Strategic Workforce Planning
Our Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) consulting services combine elements of organisational design with benchmarking and financial modelling to allow our clients to right-size and right-shape their organisations. Benefits come in the form of increased efficiency and reduced operating costs.
Our Strategic Workforce Planning Services and Solutions
Our Strategic Workforce Planning solutions allow our clients to answer the following key questions:
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What is my organisation’s optimum headcount range?
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How many people are required to support each of the different areas of the business?
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Do I have too many layers and can I organise more efficiently?
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Are my department sizes and individual spans of control optimised?
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Where can I become more efficient and save on cost?
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How can I go about re-sizing or re-shaping my organisation in a controlled, systematic and objective way?
Our Strategic Workforce Planning solutions include:
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Optimising organisational size and shape
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FTE optimisation and efficiency gains
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Benchmarking
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Modelling and scenario planning
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Talent management and development
Challenges Organisations Face
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Need to re-size and re-organise the workforce to drive efficiency and reduce cost
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Pressure on Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) people related costs
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Need to re-structure, right-size, carve out or otherwise re-shape the organisation
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Inability to calculate optimal staffing requirements for the organisation or part of the organisation
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Inability to benchmark current levels of people or headcount related operating efficiency
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Pressure on revenue, margin and fixed (people related) costs
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Need to work more flexibly or in a more optimal manner
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Estimate potential cost savings as part of developing a business case
Our Strategic Workforce Planning Approach
SWP is an integrated approach to workforce planning that allows organisations to optimize their workforce in terms of the following 4 objectives:
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Right size – how many FTEs are required to deliver on the strategy and business requirements?
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Right shape – does the organization have the right shape in terms of the number of levels and span of control at different levels?
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Right skills – does the organization have enough of the right people to cover critical roles and in areas where skills are scarce?
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Right spend – do the recommendations support the organisation’s cost and spend objectives and constraints?
The SWP methodology works
through the following key process steps:
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Confirm current FTEs per area – confirm the current FTE allocations by area (people may be working outside of their notional job family)
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Identify critical and scarce skills – what are the mission critical positions and scarce skills in the organization?
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Value chain outsourcing – which of the current activities or processes could be effectively outsourced at a cost saving to the organisation (whilst still maintaining the required service levels)?
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Productivity benchmarking – what do the productivity benchmarks (both external and internal) tell us about the optimal size for the retained organisation?
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Organisational structure review – is the current shape and structure of the organization optimal, or are there areas that could be improved?
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Process-based FTE analysis – detailed time and process analysis is used on ‘hard to crack’ areas or complex processes within the business to further refine the FTE analysis (not intended for this part of the project)
Our workforce planning consultancy works with organisations across the business spectrum, from large listed companies to smaller private companies, and from both the public and private sectors.
Our experience incorporates the UK market as well Ireland and Europe, the US, APAC and Africa and as such we provide a convenient London-based consulting partner to clients with operations and people across more than just one country.