If your company could predict what jobs, roles, functions, and skills would be necessary for your organization in the near future, would you be more successful? The answer is Yes, of course! And that’s where a strategic staffing plan comes in. Such a plan will not only help you asses your current workforce, but also identify and overcome gaps – all so your company can better respond to future business needs.
In last week’s post, we talked about what these strategic staffing plans should entail and how to evaluate yours as the end of the year approaches. If you’ve assessed your plans and realize you need some help in future planning efforts, as well as the execution of your plans, here are some specific actions you can take:
Create an overview of your company.
Take a look at each component within your organization and break them out into divisions, departments, and teams. Determine who the leaders are within those individual chunks so you can work with each one to assess current staffing needs and learn about possible talent gaps and issues going forward.
Create a list of questions to ask.
When you meet with various leaders from across the business, ask questions such as:
- What are your key business goals in 2016? What about for the next two to three years?
- What is the competitive environment like? How will it impact your ability to achieve your goals?
- What capabilities are needed to achieve your goals? Which ones are most critical?
- What is your current talent pool like today?
- What are the most critical issues you face in terms of staffing today and in the short-term future?
Meet with company leaders.
Make sure you prepare the leaders you meet with ahead of time. Send them your list of questions so they aren’t blindsided by them and are armed with the details and information you need. Also be sure to bring a current list of employees associated with each group. Once a leader has answered your questions and you’ve done a quick assessment of current employees, talk about perceived gaps in competencies.
Track what you’ve learned and identify needs.
After your meetings, you’ll need to keep track of all you’ve learned. You can do so by creating a simple spreadsheet to document what each group told you about their current and future challenges and staffing needs. Once you have all this information in place, you can then estimate the types of people, positions and capabilities your company will require in the near future, as well as in the long-term.
Get help from the experts.
The next step is to think about how to align resources so you can execute your staffing plans. One way to do that is with the help of a strategic staffing partner. A staffing firm can review your strategic staffing plan, hone in on the exact skill sets needed, and hit the ground running attracting candidates that will help your company achieve its goals. They can also enable your organization to free up your existing staff to focus on core job responsibilities – rather than on the sourcing, recruiting and hiring process.
Would you like to learn more about how a strategic staffing partner can help your business? Call Morgan Hunter. As a leading Kansas City staffing agency, our experts can work with you to learn about your staffing needs and objectives, and then strategize the most cost-effective plan for meeting them. Contact Morgan Hunter today to learn more.