My first stop was the State of Washington. Under the State Human Resources tab there is a whole section on Workforce Planning. Their Workforce Planning Model is broken down into four components; Issues, Goals, Objectives, & Strategies. The goal is to hone in on the strategies that are really going to impact improving performance. With an action plan in place, supervisors can get involved by doing some Operational Workforce Planning of their own.
Next stop, State of Massachusetts. You can find their Workforce Planning section under HR Policies. They have a different model from WA by which they include the action plan, but it follows a similar four-step path. They begin with analyzing the current workforce, then identifying future workforce needs, establishing the gap between the present and future, and finally implementing solutions to address the gaps between the present and future workforce needs. Efforts to secure institutional knowledge and develop the skills of existing employees is a top priority for the state.
Last stop is across the country to the State of California. California keeps their Workforce Planning in a section called State Supervisors/Managers under the Dept of Human Resources site. They consider their Workforce Planning Model a phased approach:
- Phase 1: Set the strategic direction for the Workforce Plan
- Phase 2: Gather and analyze departmental data for the Workforce Plan
- Phase 3: Develop the workforce strategy and plan
- Phase 4: Implement Strategies
- Phase 5: Evaluate the Workforce Plan
Though California has a larger employee size, the problem is the same as WA, MA, and other states across the nation. This is just a sample of the strategies put in place by states to aid in succession planning and retention efforts. Each plan is unique to its state, but not so unique that others can’t glean some good ideas from each other.
