New section: 3/06
Your talent base is the raw material - staff competencies - you currently have to work with to staff the positions in your redesigned organizational structure. It includes not only their past experience and education but also the competencies they have attained along the way.
1. Determine scope
As you begin to inventory your talent base, first determine the scope of your placement need. If you are seeking highly technical competencies in a particular occupational field, your talent base is likely to be restricted to a few individuals with that background. In such instances, you may not need to conduct an extensive search. However, if the competencies you are seeking are fairly generic, in other words, they could have been obtained from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, your search may be broader, such as division wide or agency wide.
2. Assess in-house talent
There are a number of ways to conduct such a search, often referred to as a talent assessment or self-assessment. (The resulting database is your skills inventory.) Although you could probably purchase this kind of assessment tool as well as the services of a provider to conduct the assessment, it is also possible to do this on your own. It depends on your resources, availability of time, and the degree to which expert credibility is necessary and available.
If you conduct your own assessment, you need to keep the following in mind:
· The competencies you are seeking must be directly job-related.
· Competency definitions are fairly generic. You can refine them by attaching more specific examples of tasks or other activities for which the competency is employed. These are sometimes referred to as behavioral indicators. For instance, if what you are seeking is someone with proficient skills in “planning and evaluation,” you might also add:
Ø Develops three-year strategic plan for X program based on input from 20 user groups.
Ø Independently develops annual work plan.
Ø Devises monitoring method to ensure timely plan completion.
Ø Establishes means of evaluating completed products.
These more specific tasks provide a framework for respondents to assess themselves.
For a sample assessment tool, see the “Competency Self-Assessment,” CFN 552-0684, in the Forms Section at the end of this chapter.
The tool provided here is based on a self-assessment. Depending again on your needs, resources, and time available, you can either use the assessment as completed by the employee or you can use it as the basis for further career development discussions with the employee.
3. Develop a skills inventory
Individual competency assessments may become part of a larger unit or agency skills inventory. This is a database that includes all your employees and the competencies that have been identified for them. At a minimum, this will allow you to:
· Search for qualified individuals when specific competencies are needed for certain projects or jobs.
· Identify gaps, where no one possesses the needed competencies.
· Identify gaps (training needs) for individuals or units so training plans can be developed as needed.
· Discuss individual employee’s gaps for career development purposes.
4. Obtain assistance from DAS-HRE staff
DAS-HRE staff, particularly your personnel officer and the Performance Development Solutions (PDS) staff, can help you in this endeavor in the following ways:
· Help you determine the scope of your placement need.
· Research possible vendors of talent assessment tools.
· Help define competencies and ensure they are job-related.
· Help administer, review, and analyze the self-assessments.
· Help customize the self-assessment.
· Provide special training sessions on assessing talent needs, competencies, and building skills inventories.
The Recruitment Plan is the part of the staffing plan that deals with filling positions that won’t be filled through bumping, recall, or outplacement. It lays out in specific detail:
· the job duties and responsibilities and the competencies needed to perform them.
· the general types of background (education and experience) where applicants most likely to possess these competencies would be found and thus the strategy for filling the position (internal promotion, interagency hire, or outside hire).
· recruitment sources.
· how the job opening will be announced and promoted.
· action steps and time line.
In developing your recruitment plan, keep the following in mind:
· The DAS-HRE staff, particularly your personnel officer and the Employment Bureau are here to assist you by suggesting resources and steps in your plan, by reviewing your plan, and by answering questions and providing other guidance.
· Know what you are looking for. Recruitment requires planning. Invest the time up front before you invest valuable time and financial resources obtaining applications that do not meet your needs.
· Describe what you want in simple, concrete terms so those who are working with you understand what your are looking for and potential applicants understand as well.
· Get the word out efficiently. For instance, if the applicant pool is local or regional, you probably don’t want to invest your recruitment dollars in national ads. If you can tap your applicant pool electronically, you may not want to spend time and dollars distributing flyers.
· Market your job. Simply describing it may not be enough to attract the type of applicant you are seeking. Highlight the positive aspects of the job. Format your announcement in a manner that invites attention. Keep the agency’s name in front of them. Include additional informational materials such as brochures, videos, reports, endorsements, etc., where it makes sense to do so (e.g., limited space for vacancy announcement).
· Grow your applicant pool. The traditional method of announcing the vacancy and taking applications may not on its own result in the type of applicant desired. It may take time to determine and develop the most effective recruitment sources and encourage them to pass along your vacancy announcements. You may need to continue your relationship with them on a long-term basis and keep them informed of your needs so they keep you in mind in the future.
Local recruiting requires considerable networking with likely recruitment resources. Key points to keep in mind when networking include:
· Know the parties: Who’s the “official” contact and who’s been most effective in producing results for you? Who do they have contact with? How efficient are they at getting the word out to potential applicants? Do they simply post your information or do they contact people they think would be interested and meet your qualifications? Do they speak well of your agency as an employer? Do they have informational materials about your agency? If so, do they distribute them effectively?
· Attend events that will bring you in contact with recruitment resources.
· Visit the website or review the resource’s newsletter or other informational materials.
· Target the most likely points where potential applicants will become aware of your vacancy: newspapers, shoppers, bulletin boards, newsletters, advertising, etc.
· Build on the networks of current staff. Ask for their help in getting the word out. Other supervisors may have come across potential applicants for your job when they conducted their own job searches and would be willing to share that information with you. Do some brainstorming with your staff. They have a stake in seeing you recruit the best qualified individuals because they are the ones who will be working with whomever is hired.
· Take advantage of partnering opportunities with local schools, community colleges, colleges and universities, and other organizations. The opportunity may not have an immediate, direct relationship to recruitment, but it helps establish your credibility as well as helps you know your resources better.
· Follow up on “no-shows” or declinations, as appropriate, to determine why they were no longer interested in your job. It may not contribute to the current recruitment process, but you could learn valuable information that might help in future recruitment activities.
· Tap new hires for their insights about your recruitment process. What attracted them to your job? How did they hear about the job? What concerns about your agency did they bring to the selection process? What “sold” your agency to them?
More on recruitment can be found in Section 4.20 of this manual, “Recruitment Guidelines.”
Workforce planning involves looking ahead to the future staffing needs of the organization and devising a plan for how meet them. Where a major reorganization is anticipated, that future may be only a few months away. Or, for general planning purposes, it may be as much as 3-5 years out. Generally, this process is tied closely to strategic planning, as it is the strategic plan that indicates the type of work the organization will focus on in the future.
Typically, workforce planning involves the following major steps:
· Determine future needs – This involves review of the organization’s strategic plan to establish a “demand analysis” of the not only the types of jobs to be filled in the future but also how they will be used as well as the competencies needed to do them.
· Analyze the workforce – This includes both a review of the current workforce demographics and analysis of turnover and retention to predict the types of staffing changes that may be on the horizon. Determine needed competencies, current capacity, and identify gaps between current workforce capacity and future needs.
· Identify, select and implement the most appropriate human resource strategies to address estimated gaps in competencies and workforce turnover – This is the action plan of the workforce plan where the roadmap for accomplishing needed changes is developed.
· Monitor and evaluate – Once the plan is underway, establish measures to assess how successful the organization is in meeting its staffing goals. This part of the process also involves assessing lesson learned, modifying the plan as needed, and overall evaluating success and future directions.
There are various strategies for addressing workforce planning needs, depending on the point in the human resource management cycle the problem/trend is occurring. We have identified four stages of the cycle: Resource Allocation, Resource Implementation, Resource Utilization and Resource Suspension.
The following chart links each stage to not only the types of strategies most typically employed at that point but also to the tools and resources available through DAS-HRE.
|
WORKFORCE PLANNING ROADMAP THE EMPLOYMENT CYCLE |
|
The Work Cycle |
Planning for Service |
Entry Into Service |
Engagement/Service Delivery |
Separation from Service |
|
COMPETENCIES |
||||
|
Resource Management |
Resource Allocation – Staffing Plan |
Resource Implementation – New Hires – Promotions – Lateral Position Moves |
Resource Utilization (Work Life/Full Performance) – Reclassification – Shift in Job Duties – Shift of Positions – Skill Enhancement |
Resource Suspension – Turnover – Retirement – Involuntary Terminations |
|
HR Functions and Strategies |
– Position Classification – Job Alignment – Job Design |
– Onboarding – Recruitment – Affirmative Action – Selection – Probation |
– Retention (compensation and benefits, work life, job satisfaction) – Training and Development – Performance Evaluation – Job Redesign |
– Succession Planning – Knowledge Transfer – Senior Workforce – Phased Retirement |
|
HR Tools & Resources |
– Hiring Decision Guide – “Just the Facts” – PDQs – AA Plans – Hiring Reports |
– Interview Question Bank – Applicant Screening Manual – Competency Library – Selective List – Internships |
– Exit Surveys – Salary Surveys – Alternative Work Options (telecommuting, flexible hours) – PDS courses – Collective Bargaining – Golden Dome – Certified Public Manager Program |
– Retirement Calculator – Sick Leave Insurance Program |
Succession Planning is a more specialized approach to workforce planning in that it focuses primarily on key positions that may become vacant in the near future. It usually involves the following steps:
· Identify the key positions.
· Identify the key competencies needed by those positions. These may be different than what the current incumbents possess, if the organization anticipates changing the focus of the position’s duties and responsibilities.
· Determine the most likely source of applicants for each position. In some cases, this may be internal candidates who may or may not currently possess all the competencies that will be needed to refill the position. For instance, for a bureau chief, the most likely source of internal applicants may be the next lower level of individuals who report to the bureau chief (direct reports). It is important to keep in mind that, given current staffing, these are simply the most likely people to succeed the current incumbent. Pre-selection should not be involved.
· Compare the competencies possessed by this group with those that have been identified as key competencies for the position to be filled.
· Where there are gaps, determine how they will be addressed. It may involve some form of knowledge transfer from the current incumbent to the organization or the individuals identified. It may involve the development of customized training plans for certain individuals. This process could also bring to light the need for unit or organizational training or cross training.
· There may not be likely candidates to fill the job. In these cases, the organization has two main choices: develop current staff through enhanced training efforts or go outside the organization and bring in new talent with the needed competencies. Other options available: offer incentives to retain the current incumbent, at least until other staff can be brought “up-to-speed” in the needed competencies or realign organizational functions to eliminate the need for the position or to redesign the position.
· Develop a method for tracking acquisition of the needed competencies. Where resources are not an issue, the ideal way is to develop assessment tools for the competencies that can be used to identify areas where additional growth/improvement is needed.