Workforce Planning More Important in Economic Slowdown

Watson Wyatt’s Workforce Planning Surveyfound almost a third (31%) have already begun to increase activity around workforce planning – the process by which an organization aligns its workforce requirements to the business strategy using business analytics.

According to a press release, current workforce planning actions that employers are taking include:

• Staying the course in replacing talent in all roles, 50%;
• Scaling back on replacing talent across the organization, 33%;
• Replacing talent only for critical jobs, 21%; or
• Not replacing talent, 3%.

The most prevalent workforce planning concern among employers surveyed is the scarcity of critical talent. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of respondents are taking action to address this concern, followed by 42% that are taking action around workforce restructuring (42%), and 20% taking action on layoffs or hiring freezes.

Replacing talent is further hindered by the difficulty of attracting the required employees: 77% of respondents said attracting critical-skill employees is currently a challenge, and 60% said attracting top performers is a challenge. Forty-nine percent and 34% of employers said they were experiencing challenges retaining critical-skill employees and top performers, respectively.

A large majority of companies also report that their chief executive officer (85%) and senior managers (74%) are concerned about workforce planning issues.

More information is at http://www.watsonwyatt.com/workforceplanning .