Introduction

Important Aspects of Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is an important consideration for an organization in order to get right employees who have skills and experience according the job provided to perform the tasks effectively. Additionally, workforce planning is also essential for the organization to achieve goals and objectives in the business operations in the market. At this stage, workforce planning has some important aspects that help the organization getting more success in the competitive market place efficiently (Skills for Care Ltd, 2020). These aspects of workforce planning can be explained as below:

Recruitment:
Recruitment of candidates is a critical aspect of workforce planning that help to develop a talented pool of workforce in HR management. The present and future demands of the company is fulfilled through recruiting and selecting skilled, experienced or talented candidates to meet the needs and expectations of the job position and organization (Skills for Care Ltd, 2020). In order to bridge the gap between the present and the future workforce, planning of recruitment and selection of candidates is considered on the priority basis to achieve organization requirements.

Training and Development:
In the important aspects of workforce planning, training and development is employed within an organization to increase work/job related skills and knowledge of technical operations. At this stage, the performance of the employees and their productivity can be seen after providing extensive training and development facilities (Skills for Care Ltd, 2020). Training and development in workforce planning help to increase working capabilities of the employees that contribute in achievement of goals and objectives of the company.

Succession Planning:
Succession planning is also considered within an organization HR management in the case of workforce planning in order to identify right candidate to fill up the higher job position in the near future based on their performance. The succession planning of the workforce encourages the employees to perform better in the company to get this opportunity as professional growth in life (Skills for Care Ltd, 2020). The use of effective techniques of recruitment helps to achieve in the selection of right candidates for the higher job position of the company and complete the demand of future HR requirements.

Safe Staffing:
Safe staffing is also an important aspect of workforce planning as it assure enough staff in order to deliver high quality and support within the organization. Safe staffing is also important to consider in workforce planning because it maintain the requirements of human resource when needed to increase a number of employees in business expansion in new market (Louch, 2014).

Ways Workforce Planning is affected by a Range of Internal and External Factors

The workforce planning of Human Resource Management of an organization is generally based on a range of factors both internal and external. The internal factors that also affect the workforce planning are the organizational change, level of skills, and budget of the company (Purcell & Wright, 2008). On the other hand, the external factors that affect the workforce planning can be identified as employment, demographic change, competition, labor laws and regulations, etc. Now, these factors can be discussed as below:

Internal Factors:
Organization Change: The changes in organization affect the workforce planning effectively when new products are launched in the market and initiate diversification in the company. These changes need experienced and skilled employees to develop a rapid growth in the products sales and benefits (Purcell & Wright, 2008). Therefore, HRM needs to add more staff in the company to maintain business growth in the competitive market.
Level of Skills: In this challenging business environment, a company needs improvement in the level of skills of employees to perform better and increase the productivity of the company. Further, a company also needs to take competitive advantage in the market that influence HR management to develop level of skills or recruit new candidate for higher position job in the company (Purcell & Wright, 2008).
Budget: Budget of the company also affects the workforce planning significantly. Budget of a company decides how many candidates should be hired to fulfill requirements of workforce.

External Factors:
Employment: The workforce planning is affected by employment conditions when government keeps pressure on a company to recruit new employees and reduce the effect of a greater unemployment rate of the country (Purcell & Wright, 2008). This pressure on a company increases financial burden to make it possible or follow the policy of the government.

Demographic Change: A demographic change may have also impact on workforce planning of a company when changes in age and population of a country occur. The retirements of the people and new graduate candidates affect the workforce planning because they need changes in life with getting a job opportunity in a company (Purcell & Wright, 2008).

Competition: Competition is also one of the most important external factors that affect the workforce planning of a company. Most of the large companies select talented candidates and they get high paid salary which is not possible for smaller companies to recruit talented and highly educated candidates to take competitive advantage (Purcell & Wright, 2008).

Labor laws and regulations: Every country implements labor laws to protect rights of the employees and workers regarding salary standards, wages, facilities at workplaces, etc. This laws and regulations of labor have a great impact on the workforce planning of a company (Purcell & Wright, 2008). A company is responsible to provide facilities to their employees according to the labor policy the government.

Strategies for Retaining and Attracting Skilled Labor

Retaining and attracting skilled labor is the important consideration of a company to increase productivity of the company and enhance its reputation in the market just because of the high performance of the skilled labor. However, retaining and attracting skilled labor is not easy for a company (Hughes, 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to use some effective strategies to make it possible in retaining and attracting skilled labor. These strategies can be described as below:

Conducting Market Research:
In order to retain and attract skilled labor in a company, regular market research should be conducted to discover places to find out potential candidate and give them opportunity to work in the company at higher level. The information about the competitors regarding their strategies to attract and retain skilled labor should be researched to employ in the company and maintain its workforce planning (Hughes, 2019). The market research would also help a company to attract and retain skilled labor after designing compensation and benefits plan based on industry standards. This strategy of a company always helps the human resource management to keep them updated in the market and change strategy according to the needs and expectations of the employees.

Keeping Employees Engaged in Work and Recognition:
This strategy of a company is highly effective to attract and retain skilled labor in the organization. The company can assure regular work to the employees and provide compensation and recognition time-to-time to motivate them and retain for a long time. This strategy can be promoted on the company websites to attract skilled labor and recruit them in the workforce based on the company requirements (Hughes, 2019). This strategy can also help the organization to increase reputation in the market and motivation of the employees as working in a reputable company.

References

Hughes, C. (2019). Strategies for Attracting, Maintaining, and Balancing a Mature Workforce. USA: IGI Global.
Louch, P. (2014). Workforce Planning Is Essential to High-Performing Organizations. Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/louch-workforce-planning.aspx
Purcell, J. & Wright, P. (2008). The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management. UK: OUP Oxford.
Skills for Care Ltd. (2020). What is workforce planning and why is it important? Retrieved from: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/About/Blog/Article/What-is-workforce-planning-and-why-is-it-important.aspx