Talent Management and Strategic Workforce Planning are two powerful approaches to building, engaging and retaining staff. Though both tactics have similar goals, the execution is very different. Together, they build a solid labor force able to weather changes in the economy and industry.
Talent Management for Human Resources
Talent Management is an HR process designed to gain and retain qualified talent. The goal of talent management is to keep workers engaged and motivated so that they perform optimally. This includes proper on-boarding processes making sure that new hires feel welcomed and fully understand their new roles. It is also important to ensure that all current employees feel valued and are given the proper tools and support to further their careers within the company.
What is Strategic Workforce Planning?
Strategic Workforce Planning is a strategy to build a strong workforce for both the short and long term. SWP looks at your current workforce, industry trends and analytics to plan for future demands. It not only involves planning for new labor needs, but also focuses on sustaining current employees and developing skills to help meet business goals, anticipated changes and keep up the pace with the competition.
How are they different and do they work together?
Strategic Workforce Planning take a statistical approach to designing the perfect team. It bases its decisions on business trends and analytics and focuses on hiring the best qualified talent to complete current and future tasks. Though it does strive for good employee retention rates, it is mostly intended for building a group of employees to fill present and upcoming needs. Talent Management is used primarily for employee retention. It is aimed at building morale within a company to make sure that employees are satisfied, engaged and remain motivated so that they will continue to build skill sets and benefit their workplace.
When paired together these two methods create an invaluable workforce that is not only productive, but sustainable and always reaching to achieve more through individual and organizational improvement.