Benefits June 22, 2006

Hackett Identifies Best Practices in Workforce Planning

June 22, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Using its research on firms' human resource (HR) practices, The Hackett Group has identified what it calls Hackett-Certified Practices employed by organizations with world-class HR departments in their strategic workforce planning.
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An Insight report from The Hackett Group says its Book of Numbers research found that world-class HR organizations drive down unemployment rates to a third of that of typical companies. World-class HR organizations have a rate of 25 voluntary terminations per 1,000 employees, compared to typical companies, which have 74 voluntary terminations per 1,000 employees annually.

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As a result, the report said, companies with world-class HR organizations require 46% fewer hires each year (94 v. 173 per thousand for typical companies), and make those hires up to 11% faster than typical companies.

Hackett found that world-class HR organizations have 33% more strategic workforce planning staff per thousand employees than typical companies (0.68 v. 0.51 per thousand employees), and invest an additional 17% on strategic workforce planning process costs per employee ($79 v. $67 per employee).

According to the Insight report, workforce strategy executed by world-class HR organizations include:

  • Consulting with senior management – Hackett found that only 5% of all typical companies create a formal process and use their business partnering and organizational development expertise to facilitate senior management through the workforce planning process. World-class HR organizations are more than 6 times more likely to do this.
  • Identify scarce sets of skills and develop appropriate sourcing strategies – 63% of all world-class organizations do this, while only 36% of typical companies do.
  • Link learning and development strategies to strategic plans – Over half of world-class HR organizations do this, while only 36% of typical companies make the same claim.
  • Conduct succession-management and retention planning sessions between senior management and HR – Sessions are conducted quarterly at 50% of all world-class HR organizations, compared with only 25% of typical companies. Formal retention plans exist for key performers at 50% of all world-class HR organizations, but only 4% of typical companies.
  • Leverage diversity – World-class HR organizations integrate diversity into their strategic resource planning 55% of the time, making them nearly 4 times more likely to do this than typical companies.

The Hackett Group Insight Report is here .

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