Most organizations have faced disruptions over the past few years. Consequently, many businesses have developed operational practices necessary to keep serving customers and supporting employees during times of uncertainty.
Because of this, forward-thinking business leaders recognize that having a flexible strategy is an essential part of workforce operations planning. Flexibility is vital to your company’s resilience and long-term success, whether you’re facing natural disasters, economic shifts or other unforeseen challenges. By reflecting forward and planning ahead, your company may be more nimble and perhaps more likely to persevere through hardships.
Are your workforce operations ready for future disruptive situations? How will you adapt your mindset and strategies so that you can manage employee-related functions in a way that maintains your organization’s productivity, continuity and culture?
From business needs to employee expectations, below are a few things to consider regarding a flexible workforce strategy.
Keep a change management mindset
Central to your planning must be a commitment to acknowledging reality, particularly when it may have changed dramatically due to an outside force. Even if your workforce management plan involves returning to familiar ways of operating, you can’t simply revert to the past without addressing what’s been learned and experienced.
Consider the following realities your employees may have faced during recent changes:
- Sudden (and perhaps sweeping) operational shifts
- Increasing comfort with nontypical ways of operating
- Multiple change cycles as you’ve had to adjust your plans
Acknowledging these experiences is key to moving forward successfully. A thoughtful, mindful approach can help mitigate change fatigue and promote smoother operations.
Establish your guideposts
As a business leader or executive, you’ve likely learned that it can be a challenge to decide how to move your organization through a crisis in a way that:
- Stays true to your culture
- Ensures continued growth
- Shows employees their importance
At the same time, staying aligned with your mission, vision and values can help you keep a steady, firm grip on your workforce operations. Ideally, your organizational foundations should serve as guideposts as you assess alignment of new workplace practices and build a successful operations plan.
3 essential planning steps
Every organization is different, but here are some key considerations to help drive your workforce planning process.
1. Evaluate your business needs
Whatever the climate in which your company operates, you should consistently be able to connect your operational choices to your business strategy and needs.
To ensure alignment with your business strategy, assess how your operations support your goals. Take time with your leadership team to articulate:
- How has our business environment changed?
- Have our customer’s needs or expectations shifted?
- How can we anticipate and prepare for future disruptions?
This last point is critical. Resist the temptation to become mired in the present and lose sight of the future. Instead, acknowledge reality and opt to cultivate a resilient mindset.
2. Assess your operational possibilities
Recent challenges may revealed an expanded range of your team’s operational capabilities. For example, since 2020, some or all of your employees may have been able to swing from 100% in-person work to 100% remote.
However, what was possible for your team during a disruption isn’t necessarily what’s optimal for the future. Going forward, it’s important to strike a balance in contemplating past, present and future needs. Carefully and continuously consider how to optimize your workforce operations as a situation unfolds.
For instance, here are some key considerations regarding where employees work:
- What are the short- and long-term pros and cons of onsite vs. remote vs. hybrid work for our key stakeholders (customers, employees and leaders)?
- Will our choices be in compliance with local, state and federal mandates?
- What practices will help us continue to create a safe workplace?
3. Consider the management aspects
Your managers will be responsible for leading employees through changes and carrying out your updated workforce operations plan.
Don’t fail to consider how your leaders will continue to:
- Manage employee needs and expectations
- Optimize performance
- Maintain connectedness
Documenting your workforce operations planning
Once you have regained clarity on broad business drivers and needs, it’s time to focus on department and job-level responsibilities.
For all roles and decisions, continue to make strong connections between those drivers and the needs of your clients and prospects, aiming for a consistent approach.
It may be helpful to develop team charters (e.g., documents that define a team’s overall objectives, tasks, resources, culture drivers and constraints). These can help explain why requirements may vary for different groups within your organization based on business needs.
In the case of major disruptions like a pandemic or natural disaster, for example, here are some specific items to drill down on and address in your workforce plan and business continuity plan.
Contingency planning
- Review and update your business continuity plan as needed.
- Review your supply chain as well as vendor agreements and performance.
- Confirm that vendors, suppliers and partners have business continuity plans.
Benefits compliance
- Ensure compliance with new and emerging local, state and federal-based mandates (e.g., leave and sick entitlements, time off for medical visits, etc.).
Workforce management
- Train a manager to address requests for accommodations to working conditions (e.g., schedule, worksite location, job duties).
- Update your remote work policy.
- Provide return-to-office guidelines.
- Create travel guidelines defining essential vs. nonessential travel.
- Create flexible work guidelines, covering work hours, locations and work-sharing.
- Identify key positions and create a contingency plan to cover them during absences.
- Review job descriptions to ensure essential functions are current.
- Review compensation to assess market competitiveness and internal equity.
Wellness initiatives
- Inform employees about your employee assistance program (EAP) if applicable and any available wellbeing resources.
Communicating a way forward
How you speak to your employees about any new workforce plans is a huge part of moving forward after any significant change to your routine operations.
Engage in two-way communication with your team throughout the process. Give them opportunities to share their thoughts either through surveys or conversations that intentionally invite their feedback.
Also, don’t fear overcommunication. For example, provide straightforward expectations for what it should look like when your employees are working in the office and when they’re working offsite, explaining how meetings and office hours will be handled in both contexts.
Remind employees that your approach will evolve as needed, and ask them to join you in staying flexible as you try some new strategies.
Summing it all up
Whether it’s a global pandemic or another unforeseen disaster, your company can prepare for the unexpected by integrating a flexible workforce strategy into your overall operations planning. Indeed, with foresight, good communication and a resilient mindset, your business may be more likely to weather successfully whatever the future holds.
Workplace change is difficult, and Insperity’s here to help. Download your copy of our free magazine now, The Insperity guide to managing change.