The start of winter heralds a time of reflection and planning. Businesses are setting budgets, reviewing the year that has been and considering what is ahead. Your employees will be doing the same, especially if performance reviews and pay reviews are on the cards from June.
When it comes to your people, your employees, you need a workforce plan or HR Plan. It doesn’t matter whether you have 3 staff or 20 staff, you need a people plan that incorporates these four key aspects.
- Business Change
- Employee Performance
- Capability and Expertise
- Salary/Wages Budgets
We will touch on each of these as part of our 5-part Workforce Planning blog series. Read, reflect and use the information to build your Workforce Plan.
If it all sounds too hard and you need help building your plan, please get in touch. We will spend time with you to not only develop your plan but also help you bring it life. Contact us on 021 069 1913 or advice.info@stapletonconsult.com
Part One – Change Planning and Implementation
Typically businesses will plan and commence change management initiatives in the second half of the year. This is why the lead up to the Christmas break is typically a stressful one.
Change is inevitable. As Heraclitus said – the only thing that is constant is change
When it comes to change, we at Stapleton Consulting operate with the mantra of – Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance – the 6 P’s to success. Incorporating anticipated change into your Workforce Plan is no exception.
Use June to look ahead, reflect on your business plans, and identify how your goals will affect your people and the way they do their work. Not just for this year but also up to 3 or 5 years in the future. It is not uncommon for people to experience change fatigue. Be mindful of this and if you are anticipating changes ask yourself these questions:
- Do you have enough people and the skills in the business to make it happen?
- When do you need particular skills, for how long, and what are the associated costs?
- What does a successful change outcome look like for you?
- Who will be your key influencers?
- Is there enough time for the change to be accepted, utilised and reviewed for effectiveness, before you move onto the next change project?
- How will your people work together and communicate during the change and after? Is a reorganisation required?
- How will you support the people most affected by the change?
Change can be as a result of lots of things – technology, legislation, industry standards, business growth, employee turnover, poor performance, internal systems or process……and the list could go on.
Change is known to create added pressure as the day to day work still needs to get done. Anticipate that your people will make errors, require more time to get work done and miscommunicate in those busy times of change. This is where extra temp specialist skills or more people on the team can really help and provided added benefits to your customers.
Look ahead for the short and long term and prepare a workforce plan. Your vision will come to a reality, with a proactive planned approach that your people will thank you for.
Need impartiality to assist with your change initiatives? Have a lot of change still to come and your people are struggling to keep up? Don’t know where to start with your Workforce Plan? Or get distracted with day to day work and need help with keeping your change plans on track?
We are the team to keep you on track and will work with your people to achieve the change you want to see. Contact us on 021 069 1913 or advice.info@stapletonconsult.com
