Strategic workforce planning is important to ensure that your tech team is fully staffed with people who have the right skills to keep systems moving today and in the future. Workforce planning takes time and resources, but by carving out the space to develop a plan, you can save yourself time and money down the line while helping your organization maintain a competitive edge.
Align Tech Strategy With Business Strategy
This is one of the most critical steps in workforce planning. You must have a good grasp of company goals and strategy before building a tech workforce strategy. Everything the IT team does supports business goals, so be sure that immediate, short-term and long-term plans support where the organization is headed.
Identify Immediate and Long-Term Skill Gaps
Once your strategy is aligned, determine the skills your team needs to achieve organizational goals. This includes both immediate needs and long-term needs.
Then, plan strategies to fill those gaps. In some instances, you can upskill current employees. For others, you will need to hire. Determine whether full-time employees will be needed to close gaps or whether access to skilled consultants and contract professionals may be the right move for specific projects or initiatives.
Create Urgency
It can be difficult to get buy-in from other business unit leaders to support a long-term strategic workforce plan. You will need to create a sense of urgency among those stakeholders, so you have access to the resources you need to conduct upskilling or talent searches. When making your case, it helps to present the ROI of planning ahead and to highlight the ways in which your strategic plan will help the company achieve its goals.
Get Ahead of Your Talent Acquisition Needs
It’s not enough to identify new roles or to parse out the need for skilled consultants and contractors. You have to plan well in advance in order to access the right people at the right time. You don’t want to have to wait for an opening to try and fill it.
Working with a tech recruiting firm can help you get ahead of the curve. By presenting them with your long-term needs and strategies, they can take on the responsibility and legwork of locating candidates in advance of your needs and sourcing talent that is well-aligned with your organizational culture.
If you regularly hire technical talent and you’re ready to partner with an expert IT recruiting firm that can help you get ahead of your talent acquisition needs, reach out to the expert tech recruiters at Selectek today.
