Workforce planning can often feel like walking a tightrope—balancing employee needs, legal requirements, and operational efficiency with limited support from outdated tools. We explore the common pitfalls of manual planning processes and how they can impact your organisation. From managing unexpected disruptions to ensuring compliance and minimising errors, we reveal practical strategies to overcome these challenges. Dive in to discover how you can streamline your workforce planning and make smarter, more informed decisions that drive success.
Being a workforce planner is a challenging and high-responsibility role. Planners often face blame if:
- A roster does not align with the expectations of the planned personnel.
- The personal plan becomes unfeasible due to sudden disturbances.
- Rosters and planning fail to match personal contracts.
- The outcome of tasks falls short of expectations.
Typically, planners lack intelligent tools and often rely on MS Excel as their primary planning tool. While spreadsheets can suffice for basic needs, the number of relevant factors has grown significantly since these spreadsheets were first set up.
Frequently, the original creator of the planning system has retired or left the company, leaving essential knowledge only in their mind. The initial setup often did not account for future growth or multiple planners using the system simultaneously. Consequently, planners are left to manually search for and interpret data, making the process inefficient and prone to errors.
Commonly observed issues include:
- Gathering all relevant information on a weekly or daily basis through numerous phone calls and checking multiple data sources.
- Verifying the contract details of specific individuals, including their working hours and days.
- Ensuring compliance with labour laws and collective agreements.
- Determining who is certified to operate certain equipment and if specific competencies are required for certain tasks.
- Managing the pressure to make timely decisions.
Without an advanced planning system, planners are bogged down by tasks that do not contribute to creating an optimal plan. The manual effort involved, combined with the stress of the role, often leads to mistakes, with varying implications from minor to severe:
- Plans that are not feasible, making it impossible to execute tasks as intended.
- Rosters and plans that do not align with personal preferences.
- Non-compliance with personal contracts, leading to issues such as unmet contractual hours or costly overtime.
- Violations of labour laws and collective agreements.
- Dangerous situations due to mismatched competencies and certifications.
An advanced planning system, as an example the Field Service Planning – Multi Resource (FSP-MR) solution, can help planners optimise their plans while accounting for all constraints. By digitising and automating many of the current tasks, planners can focus on their primary role: crafting the best possible plan from the start.
Here are five reasons to use an advanced planning tool like the FSP-MR solution:
- Optimised Resource Allocation: Deploy workers, equipment, and materials efficiently to ensure timely task completion and improved operational efficiency.
- Enhanced Workforce Productivity: Minimise travel and idle time, reduce missed appointments, and ensure tasks are executed correctly the first time by skilled workers with the right equipment.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Adapt to your organisation’s size and complexity, from small teams to large, distributed workforces, with effective rostering and scheduling.
- Improved Planning and Decision-Making: Leverage advanced planning features for data-driven decisions and streamlined processes, with semi-automated planning that keeps planners in control.
- Seamless Integration and Efficiency Gains: Utilise top-tier DELMIA Quintiq software for a reliable, integrated platform that simplifies complex planning and optimises resource use.