Most important question that comes to mind of every HR professional is “what will be my annual staffing requirements and how can I achieve the recruitment targets?”
The recruitment plan is not just about hiring but also the different skills and knowledge that might be needed for the proposed growth of the company. Staffing plans may encompass temporary and permanent employees, short term and long-term contractors, consultants or other experts. The right planning and strategy can help HR professionals to hire the right candidates that fits the organizational expansion plans and help in achieving the organizational predefined goals.
Staffing plans are often used during budget cycles and strategy planning to help plan and allocate costs and action plans that are required to drive the results. However, staffing plans will see major adjustment to a workforce due to various macro and micro factors. Staffing plans can be one component of a strategic business expansion plan.
Key steps to device effective staffing plan:
Step 1: Evaluate Future Goals
The initial step in developing a recruitment plan is to evaluate the goals to achieve. Identifying the targets employees’ requirements will be the most important step towards making an effective strategy
Step 2: Identify key Influencers
A lot of factors contribute towards hiring factors within an organization, improving key attractions that can influence and expedite the hiring process will be a great idea.
Step 3: Analyze the Current
State of the Hiring Function
A deep and systematic analysis of current and past hiring processes can be a good source of learning and improving the major mistakes that have resulted in poor percentage of candidate retention and this can also help in devising future strategies to attract skilled talent.
Step 4: Regular Envision Needs
Recruiter envision is needed to accomplish the goals set out for the hiring process. Keys to this step are to start fresh and not be overly influenced by the current state. Both categories of staffing are important; head count and skilled staffing. Action plans should include processes and targeted timelines for interim and long-term resources.
Step 5: Conduct a Gap Analysis
It’s very important to analyze the gaps that are created between actual staffing needs and targeted numbers. A regular HR audit can help in identifying problem areas that can be rectified as and when required.
Step 6: Develop a Long- and Short-term Solution Plan
Human resource professionals should always work on predefined plans; how many staff are needed? When is it needed? What are budgets for staffing requirements? etc.
Developing and executing predefined action plans helps overcoming a lot of issues that might arise during expansion plans.
Raj Dev Acharya