Workforce Planning to Enable Explosive, Out-of-the-box Growth

DEVELOPING A WORKFORCE PLAN TO ENABLE EXPLOSIVE,

OUT OF THE BOX GROWTH

ERE Expo September 11, 2009

© Dr. John Sullivan Advisor to Management, Author and Professor

www.drjohnsullivan.com

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Dr. John Sullivan’s summary bio

  Former Chief Talent Officer of Agilent Technologies, the HP spinoff with 43,000 employees

  Has advised over 250 major organizations in 30 different countries. His appeal is so broad, that work has been translated into 23 languages

  Monthly column in Workforce Management Magazine   Columnist for the Electronic Recruiting Daily   Author of eight books and more than 750 articles.   SHRM called him “One of the industries most respected strategists” & the Best

Practice Institute honored him as one of the Top 10 Leading Thinkers in HR   Staffing.org noted that he was “the father of HR Metrics” and Fast Company

magazine called him the “Michael Jordan of hiring”   He has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the NY Times, the

Financial Times, CFO Magazine and have been interviewed by CNN and the CBS and ABC nightly news

  Currently he is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University and the chief consultant of the management advisory firm DJS

Dr. Sullivan’s current books

On-boarding HR Strategy Productivity Metrics

Recruiting Employee referrals Employer Branding Recruiting tools

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The basic premise for today is…

basic premise Can we agree that the turnaround in recruiting is coming…

And even though we do not know precisely when

 It’s still a wise move to develop a plan that

enables you to take the appropriate actions…

 Before the turnaround occurs

 And right when the turnaround starts

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Plan “B” is…

basic premise  Do nothing and spend your time bemoaning the fact that you have no budget

 Looking unprepared and being overwhelmed when the turnaround does occur

 Producing poor or mediocre results because you waited too late to develop a plan and a strategy

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Topics for today

1.  A definition of workforce planning

2.  Common errors made during a downturn

3.  The 4 phases of a turnaround plan

4.  Benchmark firms to model after

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A definition of

“Competitive advantage” workforce planning

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Competitive advantage workforce planning defined

An integrated… forward looking plan… designed to predict (what, when, how much)… and then cause action. In order to mitigate people problems… and take advantage of opportunities to improve the “talent pipeline”… so that you have the needed “people capabilities”… to meet business goals… and to build a competitive advantage!

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Part 1

Common Talent Management errors

made during a downturn

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Workforce planning/ recruiting mistakes to avoid

basic premise The mistakes organization’s have made:  This major accounting firm eliminated the

majority of their recruiting staff because recruiting now will be so easy, it will be like “shooting fish in a barrel”

 This biotech firm dropped it’s most senior recruiters and only retained the “cheap ones”, because recruiting is merely a transaction

 This government froze all hiring (right when the best talent was available) and furloughed all, even in revenue-generating positions >

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Firms have…  Furloughed and laid off in such a public way that it

may have damaged their employer brand  Reverted back to arrogant, customer damaging

“candidate abuse” and “death by interview”  Assumed they could continue to utilize the old

tools… (job boards, ads, static corporate pages) while ignoring mobile phones, texting, social networks, rec. videos, blogs, podcasts, remote video interviews, contests, talent communities etc.

 Been overly optimistic in workforce planning

Workforce planning/ recruiting mistakes to avoid

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Part 2

The four distinct phases of a turnaround plan

Note: where you the various actions in the phases

varies with the firm/ situation

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Phase 1 Creating a turnaround plan

Phase 2 Actions immediately before the turnaround

Phase 3 Actions during the first three months of the turnaround

Phase 4

The four phases of a turnaround plan

Ongoing operations

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Phase 1

Creating the turnaround plan

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Work with the CFO/ COO  They are the undisputed kings of metrics and

budgets

 Make the business case showing the impact on their favorite business areas and their key project approval criteria two examples >

Action steps in creating your plan

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These factors indicate business impact to a CFO

Use the CFO’s favorite words in your bus. case   Increased revenue/ profit/ higher margins  Higher productivity  Higher customer retention / satisfaction rates   Increased market share  A stronger brand  Higher stock price  A higher rate of product innovation

If you don’t directly impact these, forget it!

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Top 10 CFO project approval factors

The top factors that get marketing & finance proposals funded: 1. High ROI and other business impacts

3. Low initial investment 4. High success rate/ low risk of failure 5. Immediate start up 6. Short payback period 7. It uses accurate results metrics and counting 8. No new headcount is required (Or it is reduced) 9. “Consequences of failure” is built in 10. A competitive advantage is created 11. Increased productivity (Profit per people dollar)

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Additional action steps for creating your

turnaround plan

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Forecast when the turnaround will begin  Forecast a range not a single date  Ask the CFO for their projected dates`  Look for “leading indicator firms” from previous

turnarounds  Look for “external economic indicators” from

previous turnarounds (Housing sales, interest rates, consumer spending, an employment rate etc.

 Identify previous internal precursors or warning signs >


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Precursors indicating you have a surplus of labor

Internal precursors of a turnaround in hiring   Increase in revenue or forecasted orders   Increase in hours for workers or OT  Unfreezing raises and/ or promotions  Travel budgets are unfrozen  Contingent hiring increases  Key SBU budgets are increased  Others?  Releasing the freeze on hiring comes next

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Forecast hiring volume needs  Find the expected corporate revenue growth rate

 Use the ideal revenue per employee ratio to predict headcount

 Forecast the available volume of internal talent (Reduced by projected turnover and retirements)

 Develop a “yield model” or funnel (MS, Cisco)


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Consider developing remote work jobs

 To expand the available talent pool

 To increase productivity and cut costs (Best Buy)


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Forecast the type of talent needed  Identify the positions with projected retirements

or turnover

 Identify growth regions  Identify rapid growth business units  Identify time-to-market requirements

 Identify skill requirements  Identify the needed innovation rates


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Prioritize your customers for recruiting/retention  Revenue generating and revenue impact jobs  Mission-critical jobs  Key business units  Key regions  Key leaders/managers  Retention - “High risk of leaving” individuals  Retention - Individuals with “key future skills”  Retention – Top performers, game changers and

innovators


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Any questions at this point

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Phase 2

Actions to take immediately before (30-90 days)

the turnaround begins

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Develop a turnaround timetable  Develop a detailed timeline with milestones.

 Ensure that all possible actions and their owners are on the timeline and in the turnaround plan

Action steps just before the turnaround begins

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Conduct a competitive analysis

 Analyze your "talent competitors" and their growth plans from the last downturn

 Forecast when they are likely to ramp up hiring

 Forecast which jobs they are likely to initially focus on

 Identify what tools they are likely to use… so that you can counter them with more effective tools


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Begin building a “talent pool”  Pre-identify and begin to build relationships with the 100 “most wanted” game changers in your industry (EA, MS)  Revisit offer turndowns, semifinalists and “almost qualified” former candidates  Approach corporate alumni /boomerangs to gauge their interest in returning


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Identify recruiting resources that utilize “other people’s time”  Re-energize your employee referral program (Add exec referrals, college referrals, social network referrals and e-referral cards)  Encourage attendees and speakers at professional events to bring back “three great names”  Encourage and educate your employee social network users how to attract potential candidates


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Begin re-building your “employer brand” image  Assess whether candidate “job acceptance criteria” have changed  Assess your brand negatives online (Google alerts) and among university students (Universum)  Remember your employer brand is now determined by others (MS), so use the media, social networks, Twitter etc. to have “others” spread the word about your differentiated “well-managed” and “best place to work” factors


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Assess new sourcing tools and strategies  Select from among the new generation of

recruiting strategies  Referrals and direct sourcing are top  Utilize your own top performing employees to

identify their most utilized communications channels using a “how would we find you again” process/survey

 Utilize sampling methods and metrics to identify the tools that actually generate the highest quality candidates, quality of hire and ROI


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Assess your web site  Be authentic (Test your credibility)

 Allow customized messages

 Video’s are powerful

 Their power is diminishing vs. Glassdoor.com etc.


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Upgrade internal movement tools  Identify IM problems, barriers and roadblocks

 Improve the availability of information about “where best to move” internally for increased pay, promotion, job security etc.

 Consider utilizing recruiters to proactively internally move “overdue” employees (Microsoft, Booz Allen)


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Upgrade reference checking processes  Assess whether lying and misrepresentation

rates have increased significantly

 Be aware of identity theft (I’m not really that person)

 Be aware of the “nurse of the year”


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Consider re-assessing your ATS situation  Be aware of lower-cost options

 Be aware of CRM options

 Be aware of vendor reliability


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Develop effective WP /recruiting metrics  Accuracy of forecasts  Number of vacancy days for key positions  On-the-job performance of new-hires  Retention rate of top-performing new-hires  Performance turnover  Diversity rates in professional positions  Percentage of internal leadership vacancies filled by individuals on the succession plan  Convert all metrics to dollars of revenue impact

Steps just before the turnaround begins

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Begin hiring new recruiters  Develop new assessment tools to determine

whether recruiters can utilize next-generation tools  Pre-identify and build relationships with the

best

Note: Only do select hiring of recruiters before the turnaround actually begins

 Then, hire a percentage as contract recruiters in case this turnaround is a “false start”


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Cherry pick “soon to be recruited” talent  Estimate job areas where your competitors will

initially begin recruiting  Use competitive intelligence and visit the

corporate site/job boards to estimate when competition for talent will increase

 Consider a talent SWAP program (Slide)

 “Pull the trigger” and hire all you can afford

before the competition starts


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Phase 3

Actions immediately after the turnaround begins

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Fortify retention efforts  Assume turnover rates will double (Generational turnover)

 Consider a “mass-personalized” retention strategy (vs. a peanut butter strategy)

 Ask key employees “why they stay”  “Re-recruit” key employees  Consider post-exit interviews  Consider dumping bad-managers

Steps immediately after the turnaround begins

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Fortify retirement efforts  Assume retirement rates will change

dramatically based on stock valuations and healthcare options (Leadership gap)

 Influence key employees to stay longer

 Accurately predict who is likely to retire

 Consider part time “after retirement” work

 Develop “remote work” options as an alternative


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Improved candidate closing tools  Assume that your image may be damaged

 Assume that candidates have changed their

acceptance criteria

 During on-boarding ask “what worked” and

“what didn’t”

 Determine how housing issues will impact the

potential relocations


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Re-energize and re-educate hiring managers  Assume that their skills are rusty and their

approaches are outdated

 Make the business case to individual managers that it is worth the time to invest in recruiting

 Utilize internal social networks and wiki’s to educate hiring managers


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Anticipate potential recruiting problems  Make a list of anticipated recruiting “growing pains” based on the last recession  Utilize “if – then scenarios” to “test” to see if your team is ready for all high probability problems and opportunities  Consider offering “talent opportunity” alerts  Consider technology/ labor alternatives


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Part 3

And finally… benchmark firms to study

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Benchmark firms include:  Capital one – virtual if – then simulations, variable

timeframe with SBU, 20 person team  Microsoft – three-year recruiting funding window  Google – statistical algorithm for forecasting who

will quit  Booz Allen – speeding up internal movement and

rotations  WellPoint – external candidates as part of their

succession plan

Best practice examples in workforce planning

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Benchmark firms include:  KTL Tencor – the whole business stops for a

month to plan, with quarterly revision  Intel (people roadmap)  Orcaeyes – a new generation of predictive

software  City of Sunnyvale (Ca) - utilizes five-year

workforce planning model

Best practice examples in workforce planning

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Note

I have a 244 page e-book

THE WORKFORCE PLANNING HANDBOOK

It is available for free for evaluation purposes.

[email protected]

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Did I make you think?

How about some more questions ?

www.drjohnsullivan.com

Workforce Planning to Enable Explosive, Out-of-the-box Growth

Business

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