Workforce planning, at its most basic, is the supply and demand of an organization’s talent landscape. The purpose of workforce planning is for organizations to find out whether they have the right people in the right roles. 

Ensuring that an organization has the right number of people, who have the right mix of skills, knowledge and experience is the focus of workforce planning. These often will include both your short and long-term goals.

A workforce plan typically includes an analysis of the organization’s current workforce, its future needs, and how it plans to bridge the gap in between. This might include hiring plans, or learning and development opportunities.

Here are five steps you need to take to create an effective workforce plan –

1. Establish your current and long-term objectives. The more concrete and detailed you can get with your objectives, the better. That way, you’re able to identify and measure the most relevant metrics that serves as the foundation of your workforce planning efforts.

2. Lean into HR analytics. People analytics offer insights into your current workforce — looking at your employees' demographics, work contracts and seniority profile. You can also see the performance and quantity of staff members on hand.

3. Identify skills gaps. This step allows you to anticipate long-term needs and the potential challenges that come with that. This gives you a head start in finding possible solutions, such as training existing employees to cover the gaps, hiring more workers or shifting to a different employment model.

4. Conduct workforce scenario planning. It’s impossible to be ready for every contingency, so preparing for different scenarios is key. Model different scenarios that could potentially impact your organization and determine what that might mean for your workforce.

5. Monitor your workforce plan. Your workforce strategy is a fluid plan, so you must monitor results in real time and make quick adjustments based on what you’re seeing as necessary.

As anyone who has ever experienced staff shortages will know, not having the right talent in place can cause enormous strain on an organization. However, if you are able to look ahead and plan what workforce will be needed to meet your goals now and in the future, you are more likely to thrive.