In reality, can joint strategic workforce planning consulting/enterprise projects deliver results?
The project: This energy services provider was leading a once in a generation energy transformation program. Multiple attempts to develop strategic workforce planning capability had failed; as a result the organisation was ill-prepared to identify the right roles, skills and people for the new transformed entity over the next 5 years, within a changed budget.
Role of Workforce Insight: Design, development, analysis, and ongoing support for the implementation of strategic workforce planning, analysis, and improved insights for decision-makers negotiating a major energy transformation and new funding envelope.
Work conducted: Principal consultant and systems architect as part of an integrated project team for a 6-month engagement including design, interviews, consultations, data modelling, development and application of a full strategic workforce planning system, tools, templates and models and a roadmap.
Led solution design, consultations, data modelling, options, and solution development, as part of a larger consulting partnership.
Provided complex workforce strategy advisory on how to integrate shifts in work and workforce across multiple years and programs, in order match demand and supply during a phase of major energy transformation
Assessed, developed, and introduced a customised strategic workforce analytical model, covering shifts in the operating model, an in-depth analysis of workforce dynamics, option modelling and the capacity to generate an integrated workforce view.
Used a sophisticated set of interconnected systems and tools, through a series of engagements to generate whole organisation buy-in to an integrated approach to shifting roles, capabilities, and people across operational and function silos.
Results: Program has been committed beyond the initial business case and being enabled through an embedded consulting team led by 3Pillars.Digital. The processes, tools and insights are being used and improved upon by the enterprise (now with enterprise dashboarding) to guide leaders through management of enterprise capacity and capability to the right work, at the right time.
This is reducing the gap between current strategy and targeted transformation profile, reduce operational, reputational, and political risk, improve customer experience, and seize cost savings opportunities as the utility transforms within a new budget forecast. This has already proven its worth in terms of shifting the rate of recruitment to better meet approved capacity workforce levels.
Insights: Using an initial prototype workforce model (based around a time series of workforce profiles) established the business case for the investment together with deep expertise in portfolio business case and corporate initiative development. The combination of these two skill sets from outside of the typical HR skill set demonstrated both the positive value of ‘making a deliberate shift’ over and above the inertia of the current state.