Hamish Blyth
Planning Solutions Manager
In the new post-pandemic business environment, organisations must stay one step ahead of the market if they want to survive. Companies with the systems and processes in place to quickly respond to market changes will be in a better position to maintain business continuity despite ongoing disruption.
It’s essential that organisations build resilience, agility and scalability into day-to-day processes to ensure operations can be maintained in the face of adversity. The only way to achieve this is through accurate and flexible workforce planning, which will help the organisation adapt to rapid market changes quickly and easily.
We’ve identified three ways companies can optimise workforce planning in the new business environment:
1. Consolidate business planning and data to gain real-time insights
It’s vital that executives have access to relevant data to make better business decisions and inform business planning and strategy. However, they must also have the right solutions in place to gain real-time insights to determine the best course of action based on the data available.
Investing in workforce planning solutions that centralise employee data and reporting, including budget and hours information, can provide a more holistic view of the workforce and help executives understand where time and money is being spent. This can lead to more accurate reforecasting and better budget management by providing more clarity around how activities are being resourced and how projects can be better managed.
2. Conduct contingency workforce planning using scenario-based modelling
‘Unprecedented’ may have been everyone’s least-favourite 2020 buzzword, though it did highlight how challenging it could be to maintain operations for businesses with no contingency plans. Significant business disruption emphasised the need for businesses to implement good ‘what if’ testing in modelling to be more flexible and agile. Implementing workforce planning solutions and technologies that offer effective scenario modelling can help executives to plan better for market and workforce changes.
3. Use forward resource planning
Company executives must be able to adapt workforces and budgets to respond to shifting market requirements. However, this doesn’t always need to be a reactive response. Executives that can effectively plan and consider contingencies that include potential employee redeployments or new hires will be better placed to respond to rapid market changes.
Agile businesses can use contingency workforce planning to respond to market shifts with restructures as needed. By investing in software solutions that provide a more holistic view of the workforce, organisations can better plan for restructures, redeployments and new hires as needed.
It can be challenging to assess the impact of changes to workforce planning strategies without having a proper solution in place to accurately report on business success. However, investing in workforce planning technologies can help executives and managers more effectively analyse and execute workforce changes for better business results.
We’ve outlined seven key capabilities to look for in a workforce planning solution to help you better optimise your workforce plans. Download our latest checklist now to find out more.
Working with a trusted partner to implement new solutions like Workday Adaptive Planning can help you streamline your budgeting, forecasting and planning processes. To find out more, download our checklist or contact the Mero team today.
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