Workforce and Staffing Plan: Basics and Hiring Benefits

Companies are always looking for ways to save time and resources during the recruitment process, and there are several techniques that may be used for this purpose. One specific method that’s well-used across many industries is the development of a workforce and staffing plan.

At WTA, Inc., we’re here to help with a wide range of recruitment and hiring solutions as part of our overall human resource services. We’ve assisted companies large and small with the organization and processes involved in their recruitment, including the setup of various templates to guide this process. What is a workforce and staffing plan, and how do you go about setting one up? This two-part blog series will investigate.

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Workforce and Staffing Plan

While some people use the terms workforce plan and staffing plan interchangeably, they are actually not the same thing. A workforce plan refers to a process that’s on a much longer timeline, typically at least two years and as many as five — it involves strategic planning and a long-term look at the talent and staffing numbers that will be needed to meet these goals.

A staffing plan, on the other hand, is a more specific plan that will help your organization with immediate hiring needs. This is typically a shorter-term plan, and it takes into account the current market conditions as well as any planned changes in staffing. It’s also going to include the overall employment strategy that your organization uses — whether you use temporary or part-time staff, for example — along with specific approaches on how these processes will be handled.

Our next several sections will lay out the steps for developing a new workforce and staffing plan for your company.

Review Current Strategies

First up, you’ll want to dig into your current strategies for recruitment and hiring, plus how these might need to change in the future. In particular, you’re looking for the various skills and knowledge bases you need employees to have, both now and for the future processes you plan to implement.

Review Employee KSAs

While recruitment and new hiring is a major part of a workforce and staffing plan, another important element here involves reviewing the knowledge, skills and abilities of your current employees to determine if some of them are being underutilized. Various human resource management systems will typically have information like this on various employees — if you do not have these in place, you should set up a spreadsheet or document to begin tracking it. Further utilizing the skills of current employees will allow you to limit the scope of your hiring and save money.

For more on developing a workforce and staffing plan that will assist with your hiring practices and other parts of your business, or to learn about any of our human resources solutions, speak to the staff at WTA, Inc. today.