Strategic Workforce Planning Support for Businesses

Strategic Workforce Planning supports you to put people at the heart of your company culture building a workforce with the right people and the right skills, at the right time. 

What do we mean by Strategic Workforce Planning?

Your workforce is the driving force behind the achievement of your business strategy (short and long-term goals).

The Strategic Workforce Planning process analyses the company culture and the current needs of your workforce vs the future needs of your workforce.

This process enables businesses to build a robust company culture and ensure their workforce has the skills, knowledge and behaviours it needs to succeed in the future.

What benefits does Strategic Workforce Planning bring to businesses? 

Strategic Workforce Planning is seen as key to overcoming the business challenges of the 21st Century.

For Worcestershire businesses the process will mitigate recruitment and retention challenges, narrow the skills gap, and enhance agility so employers can adapt to ever-changing environments.

What Workforce Planning support is currently available? 

Worcestershire County Council alongside Worcestershire Growth Hub and Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership have created the Worcestershire Workforce Planning Platform.

This platform is free for Worcestershire businesses and will provide you with: 

• enhanced knowledge on the why, what, and how of Strategic Workforce Planning
• step-by-step guides, tools and techniques to support the development of Workforce Plans
• guidance on which Workforce Plans are the most beneficial for your business
• Workforce Plans which can be monitored, edited, and deleted
• information and reports to support you through each stage of the Strategic Workforce Planning process

The Platform can be found here: Workforce Planning - Worcestershire Growth Hub

Free HR Bitesize Webinars

The team will be holding a series of HR and Workforce Planning webinars providing top tips and takeaways that businesses can implement within their organisation to grow their workforce.

The webinars will cover a range of recruitment and retention topics including Employer Branding, Talent Pipelines, and Inclusivity.

There are eight webinars in total to support businesses create the workforce they need for success in the future. Businesses can attend all eight or those most relevant to them.

You can find out more about our webinars and book a place using the following link: Recruit & Retain HR Bitesize Sessions | Eventbrite.

Free Consultancy Support

Businesses can access free consultancy support to create and implement their workforce plans utilising Worcestershire’s Workforce Planning Platform.

The support will be delivered by a number of HR Professionals who can help you enhance your recruitment, retention, and workforce practices.

Worcestershire businesses can access the consultancy support for help in either one or multiple areas of Workforce Planning.

These areas include Business Strategy, Employer Brand, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Team Performance, Critical Roles, Succession Planning, and Skills Gap Analysis.

Please note businesses must meet the following criteria to apply for the funding:

• business must be registered and reside within the Worcestershire area
• businesses must be registered to Worcestershire’s Workforce Planning Platform
• businesses must not apply for consultancy support already provided through the Workforce Planning Programme

For more information or to apply for consultancy support please contact: workforceplanning@worcestershire.gov.uk 

Business Testimonials

PSE Offline Marketing

As Co-CEO of a 20-person marketing agency, I know our team is the heart of our business and the quality, culture, and motivation of our team are critical to giving our clients the service they deserve while achieving our own goals.  As we continued to grow, we needed to adapt and wanted a more strategic approach to managing and planning our workforce to support us now and in the future.

We faced issues like uneven work distribution, skill gaps, and a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities. Our aim was to optimise our team's structure and capabilities particularly to support future growth and embrace new capabilities.

We’re a busy team and so before the workforce planning process, we often found ourselves dealing with issues as they came up rather than preventing them. Our goal was to transition to a more proactive approach, being more efficient, improving our team experience, and driving better results for our clients.

There were several benefits to this process. Firstly, it provided us with a clear understanding of our current workforce capabilities and how they aligned with our business objectives. We identified key areas where we needed to develop skills or hire new talent. By doing so, we were able to address existing challenges, such as uneven workload distribution and skill shortages.  

The process also helped us with succession planning and, ensuring sustainability and continuity in our operations.

The workforce planning service gave us several valuable tools and techniques. We learned how to effectively map out skill sets within our team, identify gaps, and create development plans, allowing us to anticipate and prepare for changes rather than react to them.

I would recommend this process to other businesses, especially SME’s in the growth phase like ours. It gave us a new perspective, the tools and support to improve our current team, and a clear pathway for building the team we need to support our future needs.

Phil Newton (Co-CEO PSE Offline Marketing).