that TD would conduct various information sessions at universities across the province as well as attending many career fairs, even though I knew at the time the bank did not have any openings for positions that required filling in the areas where they advertised to students. I now realize that it must have been a part of the bank’s effort towards planning for their future forecasted demand and was in anticipation of a gap that was believed to exist between the supply and the demand of certain positions within the industry. Within this context, and as we discuss this process in its entirety, I see this framework as an essential tool for survival in an uncertain world, when the businesses may have a very difficult time planning for their medium to long term prospects. However, I question its feasibility for businesses of all sizes. The book does a fairly decent job of explaining the process, but neglects to consider some of the costs associated with the systematic changes that need to take place in an organization in order to implement this approach. For instance, I would imagine a company would require various internal mechanisms to track employee progress in order to forecast events such as promotions, retirements and transfers, let alone forecast the future numbers based on historical trends. Moreover, there is no guideline as to how much historical data is required to produce a fair assessment of the company’s future needs. Even though the authors discuss some rudimentary techniques to forecast demand and supply of labor, they fail to employ sophisticated statistical techniques to back up their claims, and for the most part it seems the book is more intended on staking a claim over the importance of the feat, as opposed to a detailed approach to the implementation of such strategies. In an article by Alice Sinclair titled Workforce planning, the author has made similar arguments with respect to the importance of this planning and forecasting process, but has also alluded to its importance in creating overarching objectives internally, “In addition to the practical benefits, the process of workforce planning aids organizations by providing overarching objectives which integrate the various units and allow employees space and time to think about common goals for the future.” (Sinclair, 2004) Ms. Sinclair has also approached workforce planning through a more simplified lens, which is helpful in realizing that the process might be easier than is made out to believe by this book. “What is appropriate for an organization to use depends on how easily it can be implemented and the ease with which it can be tailored to the situation at hand. Most models are broadly alike but there are some specific models, which focus on particular organizations or types of work or on short-term logistical planning. There are also sophisticated software packages available. However, most organizations do not need a complicated approach and it is often better to take the simplest route than to try to do too much.” (Sinclair, 2004) Another shortcoming of this book is its neglect of the inherent risk associated with the strategic workforce planning. While it tends to be a long-term initiative and highly dependent on a variety of other internal and external factors, it is not easy to say whether or not it actually works according to Alice Sinclair since “Some HR researchers estimate that the majority of workforce planning fails and describe a number of issues from which organizations could learn” (Sinclair, 2004) First issue is that it is very important for this process not to be interpreted as predicting the future through forecasting the supply and demand and manufacturing action plans to deal with any deficiency or surplus, which is what one would almost be inclined to conclude after reading this book. Instead, it should be viewed as a base for the long-term context of business issues and as a decision making toolkit that could act as a filter for other strategic plans. Furthermore, the book consistently refers to HR professionals as the responsible party in generating such initiatives. However, expecting HR professionals to define all parameters required for such extensive and potentially decisive strategy might not be a prudent decision as they may simply lack the depth of understanding of the business that is required for such forecasts, which would be crucial in the ultimate success of the program’s company wide acceptance. All in all, I found Staffing Forecasting and Planning to be very informative given my first exposure to this concept, however after further analysis and research I found the contents to be very primitive while overlooking some of the key considerations that must be given to this topic such as cost, ease of implementation and most importantly the success rate. I would recommend the book given its relatively manageable page count to anyone who is looking to start learning about the concept of workforce planning but it is very important not to take all that is discussed at face value and attempt to challenge some of the evidence through external research and further analyze the missing links.

Bibliography * CPS Human Resource Services . (2007). Workforce Planning Tool Kit: Supply/Demand Analysis and Gap Analysis . CPS Human Resource Services . * Jean Phillips, S. G. (2010). Staffing Forecasting and Planning (Vol. 1). Society For Human Resource Management. * Sinclair, A. (2004). Workforce Planning: a literature review. INSTITUTE FOR EMPLOYMENT STUDIES .