Workforce planning
This describes the continual alignment of needs and priorities of the organisation with those of its workforce to ensure it can meet its legislative, regulatory, service and production requirements as well as its organisational objectives. Workforce planning includes the management of flows into and out of the organisation, and planning for changes in personnel in roles of key importance.
Common measures
Succession roles: the number of roles identified for succession with succession individuals allocated.
Progress against targets: a measure of the number of management trainees recruited against agreed local targets
Minimum strength time: this measures minimum time in post for managers in Global Key Roles
Successors in place: a measure for the number of planned successors for global key roles
For example, number of planned successors : pivotal roles
Succession planning depth: a measure of the percent of key roles that have a succession pool of one or two unique candidates (see PWC research for more details).
For example, key roles with 2 successors in play / Total number of key roles
Average time to promotion: a measure of the average time that an individual is in role before the progress to a more senior position.
For instance, Total T for progression upwards/ N promotions
Average time in current management position – measures the average time that managers and executives have been in their current positions (see PWC research for more details).
For example, total time in position for managers / Total number of managers
High performer turnover rate – a measure of the rate at which the organisation is losing talented employees (see SABA research for more details).
High performer turnover rate = total high performer terminations/average high performer headcount
Career path ratio: a measure of the ratio of promotions against sideways moves (transfers), to show the breadth of capability and illustrate alternative development opportunities to promotion (see SABA research for more details).
For example, Total Promotions / (total promotions + total transfers)
Talent Management Index: an index of defined talent measures by the organisation that describes key aspects of the talent management process from across the entire employee lifecycle. This would comprise a combination of select key metrics, weighted by importance and impact to the organisation
Resources description
Understanding workforce planning and workforce planning data ensures the right number of people with the right skills are employed in the right place at the right time to deliver an organisation’s short- and long-term objectives. For more information on workforce planning process visit the CIPD factsheet:
For practical guidance on the process of succession planning, download the CMI checklist.
Succession planning
CIPD’s annual Resourcing and Talent planning survey examines organisations resourcing and talent planning strategies, their current practices and future trends as well as key challenges business may be facing. Read the latest report:
Resourcing and talent planning survey
Resources
Case study
London Councils provides support to London boroughs through a professional HR Metrics and Workforce Planning network which helps report on, explore and share people data to improve performance. The HR Metrics group enables councils to benchmark their data at a regional level, allowing councils to evaluate their own performance and adopt best practices thereby improving their cost effectiveness and performance.
Read the full case study: London Councils case study