3 ways HRMS can automate workforce planning

Workforce planning is the alignment of your employees to your overall business plan to ensure that your workforce is managed in a way that will meet the needs of the future business. Your HRMS is a tool that contributes to this task in many ways, such as via data analysis and reporting, and it can also help you to improve the efficiency and accuracy of workforce planning via automated processes.

Here are some examples of where your HRMS can automate workforce planning.

1. Use of big data to enable predictive analytics

Previously, workforce planning has depended on HRMS employee data and reporting, but insight was often derived through manual efforts and calculations outside of the system. A number of HRMS vendors are now able to incorporate big data directly into their applications. This large depth of data is helping to automate the predictive analytics facet of workforce planning with the final reports being run directly from the HRMS rather than it providing reports with only the raw numbers, saving time and effort as well as ensuring the methodology used is correct and standard.

Recommended Reading: HRMS Software Guide - Find an HRMS able you to automate workforce planning

2. Automate matching and gap identification

Many HRMS hold competencies and skills on positions and employees so that someone in HR can use the system to review where employees are missing skills to move up or where a gap could be predicted to occur in a few years. The current generation of HRMS are however; much smarter. Rather than depending on an HR employee to do that up-front work, your HRMS can be configured to perform that analysis and alert the responsible person, such as an HR business partner or manager, when a gap is seen in a reporting line. Your HRMS can also alert an employee about a critical training course they could take to allow them to fill a future gap.

3. Plan for future talent in a cost-effective manner

Under the old methods, when a talent gap was identified in an org chart, an HR business partner would review the position, research the market, and review external and internal candidates to try to fill the future gap. Your HRMS can take on much of that work because it knows the cost of hiring candidates, along with asking salaries of candidates in the talent pool. Your HRMS knows current employee salary costs along with training and course costs. Your HRMS can then take the lead in modeling various workforce scenarios, so that you can see the costs of the various options and can choose the one with the best return that fits your planned future needs.