Free template
A free strategic workforce planning template in Word to compare the people you have with the people your plan needs, and decide how to close the gap.
By Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
A note before you start
Workforce planning goes wrong when it starts with headcount rather than the work. Start with what the business plan needs people to do in two or three years, including what technology and automation will change, then look at supply, attrition and the skills you can build or buy. Keep it to the critical roles; not every job needs planning in the same detail.
Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
Choose the critical roles that drive the plan. For each one, record current supply, expected leavers and retirements, and the demand the plan implies, including the effect of automation. Work out the gap, then choose the response: build through training, buy through hiring, borrow through contractors or partners, or redesign the work. Review it with the annual plan and whenever the strategy changes.
[Organisation name] | Version 0.1 | [Date] | Owner: [Name, role]
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Planning horizon | |
| Business plan assumptions | |
| Technology and automation assumptions | |
| Attrition assumption |
| Role or skill | Current headcount | Expected leavers | Demand in year 1 | Demand in year 3 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Role or skill | Build (train) | Buy (hire) | Borrow (contract or partner) | Redesign or automate | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Action | Measure | Target date | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
Template by PEF Consulting Partners, pefconsultingpartners.co.uk. Free to use and adapt.
Related reading: HR transformation consulting, workforce transition, organisational design, the UK skills gap by sector.
Working out the people and skills the business plan will need over the next few years, comparing that with what you have and are likely to keep, and deciding how to close the gap.
Resource planning allocates the people you have to current work over weeks and months. Workforce planning looks years ahead at the shape of the workforce the strategy needs.
Build means developing current staff, buy means hiring, and borrow means contractors, partners or outsourcing. A fourth option is to redesign or automate the work so the need changes.
Once a year alongside the business plan, and whenever the strategy, technology or labour market shifts enough to change the assumptions.
If a transformation depends on skills you do not yet have, the workforce plan belongs in the business case, not in a separate HR document.