Skill gap assessment and identification of training needs are two key components of effective workforce planning. In a 1999 report on building the workforce to achieve organizational success,(44) an Academy Panel identified the critical success factors for effective workforce planning.

· Management commitment and support. Top management must lead development and implementation of workforce plans. This includes ensuring clarity about strategic intent, linkage of workforce plans with strategic plans, and establishing accountability for implementation of the plans.
· Human resources staff support. HR offices should ensure that information is readily available. HR staffs also need to develop the infrastructure and capacity to deliver on workforce recruitment, redeployment, training, retraining, development and succession planning.
· Employee involvement. Planning efforts involve evaluating the current competencies of the workforce and developing strategies to build new competencies. It is important for employees to be involved in this process so that understanding and commitment are established.
· Linkage to other plans. Workforce plans must be established within the context of strategic plans and financial plans so that they are relevant to the strategic intent of the agency, and are affordable given finite resources.
· Quality planning data. Information about the workforce must be current, accurate, and readily available to HR staffs and those line managers who will be involved in the planning process.
· Implementation strategy. Specific details outline how the workforce plan will be implemented must be developed and communicated. This requires good project management principles of clear goals, regular tracking, and established accountability.
· Communication. Managers and employees need to know why and how workforce planning fits into their daily lives. Why is it important and what can they do to help the effort be successful?

Among the departments that have undertaken strong workforce planning and published their guides for it are the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Interior. While these are much larger organizations than EEOC, the principles are the same, and both departments have required that their sub-organizations undertake detailed planning. They have a similar definition for the process: getting the right number of people with the right skills, experiences, and competencies in the right jobs at the right time.(45)

The National Institutes of Health implemented the departmental workforce planning into individual institute plans that are shorter, contain more specific actions, and relate directly to fiscal year hiring goals.(46) For example, the National Institute on Drug Abuse FY 2002-2003 plan presents its foremost goal (improving drug abuse treatment nationwide using science as the vehicle) and describes its four major research directions and changing skill needs. For example, congressional interest and growing concern about methamphetamine and nicotine require staff with special expertise in pharmacology and toxicology. The plan then outlines recruitment, training, and retention strategies and hiring goals for specific positions. NIDA presents all of this in six pages.

HHS used its 1999 workforce plan as the basis for its November 2001 Workforce Restructuring Plan, which was geared to implementing the President's Management Agenda and stressed that people add value as capital rather than being resources that are used up. HHS recognized that organizational restructuring would drive much of its workforce restructuring. The plan stressed that workforce restructuring is not a synonym for downsizing and FTE reduction, and that if there were employees with surplus skills restructuring may mean training, development, and re-deployment from support positions to mission-related functions. HHS does plan to consolidate administrative functions, which could lead the department to reach a point at which it would need to provide buyouts for staff with surplus skills while recruiting new staff with shortage skills.

In a September 27, 2002 memo to all employees, the Department of Interior's assistant secretary for policy, management and budget presented the department's Strategic Human Capital Management Plan: FY 2004-3007 (www.doi.gov/pfm/human_cap_plan/), described how to obtain it on the web, and promised hard copies. The plan describes challenges such as the department's aging workforce, insufficient numbers of people with business and information technology skills, and the need for negotiation and partnership skills among all employees in the field. It also relates the human capital plan to the strategic plan and the demographic features of the workforce and its geographic dispersion.

The Department of Interior's Workforce Planning Model Has Five Phases

Phase 1: Strategic Direction Setting

· Organizing and mobilizing strategic partners
· Setting vision/mission values/objectives
· Reviewing organizational structure and conducting business process reengineering
· Measuring organization performance
· Positioning HR to be a strategic partner

Phase 2: Supply, Demand and Discrepancies

· Analyzing demographics, workforce trends, workforce projections, workforce diversity, educational pipelines
· Conducting competency assessments
· Comparing workforce needs against available skills

Phase 3: Develop Action Plan

· Designing a workforce plan to address skills gaps
· Setting specific goals and developing an HR infrastructure

Phase 4: Implement Action Plan

· Communicating the workforce plan
· Gaining an organizational buy-in
· Conducting organizational assessments
· Conducting recruitment, hiring, and placement
· Conducting succession planning
· Restructuring where necessary
· Implementing retention strategies

Phase 5: Monitor, Evaluate, Revise Plan
· Assessing successes and failures
· Making adjustments to the plan
· Addressing new workforce and organizational issues

Panel Discussion: Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is the second step (after organization redesign issues) in a major organizational restructuring effort, but much of it can begin before changes to work methods or organizational structure are undertaken. In preparing its 2001 Workforce Analysis, EEOC has examined its potential retirements, work changes that may lead to different skills or a stronger emphasis on some, and some broad skill gaps. Given that there are key functions that the agency knows it will continue - mediation, investigation, litigation, outreach/prevention - there are specific skill gaps (by office) that EEOC can begin to identify and plan to rectify. Not all skills need to be filled by on-board staff. For example, offices may need some core interpreting services on staff, but they could never have in each office all the possible language skills they need. A contract service that could provide interpretation over the phone is an option.

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44. National Academy of Public Administration, Building the Workforce of the Future to Achieve Organizational Success, Washington, DC, December 1999, p. viii.
45. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget, Building Successful Organizations: Workforce Planning in HHS, November 1999. www.hhs.gov/ohr/workforce/wfpguide.html.
46. The NIH workforce planning materials on the web links to all the institutes as well as demographic and other sources that are useful in workforce planning. www1.od.nih.gov/ohrm/PROGRAMS/WF-Plng.

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