Chapter 7. Defining Required Staffing Levels

Defining staffing requirements is often the most difficult and time-consuming part of the strategic staffing/workforce planning process. There are many techniques that can be used to estimate or project the numbers and types of staff that will be needed to support business plans and strategies. Some are quantitative and at least somewhat objective (especially those that focus on staffing levels); others are primarily qualitative (including most of those that address required capabilities) and rely primarily on the subjective judgments of managers. This chapter describes several of the more common techniques and provides an example of each (including the solution).

Remember that when you are trying to estimate staffing requirements, you are not trying to predict the future with certainty. You are simply trying to define the staffing levels (and capabilities) that will probably be needed to implement your company’s business strategies and plans. In the final analysis, this will be your “best guess.” Sometimes your guess will be “spot on”; in other cases it might turn out to be fairly inaccurate. If you know what all of the staffing requirements are, you can define them specifically and create staffing plans accordingly. If you are certain about some portion of those requirements, you should create specific plans for the portion you are sure of and contingency or “what-if” plans for the remainder.

Finally, when it comes to estimating requirements, do the best job you can with the data that are available. Don’t try to find, or wait to get, full, complete data on staffing requirements—they probably don’t exist. Instead, make full use of the data that you do have, even if they address only part of an issue. It’s far better to address only part of an issue completely than to do nothing at all. Specific techniques for defining staffing needs when business plans are uncertain are discussed in Chapter 8.