Workforce Planning: Grooming and Hiring for Market Trends

Workforce planning is essentially putting the best people you can attract in the positions that create the most positive impact/value for the organization. Precisely who has the capacity to do that is somewhat of a mix between market projection and understanding internal organizational resources. Attracting the best and brightest from the market helps if you have developed a thought-out workforce plan and know what you need.

Hiring from the outside is one idea while grooming from within is another. Consider that many organizations have hidden talent right in front of their face and they don't always see it (i.e. the underperformer). Such individuals may not have been challenged, provided the necessary resources or work in the quite quitting mindset. 

To me, when I want to improve an organizations innovation I might hire from the outside, when I want to further enhance certain organizational strengths and create efficiencies I might hire and train from the inside (It depends on what is to be accomplished). How one puts that percentage mix is dependent on stability and growth needs of the company. 

All workforce planning should be around the key strategic objectives that have developed with careful thought and reflection (It's your human capital road map!). If the organization wants to compete in a selected market they need to hire people with industry competitive skills and/or utilize existing human capital resources or develop new ones from training/education (Market aligned education and training can help). 

To adapt to the future means one must understand market changes and shifts based on the present and past (To create a pattern and trend lines.) Consider reading about market projections, industry changes, emerging technologies, socio-political affairs to better obtain a well-rounded environmental scan (Interesting article on environmental scans). 

You may then think of how to break those trend lines down into a few essential factors that help hire proactively before the skills become more expensive and difficult to obtain. Hiring after or during a market change is challenging. If you have the right people and have a good idea on what is coming next you can lead the market.

Workforce planning: How to future-proof your organization