Strategic Workforce Planning - a 5-step approach
All over the world, nations are facing higher and higher proportions of older workers. Let’s face it: the planet is getting older. If most age demographic graphs looked like pyramids in the 80’s, they now look like bells, or even barrels. Not only does it put most countries that provide top-class social security systems under financial pressure, but it also drastically affects the business world.
Besides generational questions, working older is not always realistic and sustainable. HR is more and more often challenged to find solutions for the “ageing workers”. Who are those older workers? What do they expect as a career end? If you are currently considering putting together a strategic plan for your ageing workforce, here is a global approach:
- The first and biggest issue to tackle is prejudice against ageing workers. In Belgium or France, for instance, we keep believing that fifty-something people are “old”. It was probably true four or five centuries ago, but nowadays life expectancy in most European countries is around… 90 years old! Besides, with the age retirement being put back until after 65 years old, that means fifty-something have at least 10 or 15 years of career ahead of them. This is a lot more than the average time young graduates stay in their first job, trust me! Besides, older workers are way less prone to job hopping. So please, make sure fifty- and sixty-something don’t get prejudiced based on their age.
- If you haven’t a succession plan yet, this is a great way to start : make an inventory of all key positions within the organization. You may define your own criteria to be considered as a “key positions” or “key people”, depending on the strategic needs of your organization. Assess the risk retention for all those positions. Assign them a priority level by the probability to find a suitable replacement for them inside the company (highly critical, critical, rare, etc.) in the short term. Then consider the market and imagine you have to recruit for those positions. How easy would that be? What is the current market price for all critical positions? This helps setting your priorities on the most critical roles.
- Does your organization have clear succession plans at every level of the organization? Good for you – but this shouldn’t stop you going deeper into business. Even if good successors aren’t at hand, there are lots of things to undertake – consider setting up a global knowledge management system. The idea is to limit the brutal loss of crucial knowledge for the organization. This sounds simple, but some people won’t be happy to share their expertise as they may feel weakened or threatened. This is thus a very sensitive step that request top Change Management skills.
- Cluster the entire population in age ranges – if your company is a middle-sized, ranges of 10 years will probably do. Assess the number of the key positions for each job family or product line (depending on the organizational design). Focus on the age range that includes 50-something and up. Then assess the risk that those people cannot end their career in their current job. You will probably end up identifying different target groups. For each one, set up alternative scenarios. Mentorship / supervising roles are the usual option, as well as part-time schemes. Sometimes, horizontal mobility can offer satisfactory solutions for a few years – how many cases would that be? Is voluntary demotion to be considered ? Are there any other business options to investigate (development of new activities, project management, etc.) ? Any of those options requires a detailed business case so as to take the financial impacts into account. You may probably use several different scenarios for the different target groups.
- Whenever requested in the countries where you operate, you may need to keep the unions posted about your plans. But even when unions won’t be part of the game, don’t fail to create a detailed communication plan – you will definitely need different communication channels and a tailor-made approach for each group you will be targeting. Whatever you do, don’t forget to keep the top executives of the organization in the loop – you’ll need them by your side.
Planning careers for an ageing workforce can look like a merciless task, but don’t be put off by the hurdles. It may be the next best occasion HR departments have to prove that we really are true business partners – so go for it!
