Workforce planning 2020 looks a little different than it once did
Photo by Dan Schiumarini on Unsplash
While we have experienced an enormous global shift this year, life and business continue to move forward and both require tending and attention to ensure their health. Business and workforce planning 2020 will call upon business leaders to deploy resources quickly and strategically to maximize opportunities.
The Future of Work
The reality of a COVID-19 world has forced businesses to evaluate their financial health and capabilities. Leaders must get clear on which product and service lines are not only viable, but marketable, in our changed world for 2020 and beyond.
Some industries will need to retool their business models to meet changing consumer or business needs. With more people shopping online and staying closer to home, how we deliver products and services will continue to evolve. That will force a reevaluation of business processes.
As MIT Sloan Management Review (MSMR) observes:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted how most global enterprises operate. With new priorities comes an urgent and strategically important challenge: ensuring that enough of the right people are working on the right opportunities at the right time, all while operating in an investment-constrained environment. Organizations should have visibility into their workforce capabilities and deployments to make informed decisions about how to optimally allocate their workforces.”
As a senior leader, your job in the year ahead will be to identify your most urgent projects and to match your people with those activities. That work should begin in-house, especially if you have had to freeze hiring. Even if you continue to actively recruit new talent, a review of your employees’ existing skill sets can help you create a more targeted talent strategy. It’s time to let go of the status quo and deploy all of the resources at your disposal, starting with your people.
Let’s take a closer look at what that means:
Talent Management
You have invested so much in your current employees. These people represent not only years of your recruiting and training efforts, but experience and institutional knowledge that only comes from time on the job at your company.
While some existing roles will remain largely the same for the next few years, now is the time to evaluate which roles should evolve or disappear altogether. That doesn’t necessarily mean severing ties with the people in those roles. They know your organization and your mission, and they have valuable skills and experience you can use. Cross-training, reskilling and upskilling can help you retain those valuable employees and resources as you shift your business to meet changing market needs.
The need for employee investment and reskilling existed well before 2020, but the pandemic has amplified and accelerated the need. McKinsey & Company reports:
“Even before the current crisis, changing technologies and new ways of working were disrupting jobs and the skills employees need to do them. In 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that as many as 375 million workers—or 14 percent of the global workforce—would have to switch occupations or acquire new skills by 2030 because of automation and artificial intelligence.
The coronavirus pandemic has made this question more urgent. Workers across industries must figure out how they can adapt to rapidly changing conditions, and companies have to learn how to match those workers to new roles and activities. This dynamic is about more than remote working—or the role of automation and AI. It’s about how leaders can reskill and upskill the workforce to deliver new business models in the post-pandemic era.”
Examples that author gives include:
Medical organizations moving from 1 percent telehealth to nearly 100 percent telehealth screenings practically overnight
Truck drivers reskilling into excavator operator jobs
Sales forces moving from 100 percent outside sales to a hybrid of outside and inside sales
Bank employees who received empathy training in order to help clients affected by pandemic stress or job losses
Now and in the future, employees will need a range of skills, from practical knowledge to social-emotional intelligence. Technology will play a key role, but organizational needs will go far beyond employee tech training.
Recruitment and Training
Once you have identified how to maximize your existing people resources, you need to fill any gaps.
Some industries have enjoyed an uptick in activity, thanks to changing consumer habits during the pandemic, and these organizations have been actively recruiting new talent to meet demand. Others undergoing a temporary lull still need to look ahead and plan for future talent needs.
As you approach your recruitment efforts during COVID-19, consider these points about our new reality:
Think about the value of job candidates accustomed to remote work
Consider how to recruit and interview using virtual tools and platforms
Address how to onboard new employees in a remote environment
Find ways to integrate new people into the team and to foster ongoing communication between team members
Make ongoing training accessible and available to all employees
As one HR expert shared with HR Technologist, hiring flexible workers can have strategic advantages:
“There are long-term benefits to having a more flexible workforce that will last well after this period is over. Flexible jobs help diversify teams by keeping parents - especially women - in leadership roles. Shifting to a more flexible workforce can also help companies save money by only paying people for the work needed in the moment during these turbulent times and beyond.”
Consider how flexible roles can support your business goals and craft your recruitment strategy to reflect that. These types of roles can create a win-win for your organization and the people you employ.
Final Thoughts
While we don’t yet know all the changes the pandemic will bring to our business lives, we can take advantage of this time by creating a strategy that allows for both flexibility and growth. In some cases, we might need to alter our expectations or change our usual operating mode, but that could result in innovative problem-solving and new solutions that support a healthier business for the long-term.
We have the power to think creatively about market and workforce challenges and to build a better business model in the process.
If you need support in crafting a workforce planning strategy for 2020 and beyond, reach out to me. I work with companies of all sizes to develop strategic HR plans that flex to meet changing needs.