Exploring the Basics of Workforce Capacity Planning A Practical Guide

Workforce Capacity Planning is an initiative aimed at making sure you always have the required number of people working for you depending on the amount of work you currently have and will handle in the future. It gives insight into whether you have got the right number of skilled people meeting your organisation or not. Good workforce capacity planning will allow you to get the most out of limited resources, lower costs, increase performance and meet business objectives.

This article examines fundamental factors of workforce capacity planning as their meaning, aim, advantage, kind, methods and resources. Additionally, we shall offer a number of showcases and illustrations of capacity planning for the workforce under diverse industries and conditions. After reading this article, you will learn about the concept of workforce capacity planning as well as its implementation within an institution.

What is workforce capacity planning?

The objective of workforce capacity planning is to bring together your workforce supply and your workforce demand. This entails predicting what amount of work will be required in future time frames as well as estimating the capacity and readiness of your employees to do said work. Workforce capacity planning will determine whether a company has the right employees available in the right places at the right times and at the right costs.

Why is workforce capacity planning important?

Workforce capacity planning is important for several reasons, such as:

• Enhancing employee engagement: Developing the right workforce capacity plan will allow you to develop an optimal workplace culture where there is no room for favouritism among your employees – they all know that they are critical for the success or failure of the organisation. Matching the skill sets and interests of your workers against the tasks that require fulfilment will enhance their morale, retention, and productivity.
• Increasing agility and flexibility: This could include workforce capacity planning so that you can respond speedily and efficiently as required by the changes in business needs and customer expectations. Achieving such adjustments will depend on knowing your human resource requirements today and in future and adjusting the staffing levels/allocation to avoid cases of overstaffing or understaffing.
• Supporting business growth and innovation: By adopting this policy, you will be able to realise your strategic objectives and gain a competitive edge over your competitors with ease. 

What are the steps of workforce capacity planning?

The steps of workforce capacity planning may vary depending on the type, scope, and complexity of the process, but they generally include the following:

• Define the objectives and scope of the workforce capacity planning process: State clearly the purpose, the desired outcome, the type of analysis level, the period, and the area of coverage. Also, you should identify the stakeholders and their roles, in addition to the communication and reporting processes.
• Analyse the current workforce demand and supply: You also need to review existing loads within the organisation’s functions and evaluate available or applicable employee capabilities at this moment. The other things you need to consider are the driving forces of labour demand and supply in your environment, including customer needs, business strategy, market conditions, employee turnover and skills gap.
• Forecast the future workforce demand and supply: Forecast workload and staffing requirements predict capabilities and availability for the future. Another thing you should bear in mind is possible scenarios and risks that may influence your labour market, for example, changing consumer behaviour, technologies, rivalry, laws and demography.
• Identify the gaps or surpluses between the current and future workforce demand and supply: Compare the current and future workforce demand and supply and quantify the gaps or surpluses in terms of quantity, quality, and time. In addition, you need to classify the gaps and surpluses in terms of their immediate impact and significance so as to determine the appropriate timelines – short-term, medium-term, and long-term.
• Develop and execute plans to close the gaps or surpluses: You should formulate and implement strategies to address the gaps or surpluses, such as hiring, training, redeploying, outsourcing, or downsizing. You should also allocate the necessary resources, such as budget, time, and personnel, and assign the responsibilities and accountabilities for the execution of the plans.
• Monitor and evaluate the outcomes of the workforce capacity planning process: You should measure and track the progress and performance of the workforce capacity planning process and compare the actual results and outcomes with the expected ones. You should also collect and analyse the feedback and data from the stakeholders and the employees and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges of the process. It is also necessary to make adjustments and improvements as needed and document and share the lessons learned and best practices.

What are some examples and use cases of workforce capacity planning?

Workforce capacity planning can be applied in various industries and scenarios. Here are some workforce capacity planning examples are:

• Manufacturing: This will enable you to enhance your production process, such as having sufficient employees who possess the right skills and competencies to operate machines or equipment and adhere to quality and safety standards. Workforce capacity planning helps in predicting employees’ needs and the requirement for staffing hours and shifts, thereby enabling you to do away with downtime or overtime.
• Healthcare: Quality and prompt treatment for patient needs depends on workforce capacity planning that ensures an adequate number of skilled healthcare specialists for each case and procedure. By conducting workforce capacity planning, you can anticipate the number of healthcare specialists required, assign them to different departments and units, and prevent both understaffing and overstaffing.
• Retail: You could use workforce capacity planning to boost customer service and satisfaction by making certain you have enough sales associates with the necessary knowledge and skills to help customers buy the products. Workforce capacity planning would project the demand and supply of sales associates so they are scheduled at optimum times and places without losing some sales while others sit idle.

Conclusion

Workforce capacity planning involves making sure that there are enough people within the organisation to provide service against both present and foreseeable workloads. The second function is called management control, which aims at providing visibility on whether your workforce and their skills adequately support the needs of your business. Optimising resource utilisation for cost minimisation, increasing productivity and achieving strategic objectives are among other benefits of workforce capacity planning. Nevertheless, workforce capacity planning is difficult and complex. It is even more difficult with a hybrid and distributed workforce. Hence, you may require a kit such as ProHance so that you can have a brief understanding of the foundations of workforce capacity management and its practice.

In workforce capacity planning, ProHance could serve as a reliable tool that reveals real-time data and offers smart decision-making and efficient performance. ProHance enables you to interact effectively with a dispersed workforce, offer workforce-related analytics, improve employee awareness for greater performance, work sharing and administration with workflow, and partner ecosystem management. With ProHance, you get the right persons in their place and on time at optimal cost.