Workforce Development Plan - Part 1: What Are They & Why You Need One

Creating a workforce development plan will improve the operation of any organization.

Regardless of the current state of your organization’s training program, it can be useful to think through what a workforce development plan might look like for you. Simply considering a plan will help you think more strategically about your organization’s existing training program, while developing and executing a formal plan will fast become a very valuable function of managing your organization. While there are countless variations in how organizations can develop and structure such plans, there are also key issues that are useful for anyone to consider.

A workforce development plan documents training that is currently provided to managers and employees, and identifies and addresses new training needs. At a minimum, a plan needs to include training topics required and/or desired for target audiences within the organization. At its most complete, a workforce development plan is specific to the level of individual development plans, and career development opportunities designed to prepare staff for job enlargement, or promotion.

Processes for creating a workforce development plan can be as varied as the plans themselves, and must therefore be customized for every organization. Some organizations will have a permanent training department complete the plan, while others will rely on individuals, a management team, or even a temporary committee. Still other organizations hire vendors. It is best to engage people from throughout the organization in creating a plan. Employees might be heavily involved, such as being involved in a workshop or they might be represented in the planning by individuals or teams. Some companies elect to incorporate employee perspectives through employee feedback, such as through interviews, surveys, focus groups or town hall style meetings.

All workforce development plans will address several topics. These topics include developing an idea of the “ideal state” of training and other learning activities for an organization, comparing the existing training program to the ideal state which leads to a gap analysis, and finally a plan to address the identified high priority needs, or gaps.

For more on this, look for our upcoming post “Part II: Creating a Workforce Development Plan.”-Marc