Intentionally design your resource strategy, or face losing vital talent

There's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to crafting your workforce. It is largely dependent on where your business stands in relation to demand and your short, medium and long term goals. But wherever you are on your journey, you shouldn't have to empty the piggy bank in order to craft a productive and sustainable workforce.

When you stop and really analyse your People & Resource strategy as a business, have you considered whether you have the right skills, engagement model, volume, quality, and diversity of people to make your business successful?

It's important to remember that there is more to this than just hiring permanent staff.

Could you:

• Outsource to a service provider to achieve a definitive outcome with a Statement of Work?

With a SOW, both sides can agree on what is expected, by when and to what standard within the parameters of a given budget. SOWs can significantly reduce the amount of time and associated costs that are spent on a project, therefore cost control is seen as one of the key benefits of outsourcing to a service provider with a Statement of Work.

• Engage an agency contractor for a fixed period or with an end-outcome in mind?

Contractors can help to keep the official headcount low and – though often at a higher rate than permanent staff members-engaging contractors allows the company to expand their workforce quickly, without having to retain excess staff once the project has been completed.

• Explore the Human Cloud and Gig Economy to achieve your goals?

The ‘human cloud’ is a concept that is steadily making its way into common use; it houses information about on-demand workers, and lets employers engage with the fast-growing gig economy.

The human cloud can help businesses save time and money spent on traditional employment practices. Hiring is faster and easier, and you pay for the skills you need on a transactional basis.

• Utilise existing internal resources through internal mobility programmes?

While recruiting outside talent is a crucial aspect of improving and growing your business, many companies overlook the most promising talent already in play within their company. Internal mobility is an integral consideration of a comprehensive talent acquisition strategy. Not only does tapping into this resource promote greater engagement and incentive within the workplace, it can also make your organization more resilient during downturns.

• Could you look at offshoring or nearshoring?

Nearshoring and Offshoring can allow your business to grow and succeed at speeds that were previously impossible without the necessity to undertake the responsibility for growing the workforce singularly on yourself.

And across all of those options – there are other important considerations:

1. Are you taking the time to challenge the strength of your hiring? Are you creating a business with a high density of the best talent - or are you hiring for speed and accepting average performers, or people who don’t align to your values as an organisation?
2. Are you thinking long-term  about the skills you’ll need in your business? With digital innovation & disruptive technologies being the biggest threat to many organisations, are you investing in tackling the skills gap or developing the skills of the future?

What we’re talking about here is about consciously shaping your workforce for the short, medium and long-term.

Utilising workforce planning & design techniques, employers need to be thinking strategically about how they’re delivering the short-term resources they need, whilst investing in the longer-term.

And doing so might afford you some quick wins. For example – if you are able to hire in remote locations – you could benefit from lower cost, higher skilled, and more available talent that still fit comfortably into your company culture.

We are currently offering FREE talent insight reports, which give you detailed information about pay, availability, gender and profiles of candidates within any skill set and show you how this varies across all regions of the UK. We’ve already helped some clients relocate or hire in remote locations to take advantage of the new realities of staffing in 2022. 

Click here for your FREE talent report.