APPLYING THE WORK PERFORMANCE FRAMEWORK TO WORKFORCE PLANNING

The following overview of workforce planning shows how the WPF can be used as a tool for setting strategic HR goals.

Workforce planning has presented challenges for HR professionals ever since we realized that the baby boom generation would someday retire and test society’s ability to replace them in the workforce and provide for their benefits in retirement. To heighten the impact of the baby boomers’ retirement, people are living longer, and providing health care will present a major fiscal problem. Older workers must recognize that in 15 years or less, the value of fixed retirement income can be cut in half, so living longer will often translate to working longer. Retirees will need to decide how they can serve as active partners in the workforce, whether by volunteering or by working part-time. Public-sector organizations need to plan for increased services for older Americans, find a succeeding generation of workers, and use the talents of older workers to fill the HR gap.

In the past, workforce planning consisted largely of finding administrative support workers to process paper transactions—e.g., filing documents and other clerical work. Positions were classified en masse under a firm, consistent hierarchy, and tests for evaluating general mental ability were used to fill a broad range of government positions. Today, workforce planning is competency-driven: while general mental abilities have retained a credible role in employment test literature, organizations concentrate on recruiting people with specialized skills and abilities and use internal and external training programs to fine-tune those competencies.

Business records are now predominantly computerized, so filing documents and other clerical work have decreased or become unnecessary, and fewer support staff are needed. According to the New York State Department of Civil Service’s New York State Workforce Management Report 2006, the number of employees in the state workforce decreased from 178,757 in 1996 to 164,314 in 2006, a decline of 8.1 percent. The number of administrative support workers decreased by more than 25 percent during that period, from 36,804 to 27,489, accounting for nearly 2 out of every 3 jobs lost over that decade.

Clearly, planning for the future workforce is extremely important, but relying on past trends may not provide an accurate picture of future HR needs. HR managers must have a clear picture of what their organization wants to achieve in the future, and what human resources will be needed to reach their goals.

Desirable Human Resource Outcomes

To conduct workforce planning, the HR department must clearly define the outcomes it seeks. As a starting point for discussion, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lists four categories for measuring the performance of HR programs in the federal government, along with descriptions of the categories and examples:

• Human Resources Operational Efficiency

• Measures of Legal Compliance

• Human Resource Management Program Effectiveness

• Strategic Alignment.

Operational Efficiency

An example of operational efficiency is the cost per discrete HR service—e.g., how much it costs, on average, to fill one position or train one person—or aggregated services—e.g., how much it costs to provide staffing services for all agency programs or train all agency personnel in one year. Total HR program costs as a ratio of all organizational costs is an efficiency measure that can be compared to similar organizations to determine whether total HR costs are higher or lower than they should be.

Another measure of efficiency is HR service processing time, or “cycle time.” For example, one measure of efficiency is the “position fill cycle time,” or the average amount of time it takes to fill a position from the time a request is made. By looking at service times, an analyst can identify which activities involve the greatest amount of staff time and which activities take the longest or shortest time to complete. For example, one might find that 80 percent of all recruitment and selection activities involve just 20 percent of all job openings. Thus, special attention can be given to reduce position fill cycle times for this 20 percent of job openings to maximize the cost-benefit return on HR processes.

Legal Compliance

Legal compliance involves meeting the requirements of all laws entitling workers, job applicants, or constituents to certain procedures or benefits. In the public sector, personnel actions such as appointments, transfers, leaves, and separations are processed in accordance with merit-system principles that involve specific requirements and supporting documentation.

Many of the complaints about “red tape” involve the documentation required to complete a personnel action. For example, after an appointment to a particular position is made, an HR staffer might have to document why another eligible candidate was not selected for the position. Explanations might include failure to respond to a canvass letter, declination based on job location, or temporary unavailability. Even though these requirements add time and cost to completing the appointment process, they guard against abuses and cronyism.

Program Effectiveness

HR program effectiveness relates to the benefits and unintended outcomes of these programs. Do the HR programs meet the needs of the organization and its program managers? Are program managers filling the positions that need to be filled? Are the workers getting the training they need?

Strategic Alignment

Strategic alignment means that the strategies and operations of the HR programs are aligned with the strategies of the organization, so the organization is able to meet its objectives, in part because the HR manager has set objectives and achieved performance goals that strengthen the organization.

Human Resource Service Objectives

HR service objectives can be constructed by comparing the OPM categories for performance measurement with the seven parts of the WPF. These objectives can be summarized as follows:

1. HR managers meet organizational staffing needs through position classification, recruitment, examination, selection, retention, and layoff programs.

2. HR managers meet employee development needs for the organization through traineeship, training, and development programs.

3. HR managers meet organizational performance management needs through programs for time and attendance, performance management, probation evaluation, performance evaluation, labor relations, and HR information systems.

4. HR managers meet organizational diversity, fairness, and legal compliance needs through the organization’s affirmative action program and by completing personnel transactions according to legal and procedural requirements.

5. HR managers meet employee benefits and rewards needs for the organization through its promotion examinations, payroll services, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, and employee recognition programs.

6. HR managers meet work environment needs of a healthy, positive, friendly, and respectful work environment through organizational and employee health and well-being programs and through employee assistance program.

These six HR service objectives can be used to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of specific HR programs, and to develop three HR strategic objectives: building HR capacity, building HR performance, and building HR community.

Building HR capacity is accomplished through the first two HR service objectives of staffing and employee development and relates to the first two parts of the WPF—human resources and enablers, the subjects of Chapters 2 and 3, respectively.

Building HR performance is accomplished through the third HR service objective pertaining to performance management and relates predominantly to the middle three parts of the WPF—inputs, processes, and outputs, the subjects of Chapters 4, 5, and 6, respectively.

Building HR community is accomplished through the last three HR service objectives that pertain to diversity, fairness, legal compliance, employee rewards and benefits, and the work environment. These topics relate to the last two parts of the WPF—outcomes and impacts, the subjects of Chapters 7 and 8, respectively.

The WPF makes the necessary connection between organizational goals and the human resources within the organization. The following chapters explain how the HR manager can use the WPF to align HR strategic objectives, HR service objectives, and HR programs to develop measurements for evaluating program efficiency and effectiveness. These insights should prove highly valuable for meeting the HR challenges of the 21st century.