Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan

SaaS Software for Workforce Planning

Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan™ Launches New Software 

 

Jeff Gross announced the launch of their latest B2B workforce planning software.  “This software as a service (SaaS) program will revolutionize the way companies create their plans for talent and succession”, Gross said.  “Now every business can identify the key skills and talent needed to succeed in business and create a just-in-time human capital plan to align to a business need.”

 

Business leaders today face unique challenges. Gross emphasized, “every company is seeking to gain a competitive advantage and they can’t afford to make mistakes by having the wrong person in the wrong job.”  He emphasized, “In professional sports a football team wouldn’t want the punter playing quarterback,” he added “for a business the stakes are just as high with many companies believe their competitive advantage is "their people." 

 

Jeffrey H. Gross, CEO and co-founder of Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan LLC.

Gross has authored seminars on workforce planning, succession planning and books: Workforce Planning: 90 Day Action Plan Handbook and Workforce Planning: 90 Day Action Plan Field Manual.

About: Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan LLC

Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan LLC is a privately held B2B software developer headquartered in Hudson, Ohio. The company has created cutting edge software that helps companies globally identify and align people, skills and competencies necessary to succeed in accomplishing their business goals.       

 

 

Part of Business Incubator TECHudson

We have formally become part of the newest business incubator in the Cleveland/Akron Ohio Metro-Plex.  Our opportunities are great and this gives us one more step in being able to bring state-of-the-art software to organizations world wide.  Check out our  Press Release

SaaS (Software as a Service) for Workforce Planning

Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan software is designed as Software as a Service (SaaS).  This "in the cloud" platform means you get the most recent release, we host the program for you and it is available through the Internet which means anywhere and anytime.  We have taken the time to create a top level solution for your human capital planning needs. This model saves your organization time and resources.  By committing on an annual basis you are ensured the most efficient and effective program possible.

Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan software utilizes all the fundamental building blocks we crafted successfully into our books and training programs.  All of the modules are interrelated which means the relational database feature makes the program user friendly and saves time by not requiring duplication of effort.

• Employee engagement - Launch surveys for data input from the contributors.
• User friendly - Create customized fields which uniquely define your organization.
• Effective- Select pre-populated fields which initiate a structure framing their program.
• Efficient - options for tracking and measuring the activity and accomplishments made by the organization.
• Dashboard views, reports and other customizable features.

Depending on your choosing, we look forward to hearing from you and share how this new web-based strategic software solution will help your organization.

• Private (exclusive for your organization)
• On-site or Web meeting
• Public (multiple companies invited) attend as your schedule allows.

Contact me -jeff@jeffreyhgross.com to discuss your needs, learn about the program, and schedule a demonstration for your team or task-force.

Software for Workforce Planning

We have designed our latest product with the strategic needs of HR in mind.

Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan™ business software incorporates  state-of-the-art technology to identify the most appropriate strategy for aligning the skills and people necessary so an organization can achieve its business goals.  The Challenges Facing HR... Human resources need a comprehensive time-saving way of doing their job better. Human Resource leaders and business executives are required to identify and match-up the skills and individual employees necessary to achieve their business goals. The steps taken to identify the individuals, track the program progress, measure the program success, capture the various data attached to each employee are frequently done in several different software programs as well as pencil and paper. The methodology is inconsistent, inefficient, unable to be quantified and likely ineffective. The Solution... Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan™ software was designed to answer these problems plaguing every business. We sought to create a "single source" software program for human resource leaders and business executives that saves them time; helps achieve their business goals; and improve the "fit" of employee matched to the business need while documenting, measuring and reporting on effectiveness and efficiency. Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan software utilizes all the fundamental building blocks we crafted successfully into our books and training programs.  All of the modules are interrelated which means the relational database feature makes the program user friendly and saves time by not requiring duplication of effort. Engineered for efficiency... Employee engagement - Launch surveys for data input from the contributors. User friendly - Create customized fields which uniquely define your organization. Effective - Select pre-populated fields which initiate a structure framing their program. Efficient - options for tracking and measuring the activity and accomplishments made by the organization. Dashboard views, reports and other customizable features. 90 Day Action Plan area is an active rolling calendar with the screen reflecting 90 days at a time. Intelligence Built In.... Workforce Planning 90 Day Action Plan™ software is configured around three functional aspects: A defined platform where the user identifies and/or customizes their unique business needs and people capacity to achieve these needs. An integrated unique set of algorithms which translate the indicated needs into specific and useable models. A fully defined series of metrics, reports and calendar tracking function which captures the activity in a dashboard showing the present and archives the data points for charting and comparisons in the future. Jeff Gross 216-559-2246

The Future is Now – Organizational Structures Reflect Workforce Designs in Field Manual

The economy stinks…hiring stagnates…companies profit…productivity hits record levels…what next?

 

Reference:Wall Street Journal December 4, 2010 Pg. 1 written by Sudeep Reddy, “Jobs Setback Clouds Recovery”;the author frustratingly describes the challenges of linking aspects of economic recovery and changes in predicting hiring.  An adjacent article in the same issue on Pg. 4, “Gyrating Numbers Are Misleading” by Mark Whitehouse reinforces the difficulty to predict hiring from economic conditions.  If you take the time to reference the aforementioned please read both articles. 

 

Predicting growth in hiringwill be a challenge no doubt.  However, peering through the looking glass, one can see a trend which is practical and, as I predict, here to stay.  In my reading of the tea leaves, companies are recalibrating and reconstructing their organizational structures to acclimate a workforce that is highly concentrated in temporary and flexible workers.   Sudeep Reddy fills 25% of page 4 with a series of charts from the Labor Department, most of which reflecting indiscernible squiggly lines.  The bold headline reads “Employers Shy Away From Permanent Hires”.  The related chart shows the spike of temporary help increasing over 25% in the last year.    

 

In my books on workforce planning I describe organizational structures based on strategic need for businesses.  In both the Handbook and the Field Manual present the need for a four level structure where the fourth level is comprised of the flexible work force.  In reality, many companies have used flexible workforce and contract workers for the last decade but do not have a formal definition indicating this group is part of the design.  Instead they use these individuals on what they consider an “as needed” component.  I predicted in 2009 that the use of this group would become a permanent part of organizational structures. 

 

“Workforce Planning: 90 Day Action Plan Field Manual” From the chapter on the Ideal Organization pages 54 and 55; Level IV Flexible Contractors.  

“These individuals are considered more readily replaceable and can fluctuate and change based on direction and strategy.  It is an area made up of contract workers, temporary individuals or flexible teams which are defined by the need.”

 

It seems clear, the future is nowand the wide spread use of contractors as discussed in the article by Reddy validates the changes I predicted.  As 2011 approaches and the analysts’ predictions are pushing out the decline in unemployment with “Goldman Sachs economists…expect the unemployment rate to remain high, ending 2012 at 8.5%”.  With the economic recovery in limbo, it would benefit any company not using this structure to pick up one of my books and follow the plan.  Here is a confidence booster.  If you are a company that does need specialized help, skills, knowledge and expertise, it is available.  I suggest that you craft a strategically aligned plan for your human capital needs just like you do your product and marketing needs.  Call if you need help.

About

http://www.jeffreyhgross.com/ is a research-based publishing enterprise providing consulting services, training products and programs in all facets of workforce planning.

Potpourri and Reflections on Leadership...

First off…

Just a quick comment from an article by Joann S. Lublin (favorite columnist) The Wall Street Journal page B4 on Tuesday October 12, 2010 – Blockbuster Launches a CEO Search. See Potpourri blog from September 25 – The Ugly section – where I call out the need to replace Jim Keyes.  Nothing personal on Mr. Keyes, CEO since 2007 and an apparent choosing approved by Carl Icahn, it just seems apparent to most that he was not going to be the leader to pull this dinosaur out of the La Brea Tar Pits.  I have been there and the mastodon bones are impressive.  Some day you may see a Blockbuster sign amidst the muck. 

 

Check back by the end of the year on who has been selected to replace Keys.  Here are several thoughts for Korn Ferry (if allowed to conduct the search by the bankruptcy court).   Choices:

1. Oprah picks up the brand and adopts it into the Harpo family.  She is a bargain hunter and could highlight it in hundreds of arenas few others can.  Carl, listen-up this is good.
2. Jeff Zucker, expiring NBC CEO, knows the media side of this world and many executives feel his pain.  Zucker is a sentimental favorite to land on his feet. 
3. Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh, may want to cash out from Amazon and knows the distribution side as well as the internet world and famous for odd cultures,
4. Last out-of-the-box and not my choice is Dan Hess the image CEO from Sprint (that is another story of nice guy and bad company (soon to be found in La Brea also). 
5. The other options:  Could be acquired by AOL, could be closed and pieces (whatever those are) would be sold (this is unlikely since the brand easily should outlive the restructuring.  Instead, look for someone from Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Sony, or some other digitally driven media house like Disney.

*** (Disclosure) This is an unusual entry but I couldn’t resist the opportunity.***

About

www.JeffreyHGross.com is a research-based publishing enterprise providing consulting services, training products and programs in all facets of workforce planning.

Creative Leadership Options Continued...

This brief note references the Blog from September 29 on Creative Leadership Options.  Take a look at the "Distributed Responsibility" comments.  Today an article by Steven Mufson, Washington Post, Titled "BP's chief of exploration replaced by three others"is the perfect example of how companies are re-thinking organization alignment in response to the past problems.  I mentioned Kanter's opinion of leadership needing to prep for more rresponsibility and kindly dissented.  The new chief executive at BP, Bob Dudley replaced the chief of exploration with three individuals. 

The lesson you can take from this insight is to "get creative" when it comes to organizational structures.  In our research I have routinely found the old matrix structures lacking.  Look forward to insights and comments. 

Look for the weekend comments and insights.

Ciao,

Jeff

Creative Options for Leadership

Does your leadership model reflect the strategic need of your business model?

The market place changes, the impact from the global competition creates a need for intensity and yet, your organizational structure reflects the 1990’s when a matrix (not the film) was all the rage.  How can you begin to think you are creating a competitive solution to the need-for-speed when your leadership model resembles a snail inching along the path, slime trail and all?  Yech!

 Here are three, yes count them three, options that will make more sense and be attractive but for different needs and reasons.  In addition, I will emphasize three aspects of leading; the person (who is taking the role) as one level of importance, the need (what the strategic goal that is being achieved for the company) and the role (actual title and spot in the organizational structure).

 

The Rotational Leadership Option

I start by referencing an article (The Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2010 page B9, Elizabeth Holmes, Top Jobs Shifted at Gilt Groupe).  “Gilt Groupe Inc. said Monday that its chairman and chief executive will swap roles, as the on-line luxury-goods retailer continues to get its top leadership in order.”  This article is well written and important because it brings to the forefront the creative option of rotating leaders and not simply dumping someone who was felt to be a great recruiting find.  Elizabeth Holmes highlights the changes, more than first indicated, revolving around Susan Lyne, previously CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.,  becoming the chairman and Kevin Ryan, co-funded Gilt and past CEO of DoubleClick, taking the CEO role. 

 

Rotational leading is a viable option for many organizations.  This formula may be planned and cyclical with the changes intending to bring a fresh perspective to a position or development opportunity for the individuals swapping roles (marketing manager and sales manager swap is not unusual).  Here is what you are doing, emphasis is around the person first and the role or need for the business is next.

 

The Distributed Leading Option

In this example I begin with referencing an article by the iconic Rosabeth Moss Kanter,

(page 42, Harvard Business Review, October 2010, It’s Time to Take Full Responsibility)where she brings a different challenge to leaders in the future.  She drives home the challenges highlighted in the recent BP oil spill bringing an end to the career of Tony Hayward.  In the column, Kanter emphasizes an interesting but not necessarily accurate prediction that leaders will be held responsible for cradle-to-grave impact of every product they oversee.  I don’t buy it but here is an option.  Rebalancing or distributing the responsibilities across different leadership streams, I predict, will be more important in the future.  This formula is one that easily translates to “teaming” efforts.  I also predict, the future will bring resurgence in teams, self-directed teams, autonomous work teams or any other vernacular you may be familiar with.  The reasons I believe that teams are going to be big in the future will be for another Blog. 

 

Distributed leading is one formula where the need of the organization is first, the role of individuals accepting the responsibility is second and because the need is first the person filling the role becomes third.  This reallocation of responsibility would be a solution to the dilemma posed by Kanter because we assume her challenge to leaders is based on a traditional hierarchical structure causing responsibility to fall in the lap of one person.

 

The Strategic Leading Option

Now I start out with quoting myself, “…we are challenging you to designate the key positions by level of strategic importance.  In your future, the workforce will be most efficient and effective if you have proportioned the organizational structure by using a structure based on the need for strategic leadership.”  (Page 52, Your Ideal Organization, Workforce Planning: 90 Day Action Plan Field Manual)

 

You will have to read this section or contact me to discuss the impact you will gain from it.  In essence, I have recommended that you redesign your organizational structures following the definition of a “key position” and determination of a validated competency model around the specific strategic need.  In our programs that means the most important part of the leadership designations is the need followed by the role and the person is last.  In this model you can adjust some of the pieces by presenting some aspects of the previous formulas, teams and rotational assignments both fit nicely.

 

The take-away from this commentary is design a structure on purpose and with the need first.  In too many organizations it is last.  Entire organizations are redesigned around finding a role for a person.  In basket ball there are always five players from each team on the court not four or six.  Make sense?  Contact me or bring a comment.

 

About

http://www.jeffreyhgross.com/is a research-based publishing enterprise providing consulting services, training products and programs in all facets of workforce planning.

 

Potpourri; the end of the week observations from media headlines…

Each week I will seek to bring you a summary of the observations generated by headlines in various media and journalistic endeavors to dissect the forum of business activities.  I hope to enlighten, synthesize and craft a view from different articles all with strong linkage to workforce planning challenges that will intellectually challenge you.  This forum may periodically stray down a path I find particularly interesting and if you disagree I ask for your patience and understanding in advance.  I will not do so again.  With that pre-nup, let’s engage.

 The Good, Bad and Ugly

First – The Bad

Rite Aid’s Loss Widens as Revenue Declinesby Veronica Dagher and Matt Jarzemsky.  Rite Aid Corp. posts a loss after cost-cutting and refinancing fails to gain results.  The linkage – They bought Brooks Eckerd in 2007 which saddled them with debt.  Plan to fix the problem is to continue to “rationalize” distribution networks and close stores.  Opinion – you can read extensively about M&A activity in studies by different consulting organizations, my favorite is McKinsey and nearly all will tell you these activities are a long shot to succeed.  The impact on the workforce, start talent too, is devastating.  Bad decisions by turf hungry executives turn to losses in shareholder value.  Any time a company is “saddled with debt” can’t be good.  If you are looking for something to learn follow the words.  Rationalize is a not too covert way to say we are cutting up the company (usually the acquisition) into pieces, eliminating layers, positions, selling off assets and any other method of cost-cutting that somehow translates to “cost-saving” and eliminating competition.  I am not in favor of large acquisition growth because they do not work. 

 

Lesson Two

The headline, Bristol-Myers to Cut Work Force by 3% by Peter Loftus, ends up as the same story this time with a different industry.  They are cutting jobs as part of a “streamlining initiative” and in the next six months are cutting costs to create a “more agile” organization.  Companies that use these phrases are spinning the quotient resulting from the division of numerator and denominator that means we miscalculated the workforce needs.  That is a positive way of saying we screwed up and have to eliminate positions.  Poor decisions again are reflected in the result.  The bad in this case is lack of aligning the right employee base or structure to the business need. 

 

Now the Ugly

Blockbuster to Remake Itself Under Creditorsby Mike Spector – not a surprise here but nevertheless sad.  Blockbuster is “struggling under debt of $900 million” is going through a filing for bankruptcy protection after failing to see and follow the trends of the movie-rental industry.  The oddity in this case is how Viacom bought Blockbuster in 1994 when it was a darling in the space and paid dearly with a purchase price of $8 billion, painfully dragging on the bottom line it was cut free and spun off in 2004.  Here is the rub.  CEO Jim Keys appears to be telling the story of how he will lead the company out of the dungeon and the ultimate question is, will the notoriously difficult Carl Icahn buy it?  Prediction – stores will close, commercial real estate space will open up by the tens of thousands of square foot as brick and mortar way of accessing movies dies.  Also, if he doesn’t, Carl should fire the entire senior staff because someone needs to own this mistake.   The assets of millions of rental DVDs can be donated to libraries and the downloading of digital streaming commence.  The workforce implications are a strange formula in this industry because the total number of full-time employees per store is only about 2.5 with the rest made up of part-time college students and waiters seeking to pick-up a buck during the day-time or off shift from their restaurant gig.  The model for workforce planning in this dinosaur age retail endeavor was popular and it follows my Level IV Ideal Organization structure highlighting the leveraging of contract, flexible and contingent workers (not to be confused with the Kirkpatrick Level IV) but the market strategy failed to keep-up with the consumer options. 

 

At long last – The Good

 

Nike Profit Climbs 9% - by Joan E. Solsman.  There is a ray of sun shine and one of the favorite companies we follow is Nike.  I would encourage you to pick-up a copy of September 2010 Fast Company (subscribe if you don’t already) a profile on CEO Mark Parker.  Parker was one of Nike’s early engineer/designers and a creative seeking an opportunity to express himself in the market place.    Parker is a star to watch.  In harsh economic times where consumers are sheltering dollars growing vegetable gardens and discriminating shedding credit Nike has found a way into their wallets.  They did cut costs and inventory to protect their bottom line and the result was demonstrated by confidence of the consumer in “the power of our growth strategy,” according to Parker.  Yes Nike did unload inventory and sell-off unprofitable acquisitions but this week they are The Good story.  We compliment the company and the leadership. 

 

Morals in stories end up being subjective.  In these headlines there are lessons to be learned.  I don’t mind cost-cutting and periodic change in market strategy or even an infrequent “right-sizing” but the poor leadership as reflected in the Blockbuster and Rite Aid companies routinely failing to get it right should be pointed out.  In the books I write I want to bring quality messages of hope and positive actions.  In these cases I will point out mistakes.   M&A as a growth strategy rarely works.  In addition, taking on debt, just like our country or as individuals, from bad decisions leads to the woodshed and the beating by the competition siphoning off any possible share holder value.  Leaders are rarely held accountable for bad decisions and the victims are individuals who lose their jobs because they exist, not because they performed badly. 

Stays tuned for next week’s stories and catch the mid-week blog (should I find something interesting to say).

 

Articles in this discussion are from The Wall Street Journal September 24, 2010.  If you don’t subscribe to the best journalistic endeavor you should.  All information contained is derived from these articles and omissions or discrepancies have to b attributed to the article.  My opinions of the scenarios are mine.

 

About

www.JeffreyHGross.com is a research-based publishing enterprise providing consulting services, training products and programs in all facets of workforce planning.

 

 

Blue Oceans are preferred for organizational change

In their breakthrough book on innovation, Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne point out organizational change hurdles you are likely to face. Our recommendation is for you to consider brainstorming and meeting topics for your task force.  We highly recommend this book. The hurdles in Blue Ocean Strategy are: The Cognitive Hurdle, The Resources Hurdle, The Motivational Hurdle and The Political Hurdle.

Page 134 Workforce Planning: 90 Day Action Plan Field Manual

From the Field Manual – Food for Thought

Workforce Planning is a strategic enterprise-wide program.  Don’t lower the bar, go in with your eyes wide open and anticipate resistance, “Every organization will face an uphill battle when you are seeking to make an enterprise-wide change.  Be prepared, the results will be worth the challenge.”

Wide-sweeping innovation and organizational change will require you to cultivate the ground and sow the seeds to prepare your company to move in a direction for which it has no precedent.

In building this framework, look for internal “customer insights” by testing and seeking opinions and understanding the needs of the stakeholders.  These insights should influence the design of your workforce planning program in a positive and proactive way.  When you extract the value from these interactions the ad hoc collaboration from these customers will improve the design and implementation process.  Consider taking a customer survey and tap into focus groups early.  These data points will give you added support early on as well as indicate areas needing improvement.

About

http://www.jeffreyhgross.com/ is a research-based publishing enterprise providing consulting services, training products and programs in all facets of workforce planning.