Preparing the Right Foundation

Before you even start to define required staffing levels, make sure that your managers and you have a common understanding of what you are actually trying to accomplish. Without such a common perspective, most efforts will fail. Here are some basic elements that should be part of that understanding:

• Clearly define why you are defining staffing requirements. The definition of required staffing levels is a critical, necessary component of any staff or workforce planning process, but it is only a component. It is not the objective. To add value, you can’t simply define what the required staffing levels will be. You must also develop a combination of long-term staffing strategies and shorter-term staffing plans that will allow your organization to reach those required staffing levels.

• No single, common approach to defining required staff levels can be used across companies or business units. The definition of required staffing levels is as unique and different as one company or unit is from another. No one technique applies, even within business units. In almost every case, the definition of staffing levels will require a coordinated approach that integrates multiple quantitative and qualitative processes.

• Not all definitions of required staffing levels can be completely objective. Some can be, such as where staffing levels are directly related to work output or task time. In other cases, quantifiable relationships between staffing levels and work simply do not exist, and looking for such relationships is a waste of time.

• Required staffing levels should rarely, if ever, be driven by the amount of financial resources that are available. Organizations need to define the staff that will be required to implement business strategies and plans; define the resources needed to obtain, develop, and deploy those staff; and build a coherent business case for obtaining and allocating those needed resources.

• Don’t worry about being exactly correct. The definition of required staffing levels is equal parts art and science. Your yardstick should not be, “Is my forecast exactly correct?” Instead, make sure that you are simply adding value. If you develop and implement staffing strategies and plans based on requirements forecasts that are off by 15 percent, will you be better off than if you did nothing at all?

Finally, remember that when defining staffing requirements, you must identify the required skills and capabilities in addition to the staffing levels. Some organizations put too much emphasis on defining required staffing levels and ignore the definition of required skills. It is difficult, if not impossible, to define required staffing levels until the organization has first defined the required roles and, second, identified the required capabilities.