As Coronavirus continues to impact the world of work as we know it, Guidant Global has developed a four-step guide to help businesses plan ahead in the new normal. According to the leader in talent acquisition and managed workforce solutions, despite the increase in unemployment that’s being reported as a result of Covid-19, skill-short sectors are still struggling to source enough resources to deliver on projects.

With more businesses also facing greater fluidity of workforces – with the reliance on contingent resources continuing to grow and the CIPD predicting long-term remote working practices to be implemented – employers need a much more holistic approach to workforce planning. According to a recent report sponsored by Guidant Global, in order to achieve this, organisations need to follow four key measures:

1. Ensure business functions work closer together: Breaking down the silos between functions, such as procurement and human resources, to engender a joined-up approach is more important than ever if resources are to be streamlined.
2. Embrace lean and agile approaches to talent management: including the rapid scaling up and down of teams in line with project demands and utilising technology to cross-pollinate resources.
3. Use technology to predict skills gaps: The recruitment of new talent can only solve so many problems. It’s critical that effective workforce planning strategies consider existing skills gaps and identify how best to upskill existing employees to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Achieving this in a timely manner will require the right technology and data analytics tools to not only accurately predict where gaps are, but also if there are other resources elsewhere in the business supply chain that can be utilised.
4. Collaborate with third party experts: Where in-house capabilities need to be developed, collaborating with third party experts can prove more cost-effective.

Simon Blockley, CEO of Guidant Global, comments:

“It’s been a difficult year for everyone and there’s no doubt that the impact Covid-19 has had on the make-up of the workforce will be felt for many years. For employers, now is a pivotal moment to define what your business will look like for the immediate future. However, for those firms that were struggling with the growing complexity of talent pools prior to this crisis, effective workforce planning is certainly going to be more of a struggle now. By exploring and investing in the areas we’ve recommended, organisational workforce planning can and should improve for most businesses. Perhaps more importantly, though, taking these steps now will help companies be future-fit in what can only be described as a highly volatile global economy.”