download the report here

Industry Report

Strategic Workforce Planning

in the Aerospace Sector

April 2008

of 18 document.doc

Steering Group Members:

of 18 document.doc

FOREWORD

The UK’s advanced engineering sectors are under unprecedented competitive pressure to raise their game on workforce development. Unless they accelerate their adoption of a more strategic approach to meeting this challenge, they risk failing to achieve their business aims. It also goes much wider than this: the UK could lose its currently advantageous position in the higher-value advanced engineering marketplace and put at risk its sovereignty in defence.

"Strategic Workforce Planning may not drive business strategy but it can provide HR with a vehicle for participating in those decisions and influencing them pretty profoundly"

Margaret Gildea, Executive Vice President of Human Resources-Operations and Skills and Capability, Rolls-Royce plc

To address this issue, Semta (www.Semta.org.uk), together with the UK’s aerospace sector through the Society of British Aerospace Companies’ (SBAC) (www.sbac.co.uk) People Management Board (PMB), initiated a programme of work to promote Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) in the Semta ‘footprint’. This Report is the result of some six months’ work on the part of leading aerospace companies and their supporting stakeholders. It recommends the adoption by industry of a SWP process which will enable it to be more pro-active in meeting its own skills challenges and, at the same time, improve the quality of its ‘demand signal’ to the funders and providers of applied education and training for their current and future workforce. For its part, Semta will endeavour to ensure that, with the benefit of improved inputs from industry, a more relevant provision is put in place to support industry’s requirements.

Some companies are already familiar with undertaking training needs analysis (TNA). TNA is normally limited to the training needs of the current workforce, does not take account of demographics or other external labour market issues, and is not allied to or integrated with business plans either in the short or longer-term. Nor does it give rise to a feed into the provider or funder network. It has minimal potential to enhance business performance in the medium-to-long term.

The output of Semta’s SWP project has been defined as:

“Guidance, supported by frameworks and models, to assist companies to identify what their workforce consists of and, in particular, what its high-priority/high added-value recruitment, training and development needs are, now and in the future”

The Strategic Workforce Planning process recommended in this report will enable companies to plan and manage their workforce and skills supply chain on a strategic basis linked to business requirements now and in the future. The Report and its recommendations, which have been tested for its relevance and practicality of use, offer support to help companies along the way. The Appendices to the Report provide detail on:

o Desk Research (A)

o The recommended SWP Model, Process Guidance and Tools (B)

o Examples of current practice (C)

o A list of acknowledgements (D)

These are signposted throughout the Report.

Some companies have already set out on their SWP journey – others need to create new capabilities within their organisation to make it happen. Experience shows that it is important to

of 18 document.doc

http://www.sbac.co.uk/

http://www.semta.org.uk/

keep this process as simple as possible and it needs to aim at broad indicators and trends, rather than at achieving questionable precision. There are a few ‘must haves’, without which SWP is not possible at all. This Report is a start – and will be modified in light of companies’ experience of using this approach and these tools. With these issues in mind, we encourage everyone to have a go at this because very few other activities have the potential to add such high value for our organisations or for the UK economy as a whole.

o Margaret Gildea, Chairman, SBAC’s People Management Board (Executive Vice President HR

- Operations, Skills & Capability, Rolls Royce)

o Lynn Tomkins ,Semta, Director of UK Policy and Operations

o Ged Leahy, Rolls Royce, SWP Project Chairman (Director of Strategic Workforce Planning &

Development, Rolls Royce)

"This is about ensuring that we leverage our single biggest cost base to execute our business strategy in a viable thought out way. It enables us to think about ways to create more value, which can lead to real innovation. It's not rocket science or magic - just thoughtful planning and execution".

Ged Leahy, Director of Strategic Workforce and Skills Planning-UK, Rolls-Royce plc

of 18 document.doc

INDEX

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................6

BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................................9

1.0 THE SPONSORS AND THEIR ADDED-VALUE........................................................................10

2.0 DESK RESEARCH & ENQUIRY INTO CURRENT PRACTICE................................................10

2.1 Desk Research.....................................................................................................................10

2.2 Current Practice...................................................................................................................11

3.0 RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................................14

3.1 The ‘Self-Audit’ Tool...................................................................................................................14

3.2 Getting Started...........................................................................................................................14

3.3 Process Guidelines....................................................................................................................15

3.4 Training for the HR function.......................................................................................................16

3.5 Systems Support........................................................................................................................16

4.0 PILOTS......................................................................................................................................17

5.0 GOING FORWARD....................................................................................................................17

APPENDICES

A Desk Research Summary

B Guidance & Tools:

o The SWP Journey: self- audit tool

o How to get started

o The recommended Process and Detailed Guidelines

C Examples of current practice:

o The Ministry of Defence

o Rolls Royce

o Messier-Dowty

D Acknowledgments

of 18 document.doc

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The pressures of global competition are such, that to maintain the UK’s national capability in important, high value activities, sectors, like advanced engineering, must raise its game, or lose out - and before very long the position will become irrecoverable. Within the advanced engineering sectors the additional risk is that the UK loses its key position in defence markets and becomes unable to support its own sovereignty needs.

To meet this challenge, the UK must enhance and protect its crucial skills base, without which it cannot out-perform its rivals or remain competitive. Moreover, to ensure its continuing success, the UK’s advanced engineering sectors must access and deploy increasingly higher levels of skill than they have utilised in the past. In today’s labour markets, this is not easy to achieve. Companies have a crucial need to identify and plan for current and future workforce development and training requirements, since unless they have the necessary people and skills in place, they can neither meet their business objectives, nor play their part in enhancing the national skills base.

The lack of a robust and sustainable ‘demand signal’ on these key issues from industry, negatively impacts the provision of relevant courses and accreditation for the use of industry. Providers need sufficient fore-warning of such needs to enable them to create a high quality response. Private and public funders need this information so they can prioritise and direct the available funding accordingly. To enable both internal and external providers of education and training to offer high-quality and timely solutions, companies need to develop the capability of planning for their skills needs more systematically and on a longer-term basis. This process must obtain workforce sign-up and active engagement – recognising that a high proportion of today’s workforces will have had little or no skills development up until now, and will need to be encouraged, with the explicit support of their Union, to take up new learning opportunities.

Research shows that Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) is a new process to most companies. Currently, there is very little integrated guidance available which would assist them in adopting it. An outcome of the Desk Research undertaken to support this Report, is a generic SWP process the key features of which are summarised in Appendix A.

To support companies in introducing SWP, Semta undertook to publish a recommended process, guidelines and tools (for these, see Appendix B).

As a further positive result, all the participants in the UK’s system of applied learning and training will be able to communicate more robustly with each other and achieve more effective outcomes.

The desk research was supplemented by an enquiry into current practice in leading aerospace companies. This enquiry highlighted both deficiencies and good practices in those key elements which the research has shown make up a SWP programme.

Principal deficiencies have been shown to be:

A lack of basic workforce data

A lack of awareness of external factors affecting the workforce

Little or no ability to model workforce information against business scenarios

Few or no forward-looking strategies to develop the skills needed for the future

Little or no capability to develop skills strategies based on future business scenarios

of 18 document.doc

Little engagement on the part of senior management with workforce and skills issues.

Examples of good practice have also been identified, such as:

data gathering enabling Messier-Dowty to collect and record important data on their staff*

a monthly report compiled in Kembrey Wiring Systems, which identifies ways in which HR directly supports the achievement of key business objectives

Rolls Royce have developed and validated a SWP process guide to support an ‘informed dialogue’ between all the relevant parties to SWP, and a template* for recording the outputs from this

Bombardier Aerospace‘s management team regularly review workforce and skills issues with HR on a systematic, collaborative basis and jointly agree forward plans

* for the formats developed for these purposes, see Appendix C

On a self-rated scale of 1 to 4 (1 is equivalent to SWP ‘not undertaken’, 4 is equivalent to company taking a leadership role in SWP), the sector is broadly at level 2. (For details, see 3.2 below)

The output from a wider uptake of SWP will give industry and Semta access to better quality information with which to brief the providers of applied education and training and which can be used for budgeting purposes at all levels.

The programme of work that has given rise to this report has benefited from the endorsement and support of Semta and many leading aerospace companies. A number of other key stakeholders in both the public and private sectors have also contributed to the project. In particular, many senior people have actively participated in the underlying enquiry programme, in reviewing the recommendations in this Report as they have emerged, and in helping to formulate an approach to SWP that will be practical to apply in companies and thereby achieve a high level of industrial buy-in (see Acknowledgements in Appendix D).

The challenge for industry is to integrate SWP as a standard business management process, using it to inform business decisions, and taking the appropriate actions in response. These actions will include feeding the key outputs in to Semta to enable the providers and funders to respond.

The challenge for Semta is to support industry by promoting SWP, its development and promulgation, and providing funds for training in SWP if necessary. A SWP Output Template, which could be provided through a Semta/ NSAM web-enabled Portal, would give the sector and the provider network access to improved data.

The challenge for the Union is to support industry’s efforts by giving its formal endorsement to SWP and by encouraging the workforce to cooperate with the introduction and the on-going integration of it into business plans and programmes. The Union and its members also have an important role in supporting workforce development initiatives as they are planned and implemented on the ground.

The challenge for other key stakeholders, particularly SBAC, the Regional Aerospace Trade Associations and the Regional Development Agencies, is to support the endorsement and promulgation of SWP amongst their membership and within their Regions.

of 18 document.doc

The payback will be that both the public funding and company resources that currently go into workforce development and training will be spent in more effective ways and with far better outcomes for the UK economy as a whole.

“It should be the No. 1 people activity of any business! – with the increasing shortage of skills, Strategic Workforce Planning and Development will become a key differentiator.”

Keith HusseyHead of HR, Marshall Aerospace

“Airbus is fully supportive of the Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) project as it compliments and helps provide a process that is aligned to our HR organisations Centre of Expertise for employment, training and competence management. The key activities and scope of Airbus UK is to drive the strategy for headcount planning & budgeting with a clear strategic staffing plan. We must ensure we can identify our current and future skills & competency requirements aligned with our recruitment, marketing, internal mobility, redeployment and training activities. To deliver this, it is also essential we have effective and accurate HR reporting and data analysis which SWP will help provide a foundation for us to build and improve.”

Mick Fleming Head of HR - Employment, Training & Competence Airbus UK "Airbus HR - Generating Value through People".

of 18 document.doc

BACKGROUNDThe pressure to move the industry rapidly up the value chain is enormous, especially when taking into account the growing competition from India and China. As with many other key economic sectors, the continuing success of the UK’s aerospace industry depends on access to and the effective deployment of, a reliable supply of increasingly higher-level skills.

Skills shortages are headline news all over the advanced industrial world and companies urgently need to develop the capability of planning for their skills needs on a more systematic and inclusive basis. With demographic and other ‘supply chain’ issues in mind, the solutions need to be equally applicable to the existing workforce as to new entrants into work and, as with any supply chain, the needs of the providers of education and training must be fully taken into account so that they can provide a high-quality and timely response.

Semta’s seminal Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) makes clear, and it remains companies’ experience today, that there are already many important gaps in this crucial skills base. The provision currently available to help fill these gaps is not well-equipped to meet these needs, for a number of reasons. Principally, the problem is that industry is not communicating clearly enough and sufficiently ahead of time, what those needs are. Companies are not currently doing the necessary analysis or sharing the results of it as they need to, either for their own purposes or more widely.

The aerospace industry has a large and active community of education and training providers. Up until recently, though, industry has been slow to build the quality of relationships with these providers that would enable them to offer more effective programmes. Armed with output from company SWP programmes, industry could sit down with the providers and, together with them, draw up curricula and flexible provision tailored to its needs. Having a SWP programme in place in companies is an essential step towards achieving this. As a business management issue SWP is in its infancy but there are many organisations which are already well down the road in adopting processes to deliver it.

Semta’s Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) was published in May 2005 with the intention that it would be subject to a cyclical investigation in order to keep up to date with the Sector’s needs. This SSA investigation aims to forecast sector demographics, timescales and development themes, and be repeated every three years. As the SWP programme rolls out, the intention is that companies will be able to input their skills requirements into a common template so that Semta can respond as quickly as possible to any significant overall changes in demand and supply. The SWP process in effect becomes the SSA Process that can be cycled in response to industry‘s identified workforce development needs.

The National Skills Academy for Manufacturing (NSAM) was established in 2006 under Semta’s umbrella to lead the work in developing and supporting the provider network and its provision. A primary goal for NSAM is to work with industry to ensure the provider network has the capacity and capability to meet industry needs. It is expected that NSAM will play an increasingly central role in supporting the uptake of SWP within the Semta ‘footprint’.

"Strategic Workforce Planning is the real meat in the sandwich of the easily quoted mantra ‘demand led’ agenda"

Ged LeahyDirector of Strategic Workforce and Skills Planning-UKRolls-Royce plc

of 18 document.doc

1.0 THE SPONSORS AND THEIR ADDED-VALUE

The programme of work which gave rise to this report has been widely endorsed and sponsored both by Semta and by many leading companies. The industry’s other key stakeholders have also been active in their support of the project.

Companies have participated through their membership of Semta’s Aerospace Sector Skills Group, SBAC’s People Management Board, and other employer-led groups, such as the Regional Trade Associations for aerospace. Dozens of senior people have participated in the underlying enquiry programme, in reviewing the recommendations in this Report as they have emerged and, by helping to formulate an approach to SWP that will be practical to apply in companies, encouraging a high level of industrial buy-in. A key element of this project, from the outset, has been an awareness of the need for SWP to be approached inclusively in close collaboration with the current workforce, to whom it so crucially applies.

The SWP Project was overseen by a Project Steering Group which included senior representatives from Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, Airbus, Marshall Aerospace, the MOD and Unite.

The Unite Union has given its formal endorsement to the Project and has worked in active collaboration with companies and other stakeholders in all of the supporting groups above.

A list of contributing organisations and individuals is to be found in Appendix D.

2.0 DESK RESEARCH & ENQUIRY INTO CURRENT PRACTICE

2.1 Desk Research

A comprehensive trawl of the ‘state of the art’ in SWP has made it clear that this is still a new discipline. Background information was obtained principally from the Internet. A number of consultancies are now offering a commercial service under the SWP banner and there are many agencies and organisations positing their own definitions of and approaches to SWP.

In all essential areas, a report entitled ‘Strategic Workforce Planning: Forecasting Human Capital Needs to Execute Business Strategy’, published by the Conference Board in 2006, embodies the major common features of the wider internet search. These features, summarised in Appendix A, provide a generic model for Strategic Workforce Planning. The model has several overlapping and integrated stages for which inputs and outputs have been outlined. The key features are:

1. A Planning Strategy definition to reflect the business objectives and change drivers faced by the company

2. Current workforce analysis guided by workforce demographic data, internal & external

3. Demand analysis guided by strategic planning and budgets

4. Gap Analysis guided by the current workforce and demand analysis

5. Solution analysis guided by gap analysis and scenario planning against the defined Planning Strategy

6. Action plans guided by the previous stages with primary outputs defining topics, timescales and budgets

of 18 document.doc

7. Feedback and feed forward as part of the continuing use of SWP

There needs to be a clear identification of participants for these various features.

This research can also be used as a background tool in developing a Strategic Workforce Plan, and as a check to ensure that a particular approach maintains the core integrity that it espouses.

2.2 Current Practice

There is very little documentation available on current practice, although what does exist is highly consistent in identifying the same key features of an effective SWP process.

The work being undertaken by Rolls-Royce and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) (for more information on this, see Appendix C), being developed alongside and in close collaboration with the SWP project, has significantly informed the content of this Report and reinforced the principal recommendations below.

To understand companies’ current experience in relation to SWP and identify the barriers stopping them from undertaking SWP of their own volition, the SWP Project Steering Group developed a Questionnaire with which to conduct an enquiry into the current position on SWP in aerospace companies. The Questionnaire covered the principal elements of an effective SWP process (see Appendix B for the ten headings), as validated by the Desk Research. Based on these, companies were asked to take a broad view of their current practice and to rate their organisation on a score of 1-4, using the headings below as a guide:

1 = not undertaken to any real extent

2 = some elements exist within HR, usually in response to particular requirements e.g. for graduate recruitment once a year, or occasional reports to the Board - it happens in an ‘ad hoc’ way, no clear leadership/commitment within the business for doing it

3 = these responsibilities are clear and well-understood within HR , the relevant information is drawn together and reported on, and associated plans formulated on a regular basis - but the link to the business is not systematic or embedded

4 = is taking a leadership role in developing and operating a comprehensive SWP process (facilitated by HR?), which systematically feeds into business strategy & planning

The principal outcomes from this enquiry are summarised below:

2.2.1 Basic HRM data

Many companies hold only a very limited range of human resource management (HRM) data, and little if anything at all on skills or training, which are fundamental to SWP. No companies contacted currently integrate HRM data with other business management data and there is little if any modelling capability, to enable companies to test their HRM issues against business scenarios.

However, things are changing – several companies covered by this enquiry have begun the process of improving the quality of workforce data available, with emphasis on also introducing skills matrices and competencies, and encompassing training records. Some have found it necessary to undertake data capture initiatives, to build up their employment and skills development records.

of 18 document.doc

2.2.2 Current workforce issues & trends

Even where good basic HRM data is held by the company, it is not often analysed for either current status or trend information. This is a matter of some concern, not least because the only way to monitor employment law compliance is by means of such analysis. The only reports that are routinely provided from HR to the business - normally to Finance - are on basic headcount.

2.2.3 External market data

The external market for labour and skills provides a key context against which to develop SWP strategies – today’s workforce constantly interacts with it, and tomorrow’s workforce will be drawn from it. This relationship is too important to be ignored, yet the enquiry indicates that little effort is made to identify external labour market issues that could affect the workforce either in the short or longer term.

The external market is most likely to be researched, if at all, for salary review purposes - perhaps once a year, and often only for particular groups of employees, such as engineers. When external information is required for e.g. benchmarking or HR policy development purposes, some of the companies contributing to this enquiry seek this from the Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF) or the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), or participate in local HRM ‘clubs’ which exchange such information informally between themselves.

2.2.4 Identifying business strategies & the workforce implications of them

Good interaction between HR and the business does not of itself, produce strategic plans or related high added-value activities. If the HR Director is a member of the Executive Board or equivalent, or where HR Business Partners work closely with operational or functional departments, there is likely to be a good understanding of broad business issues and, at least in the short-term, of their impact on the workforce. However, this understanding does not readily get translated into policies or activities on the ground. As one senior contributor put it – “there is no meat in the sandwich”.

Very few companies are doing any analysis of the future workforce needs implied by their business strategies. Where they are, it is in key areas only e.g. engineering and technicians, and principally to enable graduate entry and apprentice programmes to be planned and resourced. This analysis will normally look no more than a year or two ahead, so limits the possibility of developing long-term plans or programmes of action to rectify shortfalls and/or meet future needs.

2.2.5 Skills Issues and future workforce needs

Most companies continue to rely on being able to draw skills in from the labour market whenever necessary, and accept the costs, compromises and disruption which this may involve. Recruitment executives are under enormous pressure to deliver on this ‘spot market’ basis, which they are increasingly unable to do within acceptable timescales, or in keeping with traditional candidate specifications. A wide range of shortages in key skills areas is being routinely experienced.

It is inevitable that the general lack of awareness of external labour market demographics and trends will increasingly leave companies at risk of significant, unforeseen difficulties in resourcing key skills areas.

2.2.6 Creating HR strategies & plans

Managers do not take the initiative to engage with HR in identifying and developing the kinds of HR programmes that they need in order to meet their business objectives. Few HR executives have a

of 18 document.doc

background in general management and they can only guess at what may be required, with little or no resource available to enable them to take undertake initiatives in any event. They can usually only be reactive, on a case-by-case, short-term basis.

2.2.7 Monitoring & Reporting

As has already been indicted, where HR reports are provided on a regular basis – and even if they do address something more than just headcount numbers - they usually only reflect the immediate, short-term. They are very rarely used as a feed into business planning strategies.

An interesting counter to this, is the practice in an aerospace SME, Kembrey Wiring Systems, where the HR Manager completes a monthly report for the Board which is part of their Capacity Planning programme, and which directly ties HRM issues into the delivery of 10 key business objectives .

2.2.8 Buy-in

HR has traditionally been seen by many companies as principally administrative and regulatory, and not as a core business function. It is therefore not looked to for business solutions. Management also sees workforce management issues as being of tactical rather than strategic importance.

It has been noted that Boards that are generally supportive to their HR functions and provide them with significant value-added opportunities to contribute to the business management debate, can nevertheless be particularly risk-averse when it comes to changing their workforce management practices.

A number of responses to this enquiry have reflected a sense of helplessness, which is mainly expressed as a lack of availability of time, resources and investment in HRM, which is seen as unlikely to change. Indeed, if the business is not asking for this support, it is not unreasonable to assume it is unlikely to fund any efforts to provide it.

Summary of the principal differentiators:

The principal differentiators of participating companies who are already close to implementing SWP are:

Good quality workforce data, which includes skills and training, and which is regularly interrogated both for current status and trend information

Draw from a range of information and other resources to support the development of strategic HR initiatives with a medium to long-term impact on the business

Formal discussions with managers, when HR initiatives are presented and jointly committed to

Already work to HR plans which are integrated with business plans to meet the needs of the current (12-month) budgeting cycle

Aim to extend this out over a 2-3 year timeframe

Overall, the companies who contributed to this enquiry rated their SWP readiness to be at about 2 – with 54% of the key elements rated at 1 or 2 and 37% rated at 3. Only 8% of all elements were rated at 4, the level at which, according to the research available, SWP is able to be fully effective. It would be safe to conclude that there is a long way to go if these companies are at all typical of the industry as a whole.

of 18 document.doc

These are the realities ‘on the ground’ that the recommendations below aim to address.

3.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

It was clear from the outset that solely to identify and recommend a particular SWP Model was never going to be enough. Companies would also need detailed, practical guidance and tools to support their adoption of a SWP programme. All companies start from a different place, being more or less advanced in some areas than others. Taking this into account, it is recognised that there is no one perfect way of going about this, although it is possible to identify some basic building blocks. Based on the experience of Rolls Royce and others who have already started down this road, the following guidance and tools are provided (for full details, see Appendix B):

a self-audit tool, to help companies identify their starting point

a proposed introductory workshop agenda

a recommended SWP process and detailed guidelines on following it

The need to offer training in SWP (particularly to the HR team), and systems support requirements are also highlighted below.

3.1 The ‘Self-Audit’ Tool

Appendix B contains a list of headings used for the enquiry into current practice covered at 2.2 above, each with appropriate standards of practice on a scale of 1-4. This can be used as a self-auditing tool and to raise awareness within the company of the issues that SWP will need to address.

It could also form the basis of an on-going agenda for HR and managers to work to and provide a ‘benchmark’ starting point for a SWP programme. For example, the participants invited to attend the SWP introductory Workshop below could be asked to complete this Questionnaire ahead of time to set the scene for the Workshop and to develop support for it.

3.2 Getting Started

The initiative to set up SWP could come from the Board or any senior manager or head of function (including HR). The first step will be to gain general management endorsement for a SWP Workshop to be attended by all the key participants. This workshop will require expert facilitation on the part of someone (or a small team) skilled both in SWP and in group work.

The principal objectives of this Workshop would be to test the proposed approach for usability within the company, to achieve buy-in and agreement to proceed with a SWP Pilot and to identify who will provide the lead to take it forward.

This Workshop could include the presentation of a report on current practice, based on the self-audit tool indicated in 3.1 above, to be found in detail in Appendix B.

A suggested Introductory Workshop programme is also to be found in Appendix B.

3.3 Process Guidelines

Having reviewed a number of models currently in use or being developed, together with the outcomes of the Desk Research, this Report proposes that companies set about SWP by adopting

of 18 document.doc

a 7-stage process in accordance with the diagram below. (This is based on one which has been developed and ‘road tested’ by Rolls-Royce, and which is also being taken up by BAE Systems as a key feature of their pilot SWP programme):

3.3.1 Strategic Workforce Planning Model

SWP is a business process – not ‘just’ an HR one – and starts with gathering information, both internally and externally, that will inform a business debate about the workforce environment.

This information-gathering stage needs to include some business scenarios, looking at a 2-3 year timeframe. A helpful approach might be to consider three possible scenarios, one of which could be an extrapolation forward from current operations, with perhaps a 20% more optimistic and 20% more pessimistic view of key performance metrics - like sales or profit or business mix - either side of it.

Monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes from the Strategic Workforce Plan will inform the next cycle of the process and should be on, at least, a 6-12 month basis

All the steps in the process need to involve HR, general managers and workforce representatives, and the whole process will benefit if it is independently facilitated so as to generate some challenge to existing assumptions and to ensure real outcomes. The process will also require access to supporting expertise and information.

3.3.2 Process Guidelines

To give as much practical support to the adoption of SWP as possible, detailed Process Guidelines are attached in Appendix B. These are based on those developed by Rolls-Royce for their own SWP programme, with minor amendments. They provide a step-by-step explanation of each stage in the SWP process, including the purpose of each step, who to involve in it, key criteria/questions to be covered and examples of the outputs to be produced at each stage.

of 18 document.doc

Exceeding

Financial and

Operational

Goals

6. Strategies & plans to close gaps

5. Project future workforce issues

4. Review current workforce and trends

2. Clarify ‘headline’ business strategies

1. Identify the external factors

Outputs,

Plans &

Actions

3. Assess the workforce implications of 2

7. Monitor & Report

Exceeding

Financial and

Operational

Goals






Outputs,

Plans &

Actions


7. Monitor & Report






Outputs,

Plans &

Actions


7. Monitor & Report

3.4 Training for the HR function

A background in HR, even at a senior level, may well not include experience of developing initiatives such as SWP, which are integrated with the achievement of business objectives. The majority of HR staff will also need some assitance in facilitating the introduction of SWP and its on-going support, in enhancing their business awareness and improving their ability to develop HR initiatives in response to business scenarios.

Discussions are underway with Semta/NSA-M for their input into the development and possible accreditation of training workshops for SWP. This should include evaluating the curricula and standards of such training already being offered by a number of commercial consultancies, as possible future recommended providers.

The availability of some supporting funding also needs to be investigated.

3.5 Systems Support

3.5.1 Data collection & management

Gathering the agreed minimum data is a pre-requisite of setting upon SWP, as is also its on-going management to meet SWP enquiries. The following list has been obtained from a specialised SWP consultancy:

ESSENTIAL BASELINE DATA:

o Employee Headcount and FTEo Age and Gender

o Classification / grades / salary bands

o Turnover/churn (employee initiated, organisation initiated, retirement)

o Business unit/location

o Length of Service

SWP DATA to include:

o Internal movements/promotionso Leadership succession planso Analysis of performance appraisal datao Contractors (not in employee

headcount)o Overtime (translating hours to FTE)o Diversity profileo Skills audit information

Many companies with a need to capture historical data not previously held, have developed forms specifically for staff to complete (for an example, see a data capture form which has been used by Messier-Dowty, in Appendix C).

The SWP database needs to be managed alongside the business data it supports, and there is a strong case for someone within the company to be given this specific responsibility (this is done within BAE Systems, for example). Larger companies or organisations may find it advisable to set up a SWP Centre of Excellence to support their SWP process in all its aspects.

3.5.2 The SWP Output/Reporting Template

All companies embarking on SWP will need an output/reporting template, which would become a key working record. Such a template has been designed by Rolls Royce to support its SWP, and a copy of this is attached in Appendix C to this Report.

3.5.3 IT Support to SWP

of 18 document.doc

Semta/NSA-M are exploring the possibility of offering a simple, web-enabled template to help companies record and collate SWP data with minimum investment in supporting technology.

4.0 PILOTS

There are two forms of Pilot underway. The first consists of regional events, based on the aerospace Regional Trade Associations (RTA’s)/clusters, where the Report and Recommendations will be validated with a number of companies and their regional stakeholders. The first of these was held under the auspices of the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA) in February 2008, with the following aims and outputs:

Aims of a regional workshop:

Test the proposed approach with ' friendly outsiders', to reveal defects/limitations Raise awareness and recruit new stakeholders and endorsers Achieve buy-in and create potential for Regional adoption and promotion Assist in identifying needs for roll-out communications programme For any companies involved, to test the Questionnaire and feed back

Outputs from a regional workshop:

Modifications/additions to the project Report Improved understanding of SWP, its aims and impact Adds new supporters into project database of contacts and their involvement Positions roll-out into the MAA regional membership Adds input from Qs to the Project Inputs file, to follow up with companies if required

Company pilots are also being conducted by several aerospace companies, to test the process out for themselves and provide feedback to the project team.

5.0 GOING FORWARD

This is an opportunity to have a significant impact on the availability and deployment of key skills, and to achieve more effective applied learning and training provision across industry.

It should be possible to improve the baseline SWP-readiness identified by the self-rating in the Questionnaire - of broadly level 2 - to broadly level 3 within 12-18 months. By that time, too, a higher proportion of activities – possibly as high as 20% - could be targeted as having moved onto level 4. Achieving these targets will depend on the quality of the roll-out processes undertaken from this point on, and on effective on-going communications and support by all the key stakeholders.

The challenge for industry is to integrate SWP as a standard business management process, using it to inform business decisions, and taking the appropriate actions in response.

The challenge for Semta and NSA-M is to support industry by promoting SWP, its development and promulgation, with the necessary energy, focus and the resources. This will include supporting training in SWP with funding if necessary. A SWP Output Template – perhaps provided through a web-enabled Portal – would give Semta and NSA-M access to improved data to inform the on-going updating of the SSA.

of 18 document.doc

There is also a strong case for establishing a Semta/NSA-M ‘Centre of Excellence’ on SWP to provide on-going support to companies, particularly in offering a forum in which companies and stakeholders can share their experiences of developing SWP initiatives and programmes.

The challenge for the Union is to support industry’s efforts by giving its formal endorsement to SWP and by encouraging the workforce to cooperate with its integration into business plans and programmes and, not least, also to participate in the learning opportunities and greater flexibility it will offer.

The challenge for other key stakeholders, particularly SBAC, the Regional Aerospace Trade Associations and the Regional Development Agencies, is to support the endorsement and promulgation of SWP in every way they can.

The payback will be that the public funding and company resources that currently go into workforce development and training will be spent in more effective ways and with better outcomes for the UK economy as a whole.

'..........Whilst some organisations have a good grasp on their long term customer demand signal, their technology and industry sector strategy and their workforce demographics, the ability to link this with their micro level plan or every person is the key differentiator which turns workforce planning into business plan reality. This report aims to help companies transition from Manpower Planning to Strategic Workforce Planning'

Alex LewisHR Director BAE Systems - Military Air Solutions

of 18 document.doc

download the report here

Documents