Workforce planning basics

Planning your workforce can help you avoid the negative impacts of having too many or not enough staff available, or not having the right person for a role. Find out what you can do to best prepare for the future.

About workforce planning

Workforce planning is about having the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time and at the right cost.

Workforce planning will help you:

• achieve your business goals by aligning your people strategy with your business needs
• decide how to best prepare for the future
• plan recruitment and training
• create a flexible and responsive workforce.

Why workforce planning is necessary

Small businesses often rely on the skills and experience of a small number of employees. If any of these employees resign or retire it can be costly to your business and it could result in the loss of key business skills and knowledge. Workforce planning can help your business:

• respond quickly to change
• be more effective and productive
• reduce employee turnover by increasing job satisfaction and engagement
• retain positive and motivated employees
• do more successful recruitment
• reduce skills shortages
• identify staff training and development needs.

Workforce planning is becoming increasingly important because of:

• demographic changes—an aging workforce raises new issues, including lack of in-demand skills, reskilling challenges, and mass retirement
• increased need to reduce costs—increasing global competition is forcing small businesses to try to reduce their operating costs
• increased need for talent management—to keep a competitive advantage, you need to have staff available who'll be able to replace the skills and experience of retiring or exiting employees
• increased need for flexibility—the competitive small business landscape and the speed of product innovation means businesses need to keep changing tactics and adapt to a changing environment.

Recruitment for small business

The Back to Work program offers free and short online courses to help small business employers recruit and retain employees. Learn about:

• futureproofing your workforce
• building resilience and wellbeing in the workplace
• lawful and effective recruitment
• regional skill-shortage support.

Succession planning

Succession planning is an important part of workforce planning. It's about identifying and developing people who can move up into critical roles when these positions become vacant.

Why succession planning is important

• Having a clear plan to fill key roles will ensure your business can continue with little or no interruption.
• It's often more cost-effective to develop current employees for key positions rather than hire new people.
• Giving your employees a clear path forward in their career can increase employee engagement, reduce your staff turnover and cut recruitment costs.

Succession planning in 5 steps

1. Identify the key positions in your business. These are not necessarily only leadership and management roles.
2. Assess how likely these key positions are to become vacant, and when (e.g. through retirement or resignations)
3. Identify potential successors (inside or outside your current workforce) and:
   • what development they'll need (read information below on determining training and development requirements)
   • when they might be ready.

4. Design and implement plans to address these development needs through, for example:
   • career pathways
   • mentoring
   • formal training
   • performance management
   • reward and recognition programs.
5. Do ongoing planning – identify gaps and focus on the developing high performers. Learn more about passing a business to a successor.

Also consider...

• Learn more about finding and hiring staff.
• Read more about training and developing your staff.
• Read information and tips on workforce management and planning from our Mentoring for Growth (M4G) mentors.
• Find future employment projections for regions, industries, occupations and qualifications in Queensland.
• Find information about financial support for hiring staff.
• Learn more about free or low-cost training courses.
• View our webinar on how to develop capability with your staff for information on creating a skills and knowledge development strategy for your business.