Visualize This
Accurate Workforce Data + Disciplined Process = Organizational Agility
by Rana Hobbs, Director of Customer Success - Human Concepts
How long does it take your organization to ramp up a new department? Or disperse one for that matter? Is the lag between recognizing a business opportunity and aligning the organization to address it impacting your organization’s success?
Agility means an organization can adjust to changing conditions—economic, political and even social—while maintaining business continuity, taking advantage of opportunities and gracefully conducting initiatives without disruption. To achieve true agility, organizations must have two things: accurate information and process.
Information is only valuable if it’s correct and if it’s strategically important to the organization. Collecting and acting on data related to critical risk areas for your organization is much more effective than gathering data on all potential risks, then attempting to make sense of that information.
Also important is the ability to assimilate all data sources—ERP, talent, spreadsheets and internal systems—in one place in order to form complete and accurate insights. A holistic view of the organization allows organizations to spend more time acting on their data via analysis and planning instead of spending time searching for and validating it.
The second part of agility—process—enables organizations to function like a well-oiled machine. With accurate information in hand, key stakeholders are able to plan for the future—whether it may bring the closing of a department, an opening of a new call center, or shortages in critical talent. Having a process in place to plan how your organization would best adapt in light of these events saves time and money, and enables quick reaction to change.
A vital part of this process is organizational planning, a mechanism used to create and maintain an ideal organization. Organizational planning is the process of defining the org structure necessary to execute on business strategy. It might include scenario-planning, viewing budget requirements and adjustments, deciding what roles need to be filled, created or terminated, as well as looking to the future and planning for what roles will be needed a few years down the road, what sector of the business will grow the fastest or what external factors will affect your business today and in the future.
Having a process and being able to plan for organizational change may seem odd at first. How can you plan for changes that are as yet unknown?
When you look at the key decisions involved in organizational change—hiring, firing, promoting, moving, growing, etc.— the major obstacle to agility is the mere process of collecting, analyzing, reviewing, approving and distributing a set of changes within an organization’s data set. Once all information is in accessible and process is defined, planning can become a routine management discipline.
In fact, in a recent research study conducted by the Human Capital Institute, strategic planning within organizations has been directly linked to:
- Improved employee engagement
- Revising business strategy less often
- Improved profitability
- Ability to take on more business
These results show that strategic planning and agility go hand-in-hand, together a best practice for any organization that wants to stay ahead of the curve.
Note: To learn more about the HCI Research study as well as organizational planning and agility, catch up with HumanConcepts at the Cornerstone OnDemand Talent Leadership Forum roadshow, hitting the road in March for a four-city tour. View the calendar and registration details here.
About the Author: Rana Hobbs is currently the Director of Customer Success at HumanConcepts.
She has more than 15 years’ experience with prominent Human Capital Management (HCM) solution providers, including SuccessFactors, Infohrm and IDC
. Rana is a recognized subject matter expert and best practices champion in organizational and workforce planning, reporting and analytics.
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