Successful businesses require clear goals that clarify the purpose of the company, objectives which define the necessary actions, followed by position management and budgeting which help determine the talent necessary to make those plans come to life.
Leaders must work together to develop a talent strategy and staffing plan that will enable them to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.
For example, leaders might identify the need to hire 10 sales people to reach $4 million in revenue targets. The HR department then creates a plan for talent with open positions that need to be filled. The plan is loaded to an HCM system and the business starts to operate based on the plan at “state zero.”
Traditional human capital management (HCM) systems attempt to manage talent strategies based on requisitions and hiring plans. When an employee fills any given position, that position is forever linked with the first employee who filled it. This model has severe limitations because when an employee leaves, the position essentially leaves with them until it’s recreated and attached to another employee. With this model, the company loses position control, and headcount planning quickly becomes an arduous task.
By comparison, a modern HCM that uses position management software enables organizations to separate people from positions to more effectively conduct business and workforce planning. This approach allows the business to obtain accurate, historical, and real-time views of talent and the overall organizational structure–regardless of who is in a position. With valuable position-based data at their fingertips, HR can partner with finance, operations, and business unit leaders to plan for future talent needs, identify current talent gaps, and budget effectively to meet business needs.
Staff Planning
As part of the ongoing talent strategy process, organizations typically review staffing plans on a quarterly or annual basis. To successfully address position management and budgeting, leaders must review positions and the organizational structure required to get results.
When using an HCM that uses a position management architecture, leaders can view both unfilled and occupied positions over time. They’re able to assess staffing levels, including current and future openings, and project what’s required to meet future plans. Regardless of who currently holds a position, the modern HCM allows recruiting staff to assess current workforce needs based on seasonal fluctuation, as well as filled positions and open positions.
With the right position budgeting software, data doesn’t collapse when employees leave or when they move to another position within the organization. Instead, the data reflects any gaps in the organizational structure–by position. Understanding those gaps in a timely manner empowers the business to put a plan in place to fill open positions as needed.
Budget Planning
Current requisitions or hiring plans offer a one-dimensional view of talent: whom do we need to hire right now? Long-term talent budgets require access to data for current positions, as well as those which are planned. This allows the organization to create a talent budget based on roles needed, not just based on empty seats. Also, historical position management data provides organizations the opportunity to develop workforce budgeting plans for current and future talent, using valuable information based on past data trends.
Access to this type of real-time and historical information is required to manage and monitor a strategic talent budget effectively. HCMs such as PrimePay HR provide position data so that decision-makers can review important budget-to-actual metrics. When financial and talent plans exist in the same system as your recruiting and HR functions, teams can use integrated data and strategies to work together efficiently.
Your employees are people, and people’s lives are complicated. They get promoted, have kids, retire, and move on. But your HCM shouldn’t require you to adapt based on the ever-changing lives of your people.
With the right HCM software system, HR, Finance and Operations teams can successfully manage by position–rather than person–to:
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Plan the organization’s budget, headcount, and salaries
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Monitor plans vs. actual for headcount and compensation
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Use information from current and past positions to inform future budgets
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Investigate turnover and vacancy rates
PrimePay HR’s architecture allows organizations to access to real-time data that enables strategic human capital management. If you’re interested in how to position budgeting and control to modernize your HR, we’re here to help.
PrimePay HR allows you to manage positions independently from people and frees you from repetitive, time-consuming tasks.
Dustin Slightham is the Senior Director of PrimePay.com. He has over 16 years of experience in writing and content development. Before joining the PrimePay team, he built a successful small business, helping other business owners create effective sales and marketing strategies. Dustin frequently shares his insights through articles, enriching the knowledge base with almost two decades of valuable experience.
