Workforce and Succession Planning

Whether your agency is looking for assistance in broad workforce planning for mission critical occupations or high level succession planning for leadership positions, there are some common steps that take place in many of our projects:

Project management coordination and initial planning meetings:

Strategic Alignment:  This phase ensures the initiative will be aligned with the strategic direction of the agency and establishes a business case for workforce planning.  Human Resource Strategy (HRS) Consultants typically conduct a SWOT analysis and scenario planning exercises with Agency personnel to accomplish the goals of this phase.

Analysis of current workforce:  This phase will include different pieces depending on the target occupations, grade levels, and amount of existing information.  Possible components of the analysis may include:

• Workforce Analysis:  HRS Consultants use personnel data from your agency or other data sources to provide a current snapshot of the targeted segments of the workforce.  The variables typically examined include demographics, retirement eligibility and rates, attrition rates, and hiring rates.
• Competency Modeling:  HRS Consultants and Personnel Research Psychologists will verify your existing competency model or develop a new competency model for the target occupations.  A competency model yields information about the most critical competencies required for each position (and even each grade level).
• Competency Gap Analysis:  HRS Consultants will use the verified competency models and survey the workforce to identify competency gaps. This information can be used to recommend targeted recruitment/hiring or training and development solutions.
• Assessment of Leadership Potential:  HRS will assess employees identified in the leadership pipeline to determine both their motivation and ability to move into leadership positions. This information can be used to target specific development opportunities for current employees to prepare them for leadership roles.
• Resource Gap Analysis:  Using position management and workload analysis, HRS Consultants can determine whether there are any gaps in the workforce resources available to handle to workload.

Development of Recommended Strategies:  HRS Consultants will develop recommendations for the most cost-effective strategies to successfully address the issues identified during the analysis phase.

Assistance in Strategy Implementation and Evaluation:  HRS Consultants will work with your implementation team to guide and advise in the implementation of recommended workforce or succession planning strategies (e.g., IDPs, knowledge sharing databases, mentoring programs, Nine-Box Matrixes, career paths, depth charts, potential leaders and leadership development programs, etc.).  Consultants will also assist in setting up measures and evaluating outcomes of implemented strategies.