WORKFORCE PLANNING INSTRUCTION MANUAL
August 2001
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
This section provides conceptual information about workforce planning.
WHAT IS WORKFORCE PLANNING?
Workforce Planning (WFP) ensures that "the right people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time." This definition covers a methodical process that provides managers with a framework for making human resource decisions based on the organization’s mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources, and a set of desired workforce competencies.
Planning for human resource needs is one of the greatest challenges facing managers and leaders. In order to meet this challenge, a uniform process that provides a disciplined approach for matching human resources with the anticipated needs of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its bureaus is essential.
Workforce planning is a fundamental planning tool, critical to quality performance that will contribute to the achievement of program objectives by providing a basis for justifying budget allocation and workload staffing levels. As DOI develops strategies to support the achievement of both long-term and annual performance goals in the strategic plans, workforce planning should be included as a key management activity. WFP must be directly linked to broad-based management strategies that encompass several processes.
It is a dynamic process that facilitates planning for different scenarios. Thus, it can be as complex or as simple as the organizational needs dictate. An organization may choose to conduct workforce planning in an office versus a functional area or a division versus the entire organization. Similarly, it is critical to conduct workforce planning during times of budget reduction as well as budget increases. Staff reductions and increases without any planning in conjunction with the organization’s mission will only lead to the inability to fulfill staffing goals.
Essential Organizational Elements
In order to achieve the optimum WFP product, the following have been identified as being essential organizational elements that provide a framework for effectively carrying out WFP activities:
Components of Workforce Planning
A review of several models has shown that, although WFP will vary depending upon the needs of an organization, the general processes appear to be alike. All rely on:
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
Functional Considerations
Workforce planning requires two important functional considerations:
Organizations need to consider how far into the future to project when carrying out workforce planning. Managers need to balance the certainty of short-range planning against the need to plan for longer-range objectives. Longer time frames may provide more flexibility in planning workforce transitions but also will require regular validation of the analysis of future workforce needs. Shorter time frames run the risks of requiring more drastic workforce transition management and of missing coming changes by not looking far enough into the future. [Note: the Department recommends a five- year time frame.]
What is an appropriate organizational level for developing a workforce plan? There is no single answer to the issue of appropriate planning levels. The most useful guideline in determining planning levels is to make sure that the outputs of workforce planning will relate to organizational or programmatic strategic objectives.
A workforce planning model should provide flexibility to DOI Bureaus and Offices to adapt models to their own organization. This includes the flexibility to determine planning levels that make managerial sense and support strategic plans objectives. The size of an organization, how it is organized, how programs are managed, and budgeted, all will impact on workforce-planning levels.
Bureaus should make a concerted effort to be consistent across regions when developing a workforce plan. All bureau functions or organizations should develop their plans the same way (i.e., by function, occupation, region, organization, etc.). Failure to maintain consistency may result in "holes" where no workforce planning data exists. [Example: A bureau conducts workforce planning functionally for all mission critical occupations. At the same time 2 of the 3 bureau regions conduct a "wall-to-wall" workforce planning effort on all positions. Such an effort would lack any data on non-mission critical positions in region 3.]
[Note: For budgetary purposes and ease of integration with the strategic planning process, the Department recommends that a bureau/office workforce plan be developed. Organizational or programmatic plans may be developed (and useful) for human resources program development purposes, but an aggregated bureau/office workforce plan has the most value for developing budget and strategic planning input.]
Why Do Workforce Planning?
There are multiple reasons to conduct workforce planning:
In order to meet this requirement, as well as present strong justification to appropriations, the DOI Budget Office will be asking Bureaus to apply workforce planning methods and techniques in developing staffing requirements. The expectation is that bureaus will include the outputs of workforce planning (including their workforce analysis) as supporting documentation in their budget justifications. The goal is to combine budget, program performances, and workforce priorities into a cohesive strategy that is presented in budget justifications.
This is also emphasized in the General Accounting Office study, "Major Performance and Management Challenges," which notes: "Only when the right workers (employees or contingency workers) are on board and are provided the training, tools, structures, incentives, and accountability to work effectively is organizational success possible."
Automation will continue to have a profound impact on the way we do business. It will enable us to conduct our business with ever increasing efficiency. Advances in computer hardware and software will allow us to extensively use interactive and intelligent systems. Major changes to the personnel data system, office processes, and training methods can be expected.
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
DOI WORKFORCE PLANNING MODEL |
This manual is written for people who are tasked with developing a workforce plan. This manual provides information and processes that can be applied to ensure a systematic approach to workforce planning. It defines fundamental steps to develop and implement workforce plans as well as identifies tools available to assist managers and leaders in the overall process. However, there may be varying levels of understanding, varying reasons to conduct workforce planning, and varying qualities of information available within an organization. As such, whole or parts of this manual should be followed as much as the workforce planners’ feel is necessary to accomplish their task, regardless of the complexity.
A sample model workforce plan can be found at Appendix A. Process steps 2-6 will help the user understand how to apply each step outlined in the manual. We recommend that each user refer to Appendix A for further clarification as you proceed through the steps.
What is Workforce Planning?
Planning for human resources needs (competencies and capabilities) is one of the greatest challenges facing managers and leaders. In order to meet this challenge, a uniform process that provides a disciplined approach for matching human resources with the anticipated needs of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its bureaus is essential. Workforce planning is key to planning for these needs.
Program goals will not be achieved without having "the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time." Workforce planning is a fundamental tool, critical to quality performance that will contribute to the achievement of program objectives. As DOI describes the strategies that support the achievement of both long-term and annual program performance goals in the strategic and performance plan, activities such as workforce planning should be included as an essential component of a broad-based management strategy.
The following are common reasons to conduct workforce planning:
Key Elements
Although many approaches and techniques exist for doing workforce planning, the following have been identified as being essential organizational elements which provide a framework for effectively carrying out workforce planning activities. The workforce plan should:
Key Steps:
The following are the steps that lead to a full workforce analysis:
Prepare for workforce planning
Organize and mobilize strategic partners
Collect data
Examine data
Envision the future
Project needs
Determine gap
- Develop action plan
- Implement plan
Project costs
Develop GPRA/budget information
Review effectiveness and Begin Again
Acknowledgement
We wish to thank the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who’s
Workforce Planning Instructional Guide served as the model for this manual.
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
Step One – Strategic Direction Setting |
1.1 Identify Parameters
Regardless of how complex or simple workforce planning will be in an organization or unit, it will require input from a variety of functional areas and levels such as strategic planning, executive officers, administrative officers, program managers, human resources, budget and finance, unions, and strategic planners, etc. Ideally, leaders should identify a multidisciplinary team to conduct workforce planning. However, one individual may also be tasked with this responsibility. Before you began conducting your analysis, you should begin with the following (or use ones that are more applicable to your organization) parameters regardless if it is a team or one individual:
After you have either adopted these parameters or developed your own based on your organization, you should discuss them with top management to ensure their support.
1.2 Organizing and Mobilizing Strategic Partners
Now that you have established the parameters for the workforce-planning project, you should begin assembling the team of professionals to participate in the workforce study. At the very least, you will need specialists from strategic planning, financial management, budget, human resources, program areas, and a management analyst to assist you. Strategic planning sets organizational direction and articulates measurable program goals and objectives, the budget process plans for the funding to achieve these objectives, and human resources provides tools for identifying competencies needed in the workforce and for recruiting, developing, training, retaining, retraining, or placing employees to build the workforce of the future.
If working alone, notify subject-matter officials of this task and request their assistance when needed. Leadership should appoint specific offices and individuals to serve as key players, including employees from any targeted occupational groups that the plan is examining. This is also the time to discuss the roles, responsibilities, and commitment of each team member. The following information should be addressed for each team member:
You are now ready to begin workforce planning according to the following steps that are outlined in the remainder of this manual. Again, be sure to refer to the Sample Workforce Plan in Appendix A when you need clarification of Process Steps 2-4.
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan
| Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
– Supply, Demand & Discrepancies |
2.1 Data Collection
Workforce planners must gather a variety of information and data in order to conduct comprehensive workforce planning to determine future needs as well as the projected workforce supply. In order to paint the picture of the future, you should begin by:
The following sections will guide you in collecting all the data you will need to precede with the other steps in conducting a workforce plan analysis.
2.2 Define Scope of Data and WFP for Organization
Understand the scope of your study and exactly what information will help you develop a full workforce plan. It is recommended that you begin by identifying the Scope of Data and Scope of the Organization as outlined below:
SCOPE OF DATA
Dealing with each of these issues will help you define the scope of your workforce analysis. This is a critical step in the beginning stages of understanding your workforce dynamics. While no formal protocol exists for capturing this information, it is recommended that these answers be documented as a section of the plan for future reference.
2.3 Collect Existing Documents
You will need to collect as many of the following documents/reports to assist you with understanding your organization’s vision, outlook, and overall workforce dynamics:
Once you have collected these documents, follow the instructions below to analyze each document. This information will be referred to throughout the processes and will be the driving force behind each step and strategy hereafter.
2.4 Examining the Data
You will need to examine and analyze the data to determine future needs, changes, and direction within your organization. To assist in analyzing the data you have collected, answer the following questions using the information you have collected.
QUESTIONS THAT WILL IMPACT THE ANALYSIS
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This information will be needed when you determine your gap and analyze strategies and action items to address those gaps.
This section will focus on gathering information to analyze how the projected workforce supply will look by applying projected retirements and turnover to the current workforce. It will be based on workforce demographics and employment trends. Demographics include occupations, grade levels, organizational structure, race/national origin, gender, age, length of service, retirement eligibility, and similar information and will provide the necessary baselines for analysis. Trend analysis provides both descriptive and forecasting models which describes how turnover will affect the workforce in the absence of management action. Analysis can provide powerful predictors of how many employees will actually retire, resign or transfer. Workforce demographics data will provide a snapshot of your organization by organizing workforce data from the Federal Personnel Payroll System (FPPS) or Data Warehouse.
2.5 Data Assessment By Occupational Series
In order to analyze your current workforce and obtain a snapshot of your organization, you should collect data, as applicable, for each occupational series or for significant occupational series/grouping to determine the following:
2.6 Data Collection Method
Information needed to analyze the workforce and answer all the questions cited above is available through electronic systems, such as FPPS, BRIO, FEDSCOPE (www.fedscope.opm.gov), and through the FPPS Data Warehouse. In special instances the Department can also assist with historical information from the Office of Personnel Management’s Central Personnel Data File (CPDF).
Using the information below, you can obtain data sufficient to determine turnover rates, analyze retirement trends, anticipate future retirements, analyze the current total workforce, determine recruitment practices, and provide a snapshot of the entire series:
Steps for Collecting Data: – Obtain electronic human resources reports from FPPS that includes the following data elements:
The title of each position within a career field.
Information for the entire occupational series will be available, allowing you to analyze each occupation within the series separately or together.
This field allows you to analyze the current grade structure, percentages of higher grades versus lower grades, average length of service in a grade and the average grade of retirees.
The DOB is needed to analyze retirement eligibility, average time-in-grade and age of new hires, retirees, etc.
SCD data is critical for analyzing retirement trends and years of experience for employees in certain grades and series
This information is useful in determining the gender structure of the career field, the typical hiring trends of males and females, and the career paths of both.
This information is useful in determining the race or national origin of employees. Employees of mixed race or national origin should be identified with the race or national origin with which they most closely associate themselves.
The type of appointment under which an employee is serving (competitive, excepted, Senior Excepted Service, temporary limited appointment, Temporary Appointment Pending Establishment of a Register (TAPER), seasonal, etc.).
Gives the date employees will be eligible for retirement.
The NOAC will give you inclusive information regarding promotions, reassignment, lateral moves, accessions, conversions, and separations. You can then analyze trends for hiring, promotions, retirements and employee movements within DOI, either individually or grouped by series.
The Plans and Systems Division has developed reports from the Federal Personnel Payroll System (FPPS) that provide the information needed as cited above, with the FPPS Customer Support Center. These reports are available for your use (using the information fields identified above) and you can easily access to them by requesting the appropriate report number. However, when requesting these reports, you will need to update the "series" field to the series applicable to your analysis and use your organization code.
2.7 Data Analysis
Now that you have collected the information above, you are ready to begin analyzing this information to answer the questions outlined in Section 4.1.
Follow these steps to prepare your data for analysis of your current workforce:
You are now ready to begin analyzing the data.
2.8 Conduct Skills/Competency Analysis
In order to understand whether your organization will have the skills needed in the future, you need to determine the skills/competencies of the current workforce. [Note: We recommend you not do analyze competencies until the second iteration of workforce planning in your organization. The first time you do workforce planning, concentrate on occupational series. This will allow you to access historical data and build a base-line from which your can later refine your requirements using a skills/competency analysis.]
Two key elements in identifying skills/competencies are:
Follow the steps outlined below to conduct a skills/competencies analysis:
The results of the skills analysis will help to identify potential retraining needs that employees in certain "excess" or "surplus" positions may require in order to transition into other positions within the organization. It will also help establish the focus of recruiting and training efforts.
Note: Many competency and skills analysis models, including automated tools, are available through commercial vendors.
2.9 Documentation of Projected Workforce
After determining the projected workforce that your organization will have based on retirements and natural attrition, complete the "Projected Supply" columns on the Gap Analysis Form in Table 5.1 contained in Step Five.
2.10 Project Needs
The information collected in step 1 will be used in this step to determine your organization’s future needs in terms of specific skills/competencies needed, FTE’s, etc. The mission, vision, goals, and objectives of the organization, which you have already identified in the previous steps, help define the workforce needed in the future.
An important part of the future needs forecasting process is the examination of the needed anticipated occupations, work the organization will do in the future, and how that work will be performed. In particular, computer systems and Internet technology will continue to impact how individuals and organizations perform in the future. To determine the organization’s future needs, list needed skills based on the strategic plan, technology innovations, etc, based on the information collected in Step1. Coordinate with a human resources management specialist who can identify the relevant series.
Also, agencies must incorporate the impact of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act (FAIR Act) on the future workforce. The FAIR Act requires agencies to yearly submit an inventory of all activities performed by Federal employees, those inherently governmental and those not inherently governmental in nature (i.e., commercial in nature). The FAIR Act seeks to achieve economy and enhance productivity and quality through competition to obtain the best service at the least cost to the American taxpayer. Federal policy regarding performance of commercial activities is outlined in OMB Circular A-76, Performance of Commercial Activities (www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/).
2.11 Identifying Changes
The following questions will assist in identifying anticipated changes:
2.12 Impact of Changes
Once you have identified the anticipated changes, ascertain how these changes will affect:
2.13 Documentation of Discrepancies
Document your projected need by title, series, grade, competency, and location, on the Gap Analysis Form on page 22.
2.14 Determine Gap
The gaps are identified as result of an analysis of the differences between the forecasted human resources needs and future human resource supply. This analysis reveals human resources surpluses and deficits in raw numbers, and will assist you with further planning for addressing these gaps.
2.15 Gap Analysis Form
If you have not already completed the Projected Need and Projected Supply on the Gap Analysis Form as indicated in the previous steps, complete the Gap Analysis form to identify gaps in meeting your future and current workforce needs.
2.16 Gap Calculation
Calculating the gap is important for identifying personnel and/or skills/competencies in the current workforce that will not meet future needs (need exceeds supply). It will determine whether the current workforce exceeds the needs of the future – supply exceeds need. There are also situations where the supply will meet the future needs, thus resulting in no gap or a difference between supply and need of zero. Depending upon how the supply and needs were determined and the level of specificity, the gap can be identified by specific title, series, grades, competencies, locations, etc. or any variation needed. The comparison requires that the skills/competencies sets developed in the supply analysis and demand analysis phase be comparable – not independently developed.
2.17 Gap Prioritization
Once you have identified the gap between future needs and projected workforce supply, you must consult with management to prioritize the significant gaps that have the most impact on organizational goals. Be aware that management may decide that having large "gaps" in particular series or skills may not be as important as planning for the anticipated retirement of a subject expert.
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TITLE |
Series |
FPL |
FTE |
Base |
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Projected Supply |
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Projected Need |
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GAP (+ or - no. of positions) |
Comments/Remarks |
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Line |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
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Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
3.1 Designing a workforce plan to address skill gaps
You can now begin developing strategies and action items for addressing those gaps. When developing strategies, these are examples of some issues to consider:
3.2 Identify and Prioritize Gaps
As stated in the previous section, prioritize and identify critical positions. Then, determine how each position will be filled.
3.3 Identify Strategies and Action Items
Determine strategies and specific action items to address gaps. Strategies are broad categorical statements whereas action items identify the specific person(s) responsible for implementing the strategy and when it will be accomplished. Examples of types of strategies to consider for addressing gaps include:
Strategy: Addressing Gaps with Surplus employees
Strategy: Partnership with academic institutions with high minority enrollments
This action item(s) could indicate that you would establish a memorandum of understanding with a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) or the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, etc., institution as a means to develop a minority pool of candidates.
Strategy: Use Intern Programs to recruit
The Department has a systematic way for acquiring and developing entry-level employees for mission-critical career fields. These programs include:
Strategy: Increase use of appointing authorities for recruitment
Strategy: Use a variety of incentives/mechanisms to recruit and retain staff
DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIES AND ACTION ITEMS Reporting Unit: |
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Strategy/Action Item |
Responsible Official |
Expected Completion Date |
Date Completed |
Remarks |
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Yes |
No |
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Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
Once the strategic direction has been established (Step 1 of the Workforce Planning Model), the workforce supply and demand realities have been identified (step), and the action plan developed (Step 3), the finalized plan can be implemented.
4.1 Management, Leadership, and Support
Successful workforce planning requires the commitment and leadership of top management. Senior-level managers must lead the planning process, must assure that workforce plans are aligned with strategic direction, and must hold subordinate managers accountable for carrying out workforce planning and for using its products.
Workforce planning offers a means of systematically aligning organizational and program priorities with budgetary and human resources needs. By beginning the planning process with identified strategic objectives, managers and their organizations can develop workforce plans that will help them accomplish those objectives. At the same time, workforce plans provide a sound basis for justifying budget and staffing requests, since there is a clear connection between objectives, the budget, and the human resources needed to accomplish them.
4.2 Do I Need External Assistance?
Using a contactor consultant in carrying out workforce planning is optional, but may be desirable in some cases. An experienced contractor may provide a level of expertise in workforce planning that does not exist in the organization. In addition, a contractor may have a more detached view of issues than organization’s employees and managers can provide.
The combination of experience and an outside view point can provide legitimacy for workforce planning that is not available to a strictly internal effort. However, care should be exercised on the recommendations from an outsider who may not understand the organizational culture and Federal requirements and realities. In addition to the cost of hiring a contractor, organizations should factor in the time it will take to provide the contractor with necessary background information on the organization.
Bureaus may also consider partnering with other bureaus or agencies to achieve their workforce planning goal. Partnering allows bureaus to share resources including budgetary, labor, knowledge, experience, lessons learned, etc. This may reduce the bureau’s cost of hiring a contractor.
4.3 Conduct Recruitment, Hiring, and Placement
Given the increasing mobility that defines today’s workforce, it is essential that organizations design, develop, and implement recruitment, hiring, and placement programs that are continuous, innovative, and targeted. These programs should be aligned with and supportive of the organization’s strategic direction and provide a reflection of the organizational culture. The plan should outline the actions, steps, and timeline that:
4.4 Implement Retention Strategies
Research has demonstrated that today’s average employee stays on a particular job for average of 36 months. To avoid critical retention/succession situations created by this cycle, supervisors, managers, and organizational leaders must know and understand what valued employees want and need to become long-term assets, applying accumulated knowledge to the accomplishment of the agency’s goals. A progressive retention plan should:
4.5 OMB Circular No. A-76 and the Fair Act
Workforce planning can also aid in the implementation of Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act. The Fair Act directs Federal agencies to submit yearly inventories of all activities performed by federal employees, those inherently governmental and those not inherently governmental in nature (i.e., commercial in nature). The FAIR Act seeks to achieve economy and enhance productivity and quality through competition to obtain the best service at the least cost to the American taxpayer. Workforce planning can identify current work that can be moved to the private sector and help in delayering the management infrastructure in the Department.
OMB Circular No. A-76 provides guidance, policies, and procedures on implementing the FAIR Act that are to be used when the Government determines that a cost comparison between in-house (agency), contract or interservice support agreement (ISSA) performance is warranted. When implementing the FAIR Act, the following cost estimates should be considered:
In-House Costs
Contract or ISSA Performance Cost
OMB provides additional information regarding the Fair Act and OMB Circular No. A-76, on their website at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/
4.6 GPRA and Budget Information
The Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) requires agencies to prepare annual performance plans that set measurable goals defining what will be accomplished during a fiscal year. The DOI GPRA goals and performance measures focus on the outcomes and results DOI bureaus, offices and partners work to achieve through their many programs. These requirements have led bureaus and offices to establish goals such as the percentage of abandoned land reclaimed. An outcome-focused goal, such as this, is in agreement with the intent of GPRA.
Workforce planning provides the means for achieving overarching program goals. Program goals will not be achieved "without the right number of people with the right competencies in the right place at the right time." Workforce planning is a fundamental tool, critical to quality performance, which will contribute to the achievement of program objectives. As DOI bureaus and offices develop strategies that support the achievement of both long-term and annual program performance goals in the strategic and performance plans, they need to include management activities (such as workforce planning) as essential components of a broad-based management strategy.
In order to meet a goal (such as reclaiming abandoned land), as well as to present a strong justification to appropriators, DOI bureaus and offices should apply workforce planning methods and techniques in developing workforce requirements. The Budget Office encourages bureaus/offices to include outputs of workforce planning (including their workforce analysis) as supporting documentation in their budget justification. This will optimize the Department’s opportunities for success in the budget process.
4.7 Budget Submission Requirements
OMB sets requirements in OMB Circular A-11 to provide the link between dollars and personnel. A-11 requires agencies to submit the following type of information in their budget requests to Congress. Effective workforce plans should include information and documentation in each of these areas:
Required FTE’s and Grades Costs (broken out by full-time permanent and other than full-time permanent status). Include all positions including student programs (SCPE, STEP, WTOP, Coop, Summer Aids, etc.)
Customer Service Costs. Project costs for information collection, support tools, training, etc.
EEO Program Costs. Project costs involving training, awareness activities, recruiting programs, etc.
Workforce Training and Development Costs. Projected costs for tuition, travel, per diem, instructors, classrooms, equipment, books, training material, etc.
Award Program Costs. Annual sum of organization’s performance management plan projects for award program. This will usually be a percentage of the total personnel compensation program (i.e. 1% of total personnel budget).
Executive Selection and Development Program Costs. Project cost for program administration, contractor support, training, travel, per diem, etc.
Bonus and Allowances Costs. Project costs for recruitment bonuses, relocation bonuses, and retention allowances.
Relocation Costs. Project costs for transportation, per diem, transportation of household goods, storage and care of household goods, allowances for home sale/purchase expenses, temporary quarters subsistence, reimbursement of income taxes, moving expenses, relocation service charges, etc.
Recruitment Program Costs. Project costs for publicity material, program administration, travel, per diem, school recruitment fees, etc.
Downsizing Costs. Project costs or voluntary separation incentive program (buy-outs), early-out retirements, severance pay, etc.
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
5.1 Review of Outcomes
The WFP plan, especially the strategies and action items, should serve as a roadmap for managers to ensure the right people are in the right locations at the right time in order to achieve the organization’s long-term and short-term goals. The outcomes should be continuously evaluated to determine progress in addressing the gaps and, specifically, where adjustments to the strategies and action items are needed.
5.2 Assessing Accomplishment and Effectiveness of Outcomes
There are many different methods to obtain feedback concerning the achievement of accomplishments and the effectiveness of outcomes. This information can be obtained via meetings, surveys, focus groups, review of accomplishment reports, etc. Regardless of the method, examples of questions to ask in order to determine whether the strategies and action items are effective include:
5.3 Addressing Need for Adjustments to Strategies and Action Items
After the above analysis has been conducted, steps should be taken to remedy problems in implementing action items. Examples include:
5.4 Communicate Changes
Changes to the action items must be communicated to responsible individuals in a timely manner to allow for questions and clarification. Similarly, achievement of action items should be reflected in the organization’s annual accomplishments and ultimately the fulfillment of strategic goals.
5.5 Dynamic Review of Process Steps
The WFP process is a continuous process of forecasting, clarifying, and identifying organizational workforce needs, assessing competencies, and implementing appropriate interventions. The process should be continuously evaluated to determine how well each of its component parts are functioning and where adjustments are needed.
5.6 Determining Effectiveness of Process Steps
Feedback should be obtained from participants and customers, including managers and top-level officials to determine the effectiveness of the WFP process in producing a useful product. This information can be obtain via a variety of information gathering methods such as interviews, focus groups, surveys, review of the quality of the workforce plan, etc. When ascertaining the effectiveness of the WFP process, examples of questions to ask include:
In addition there may be external and internal forces that precipitate changes to the process. Examples of these include reorganizations, redistribution of resources, new and/or changes to information data systems, budgetary and strategic planning cycle changes, etc.
5.7 Communicate Changes
Modifications to the processes should be communicated to everyone as soon as possible to ensure sufficient time for training and/or questions.
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices
Summary The following is a checklist that summarizes key elements of
effective workforce planning.
1. Vision. Identify the organization’s direction. Project the organizational configuration 5 years from now. Review and analyze the following: A. Program Plans for the future. ____ Anticipated program/mission changes ____ Anticipated volume, type and location of work to be done ____ Changes in organization/position structures ____ Past patterns/trends ____ Anticipated supervisory/managerial strengths ____ Skill mix of workers ____ Increasing/decreasing workforce demands B. Budget Situation. ____
Anticipated ceiling, budget philosophy, or goals ____ Funding levels ____ Trends/Patterns C. Anticipated Environment (Internal/External) Factors ____ Legislative changes ____ Technological changes ____
Social changes 2.
Current Resources.
Determine the future availability of current workers by doing the
following tasks: A. Conduct work force analyses. ____ Potential losses of current employees ____ Turnover data, retirement rates, retirement projections, promotion and award rates, etc. ____ Organization/position structures ____ Vacancies created by internal movement ____ EEO profiles ____ Supervisory/non-supervisory ratio data ____
Competitive sourcing 3. Needed Resources. Identify anticipated shortfalls that need to be addressed. A. Forecast specific needs in light of mission needs and vision. Forecast overall numbers by occupations ____ By grades ____ By location of positions if applicableB. Compare current available resources with needed resources for the future. ____ Net human resource needs ____ Increase/decrease in productivity levels |
____ Skills/grade levels ____ Position management ____ EEO profile ____ Under-staffing or over-staffing ____ Career progressions ____
Supervisory/managerial replacements 4.
Action Plan. Determine how your needs will be met by: A. Addressing serious shortfalls and critical issues. Establish human resource objectives B. Develop an action plan. ____ Internal sources of workers ____ Recruitment for external sources of workers ____ Job redesign ____ Training, retraining, career development ____ Succession planning ____ Competitive sourcing ____ Delayering ____ Volunteers ____ Productivity improvement ____ Restructuring (organization/positions) ____ Position management plan C. Develop a plan for handling Labor Management Issues (if appropriate) ____ Legal and contractual requirements ____ Employee involvement ____ Negotiations ____ Potential for adverse outcomes ____
Union-Management relations climate 5.
Cost Implications.
Identify items with cost implications. A. Costing out the items requiring monetary support. ____ Grade distribution ____ Recruiting ____ Training, retraining, career management ____ Succession planning, delayering cost ____ Relocation costs, reorganizing cost ____ Increased or decreased staffing |
Workforce Planning Summary
| DOI Workforce Planning Model
| Introduction | Step One – Strategic Direction Setting
| Step Two – Supply, Demand, & Discrepancy
Step Three – Develop Action Plan |
Step Four – Implement Action Plan | Step Five – Monitor, Evaluate, & Revise
| Summary
| Appendices | Download
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