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A Different Approach to Workforce Management
Author: Gayla Hodges  | Posted: 21-05-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 10 | Rating: (53)  (?) 
Copyright (c) 2008 Gayla Hodges
Day after day I talk with clients and with business leaders. I often ask, "What is the most challenging issue your organization is facing?" The top answer to my question is "workforce management." My second question is, "What is the most difficult part of workforce management?" The top answer to this question is "workforce planning."
Most of us are familiar with the budget-based process of workforce planning in which we look at future resource need and project how much manpower we will need to meet the needs of the future. This can become an intricate and cumbersome process, particularly for line managers who are busy managing their teams and achieving their strategic goals. The result is that it is often extremely difficult (if not impossible) for the HR staff to get from them the information they need.
The challenge organizations are facing today is not simply using the budget-based process to project future talent needs. The challenge most organizations face today is twofold. First, projecting how many of the organization's human resources will be leaving with the Great Boomer Exodus. The second challenge is really talent acquisition. We might know that over the next five years we are likely to lose a certain part of our people to retirement. We don't, however, know exactly how many and we don't know when. Further, in many industries, we don't know where we will acquire people with the skills and talent we need.
This is not news to those in leadership and Human Resources ranks. It is just becoming more real every day as people actually declare their intention to retire, and some are actually walking out the door.
The planning process is further impacted by the fact that many industries have had such low attrition over so many years that the common practice of using past attrition history to project future attrition is no longer viable. So, we can analyze when people will reach "retirement age" and have enough years with the company to collect full retirement, but most leaders and analysts I've talked with still can only narrow their numbers down to a three-year window. Add to this mix the fact that many people are choosing to work beyond age 65 and that the structure of Social Security payments in fact encourages people to work until age 70 or 72 in order to receive larger monthly payments after retirement. Given the need to run "lean and mean," many companies are reluctant to fill positions in anticipation of retirements until people have signed on the bottom line that they are really leaving and when that might be.
Human Resources professionals with whom I've interacted recently report that they can do the number crunching. The challenge is getting line management to come to the analysis table with all of the competing demands on their time. Line management input, however, is crucial to the process. So the question becomes, "How do we bring together all of this information to make informed decisions about what talent will be needed, when it will be needed, and where we will find it?"
I had a recent conversation with some clients who are facing these issues. I heard of a concept that is certainly not very "scientific" but seems to use the art vs. the science of management very well. They call it the "back of the napkin approach" to workforce planning. The basic premise of the approach is this: most managers, if given a short time, could take a napkin (of course, this conversation occurred over lunch) and sketch out who is likely to be leaving, and when, based on their knowledge of the person and what they've observed over the last several months. This information from line management, combined with the more formal analysis can provide a basis for decision-making that uses the strategic thinking and decision-making skills of the management team as well as the miracles of Information Technology.
I like the "back of the napkin approach" for another reason. While all of the managers with whom I work bring strengths to the table, when using the Natural Effectiveness" Philosophy at its best, it is clear to me that not all of them will have highly-honed analytical skills or be inclined to put together the structure required by most formal workforce plans. Most line managers are more intuitive, and many are creative and innovative - great qualities for a leader, but they might not play out well in the analytical process. This new approach challenges the thinking and gets the necessary input from Line Management that would otherwise not enter the process.
Those members of the team can then compile the formal and informal feedback and bring it back to the Management Team as a whole to take the next steps of strategic workforce planning. I believe this method can and will actually accelerate the planning process while honoring and leveraging all of the skills of your management and support teams.
Whether you take your line management to lunch and actually give them a napkin and a pen, or you use the principle of the approach in another setting, I think you will find that line management will be far more inclined and comfortable providing the information you need and less distracted from other responsibilities. I think you will also find the input from line management more insightful and precise than you might think initially. In the end, I think you will find that this different approach will both streamline the process and provide better data for your analysis and planning.
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About the Author:About Gayla Hodges
Gayla Hodges is the President Change Agents, Inc., a company that specializes in energizing workforces to achieve strategic goals. She coaches executives and managers on leading corporate change, facilitating the development and implementation of organizational effectiveness strategies. For more information, visit http://www.changeagentsinc.com or call 623-362-3876.
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My friend Steve was unjustly fired from the bank he worked for due to the fact that the branch manager is a horror show. She harasses the staff, customers, etc. So when my friend Steve was unjustly fired he wrote a letter to the CEO. It was a detailed damaging letter concerning the branch manager. (FIRST STEVE SENT THE LETTER TO THE CORPORATE OFFICE AND FOLLOWED IT UP WITH A PHONE CALL. BUT MY FRIEND STEVE KNEW THE CEO WOULD NEVER SEE THE LETTER AT THE OFFICE SO HE OBTAINED THE CEO?s HOME ADDRESS AND MAILED IT TO THE CEO?S HOME) HERE ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE LETTER STEVE WROTE: (1) When I was helping the safe deposit attendant one customer (male) came into the branch to go into his box. I signed him in and he and I retrieved his box from the vault. When he went into the coupon room he realized that his sister was waiting on the banking floor. He asked me if I could watch his box while he would go and get his sister. I told him that I could not do this but I could go and get his sister, which I did. As his sister was walking to the coupon room the branch manager ran after him. And as the coupon door closed, the branch manager knocked on the door and asked the sister if she was on the signature card for the safe deposit box. The sister said no she wasn?t so the branch manager kicked her out of the room. Of course the sister and the customer was upset. I decided on my own to check with the higher ups and they told me that only the person who is on the signature card can retrieve the box but that person can bring in as many people as they want into the coupon room. (2) And one couple came in with their five year old son to go into their safe deposit box. The son held my hand the entire time he was at our branch and walked with me wherever I went. The branch manager said to me in a nasty tone of voice: "You are not allowed to walk with him" The couple was upset because every time they came into our branch and I gave their son my undivided attention he came out of his shell and made many friends at school.(3) The branch manager told one of my coworkers when the branch manager and the coworker had a disagreement that this coworker needs to go to see a psychologist. And the branch manager printed out and handed to my coworker two pages off the Internet on what psychologist to see.(4) About two weeks ago in the morning I asked the branch manager if she needed any copying done and she replied: I am a grown woman I don't need any one asking me if I need copying done. . Let me tell you on a professional level I am here just to work. (5) My coworkers are so afraid to have conversations with one another because they are so afraid that the branch manager is going to say something or write them up.(6) CUSTOMERS ARE CLOSING THEIR ACCOUNTS LEFT AND RIGHT AND OPENING THEM UP IN OTHER BANKS (7) A few months ago the branch manager yelled at one my coworkers in front of a customer. This coworker is a teller and she had a customer at her window. And then not to long ago the branch manager told this coworker of mine that this coworker is very unprofessional. Please keep in mind this coworker is the most professional person I know and she is quieter than a church mouse trying to avoid a cat. (9) The branch manager is supposed to put in 40 hours. However, she comes in late (around 9AM) and leaves 3PM or 4PM. 10) The branch manager has made trouble in the other branches she used to work at. One person that worked with her at another branch said ?Thank God she is no longer at our branch? . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHT AFTER THE CEO RECEIVED THE LETTER (AT HIS HOUSE) THE BRANCH MANAGER HAD A REVIEW AND WAS PUT ON WARNING. MY QUESTION: Since the branch manager was put on warning is she monitored and if so how? (Keep in mind she is a manager in a bank branch and her boss and the higher ups are not there every day). STEVE?s ex-COworkers told STEVE that ever since HIS letter THE BRANCH MANAGER comes in early and stays late and she even moved very close to the job AND SHE IS NOT BOTHERING THEM THE WAY SHE USED TO.. The ex-coworkers told me that she twisted and turned the truth to get Steve fired, BUT in addition she has twisted and turned to get other people fired. And she has been transferred from one branch to another because no one wants her in their branch. My two friends told me that their branch was interviewing for a teller position but when the candidates came in and saw this branch manager the exact words of the people who applied for the job said "Oh no not her, goodbye I am not staying for the interview" I know for a fact she was put on warning. I spoke to Steve's ex-coworkers (becaues I am friends with two of them) and they told me she was put on warning and she is totally different, but she still has her moments. This manager had a way of twisting and turning the truth to her benefits. To sum her type the backstabber.
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