Workforce Insights

Workforce Planning

Impact of Covid

Improving Productivity

Leadership in a changed world

<h2>Right Capability</h2>
<p>Capability is the extent of an ability to achieve a particular outcome and both combines and transcends the traditional categorizations of right people and right skills. It is traditionally explored as a construct of five components<sup>1</sup>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Knowledge:&nbsp;is the internally memorised information required to complete a task. It is derived from a learning experience, either active in the form of training or passive through having direct exposure. Knowledge is distinct from having access to knowledge, which is an element of the environment. Indeed, the growing ease of access to information and the increasing use of intuitive systems has corresponded with a reduction in the requirement for knowledge to complete tasks.<br><br></li>
<li>Skills:&nbsp;are practised techniques that enable the achievement of an outcome. These skills can be viewed as considering ideas (cognitive), doing things (technical) or relating to people (interpersonal).<br><br></li>
<li>Mindset:&nbsp;comprises the mental aspect that both enable skills and knowledge to be achieved and for them to become action. It can be said to comprise three distinct elements: emotional, how we feel about something; cognitive, how we think about something; and behavioural, how we react to something.<br><br></li>
<li>Physiology:&nbsp;refers to those characteristics required to both achieve knowledge, skills, and mindset, but also the ability to translate that into action in a particular circumstance. It comprises mental (such as intelligence) and physical (such as appearance and strength); health and wellbeing, both mental and physical, are key elements. Physiology can also be said to relate to natural ability that can enable knowledge and skills to be attained quicker or executed to a higher degree of performance. Throughout time, technology has continued to bridge physiological limitations, both enabling competency attainment and execution for the first time in some and pushing the boundaries of human possibility for others.<br><br></li>
<li>Environment:&nbsp;relates to the factors independent of a worker that promote, enable, restrict or prevent a competency from translating into the desired outcome. This can include hygiene factors (such as noise, temperature and comfort), hard factors (such as technology, processes and resources) and soft factors (such as culture and leadership). Environment is a critical factor that both impacts mindset (positive and negative) and can overcome limitations of physiology.</li>
</ul>
<p>To these five components I add a sixth<sup>2</sup>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Accreditation:&nbsp;At a basic level, most workers are subject to some form of screening or basic background check. Roles in government, defence and law enforcement typically require varying degrees of security clearance. Regulated professions necessitate accreditations either based on a single qualification, such as barristers passing the bar, or a time-limited certification, as is the case with gas engineers. Those regulated professions with exacting standards around safety require declarations around personal health and intoxication, or logbooks confirming hours worked in advance. For both these professions and many workers, accreditation will take the form of a license or pass that must be carried. Indeed, even basic capabilities in the modern workplace are inextricably linked to the completion of mandatory training, regardless of whether that training translates into knowledge.</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/what-is-workforce-planning/rich-text-content/wiwfp-page-break-1.jpg" alt="what is workforce planning"></p>
<h2>Right Size</h2>
<p>Size is simply about the numbers: is there enough capability within an organization to achieve an outcome?<br><br></p>
<h2>Right Location</h2>
<p>Is a capability in the right location to achieve an outcome? It can be considered within two specific dimensions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Geographic:&nbsp;Depending on the meso level of the organization, the geographic element could be viewed as an economic region level (e.g. EMEA - Europe, Middle East and Africa), at a national level, an intra-national level (e.g. states, counties or cities) or at a locale-level (e.g. offices or plants).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Structural:&nbsp;The structural location relates to the business hierarchy in which a capability exists, usually a team. In simple terms, if a finance team requires a finance capability, it is of limited value if that capability is otherwise employed within the marketing team. Whilst it is not unusual for some capabilities to be dispersed within a structure, it requires some form of business structure to bring it together at scale, even only on a temporary basis.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Right Time</h2>
<p>The right time is considered across two dimensions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Firstly, is a capability available&nbsp;<strong>at the point</strong>&nbsp;it is needed? A capability too early may result in wasted value, a capability too late may delay an outcome and waste value in related capabilities. Consider the wasted value of an aircraft, of groundcrew and aircrew, just through the delay of a pilot.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Secondly, is a capability available&nbsp;<strong>for the duration</strong>&nbsp;it is needed? Every task takes time and even the shortest of tasks have a duration where a capability is needed. A capability that cannot be provided for the duration can result in delay and wasted value. Consider both a capability required for three days, but only provided for one, and a capability provided for three days but borrowed elsewhere for the second day. In addition, after the duration of a task a capability is surplus and, unless reassigned, again results in wasted value.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Right Cost</h2>
<p>Are we paying the right cost for the capability? This goes beyond the concept of a budget and if an organisation can afford a cost but is more importantly seen as a question of value for money. The cost can be considered in three different ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>The&nbsp;<strong>accounting cost</strong>&nbsp;is the actual funds spent on an activity. Typically understood as fixed costs that do not vary with output (such as factories) and variable costs that do change with output (such raw materials). At a macro level, human capabilities are semi-variable as a workforce is always needed to keep the lights on. At a meso level, however, the cost of human capabilities can be distinguished as either fixed or variable.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The&nbsp;<strong>opportunity cost</strong>&nbsp;is the cost of employing a capability in one activity rather than another and captures imputed costs where factors of production are already owned by an organization. For example, whilst employing a team would be considered as an accounting cost, reassigning them from one activity to another would be considered an opportunity cost. In addition to the accounting and opportunity cost, usually grouped together as the economic cost, is the external cost.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The&nbsp;<strong>external costs</strong>&nbsp;are those imposed on a third party; the commonly cited example is the external cost of passive smoking that results from the tobacco industry. In relation to the workforce, this cost is typically associated with decisions around offshoring to satisfy an economic cost. The resulting layoffs can devastate local communities and must be recognized as an organization may wish to take a different choice once the true cost is established.</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/what-is-workforce-planning/rich-text-content/wiwfp-page-break-2.jpg" alt="what is workforce planning"></p>
<h2>Right Risk&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Risk is concerned with two things: the potential impact of a negative event and the likelihood of that event taking place. The workplace has myriad risks that will need to be accepted or mitigated. Mitigations come at cost, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Capability Deficit:</strong>&nbsp;The risk that at a future point in time there will be insufficient levels of capability to deliver an output, this might result in lost revenue for an organization, and</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Capability Surplus:</strong>&nbsp;Having more capability than is needed.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Right Shape</h2>
<p>If size is about the numbers of a capability, then shape is the mix of those capabilities within a workforce: is there the right shape of capabilities to achieve an outcome? This is where we will consider if we have the right ratio of managers to direct reports, if we have the right range of experiences to maintain internal progression and whether we have the right level of diversity within the business.</p>
<p>Workforce planning therefore starts with understanding the organisational demand for workers to create the desired business outcomes. That is then framed across these seven rights. Together, they define the &lsquo;right workforce&rsquo; for your organisation.</p>
<h3>References</h3>
<ol>
<li>Matthews, P (2014) Capability at Work: How to solve the performance puzzle, Three Faces Publishing, Milton Keynes</li>
<li>Gibson, A (2021) Agile Workforce Planning: How to align people with organizational strategy for improved performance, Kogan Page, London</li>
</ol>

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<p>If asked the question &ldquo;what is workforce planning?&rdquo; a thousand HR professionals would probably provide a thousand different definitions.</p>
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What is Workforce Planning?

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<h2>The next destination</h2>
<p><img style="float: right;" src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/the-workforce-of-the-future/rich-text-content/workforce-future-drivers-of-change-graphic_rgb-01.png%20style=?h=629&amp;w=520&amp;hash=F35F5BF629FEABB79DE773DF9EF67C07" alt="Workforce of the future"></p>
<p>The latest report on the Future of Jobs casts its eye to 2025 as it considers how these disruptive forces will shape the next five years. Some of its key global findings are:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Job creation will outstrip job destruction:</strong>&nbsp;Though the disruptive trends of the fourth industrial revolution will continue to make roles redundant through increasing use of automation, far more new roles are expected to emerge and create a net gain in jobs by 2025.</li>
<li><strong>Skills gaps will endure:</strong>&nbsp;Remote working is set to expend with 84% of employers looking to digitise processes at pace. The majority of online white-collar workers are already experiencing this new world of working, with concerns around productivity and wellbeing being raised. Organisations are increasingly looking at digital solutions to rebalance the scales and create a greater sense of community.</li>
<li><strong>Changing training:</strong>&nbsp;By 2025, 40% of the required core skills are expected to change and a half of employees are expected to reskill. There are rapidly growing trends in the provision and uptake of online learning; the employed are placing greater emphasis on personal development and the unemployed are gravitating towards learning digital skills. Around two-thirds of employers expect to gain a return on investment within a year for their learning and development interventions.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What does this look like for us?</h2>
<p>The top global business adaptions to the pandemic have been accelerating the digitisation of work processes and the promotion of remote working, matching the UK trend. Over two-thirds of businesses in the UK are accelerating the digitisation of learning and development, 57% are accelerating automation and nearly half are accelerating upskilling and reskilling of their workforce. These responses are trending consistently higher than the global average and compare favourably with the OECD. The top five skills in high demand in the UK continue the trend of previous years:</p>
<ul>
<li>Active learning and learning strategies</li>
<li>Analytical thinking and innovation</li>
<li>Creativity, originality and initiative</li>
<li>Complex problem-solving</li>
<li>Critical thinking and analysis</li>
</ul>
<p>This is similar to other advanced economies which have a significant service sector and heavy reliance on knowledge workers. The agility of workers to respond and adapt to new ways of working in the pandemic had likely driven active learning and learning strategies to the fore in this year.</p>
<p>Whilst such skills are in high demand, and driving organisational demand for data analysts, machine learning specialists and big data specialists, a number of roles have been identified as increasingly redundant in the UK as we move towards 2025:</p>
<ul>
<li>Data Entry Clerks Accounting,</li>
<li>Bookkeeping and Payroll Clerks</li>
<li>Administrative and Executive Secretaries</li>
<li>Accountants and Auditors</li>
<li>General and Operations Managers</li>
</ul>
Many of these reflect the trends towards the automation of data-centric and rules-based tasks. The increasing redundancy of management roles, though a surprise to many, is indicative of two developments in recent years. The first is the improved integrations of systems and processes, through the use of technologies, that enable better decision-making. This has enabled empowerments at a local level, whilst retaining governance and direction from the centre, and diluted the role of middle-management roles. The second development is the increased use of technology to manage and people to lead, which is driving many middle managers towards development of more appropriate skills.</div>
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<h3>&ldquo;We find ourselves at a defining moment: the decisions and choices we make today will determine the course of entire generations&rsquo; lives and livelihoods.&rdquo;</h3>
<p>Klaus Schwab and Saadia Zahida</p>
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<div class="l-container"><img style="float: right;" src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/the-workforce-of-the-future/rich-text-content/barriers-graphic_rgb-01.png%20style=?h=525&amp;w=520&amp;hash=F5B1E71127F780043DE7B4316D3CB6E0" alt="Future workforce barriers">
<p>With so much disruption, it is vital that businesses look to undertake meaningful steps and prepare for the future workforce:</p>
<p><strong>Focus on learning</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>The average half-life of a learned skill is five years, meaning that what we know today will have lost half its value by 2025. Indeed, for many technologies this half-life can be closer to 2-3 years. The people and organisations that focus on learning will be able to adapt faster than those who do not. Foster a culture that celebrates development across all capability areas, no matter how large or small.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Hone the acquisition of capability</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>The rate of disruption means we need to think about capabilities, rather than roles. Consider carefully the capabilities you will need in the future and the most appropriate sources, be it permanent employees, contingent workers, broader partnerships or automation. Where you are looking to bring in workers, make those capabilities the core of your selection decisions and ensure they are accurately assessed.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Think different</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Success in the next five years will necessitate greater creativity, innovation, analysis and problem-solving as we tackle many disruptive forces. Achieving this rests upon having the greatest possible diversity of thought and voice within our organisations as we face these challenges. It is vital, therefore, that we look to select our capabilities from the broadest range possible and empower those who bring difference to our business.</li>
</ul>
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The Workforce of the Future

Beginners Guide to Workforce Planning

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<h2>What is capability decay?</h2>
<p>Capability decay, more often known as skill fade, is the decline in capability over time through lack of use; a dripping tap that slowly drains value away from the organisation.<br><br>The half-life of a learned skill is five years; this means that we can expect to have forgotten at least half of a skill if not practised within a five-year period<sup>2</sup>.&nbsp; However, such decay happens rapidly and significantly; one comprehensive study found that such decay took place as soon as one day after non-use or non-practise and after a year that performance was reduced by almost a full standard deviation<sup>3</sup>.&nbsp; Research has indicated consistencies in the impact of capability decay:<img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/capability-decay/rich-text-content/capability-decay-graph.png?h=348&amp;w=600&amp;hash=F36AA9DB897957CECB8502761A0579C1" alt=""></p>
<ul>
<li>Overlearning, where training has gone beyond the basic proficiency requirements, is a key factor in the retention of skills and knowledge.<sup>4</sup>&nbsp; Greater focus on the subject matter embeds capability to a much greater degree and reduces the rate of decay.<sup>5</sup>&nbsp;This means that where there are high levels of learning and development, capabilities will not decay as fast.<br><br></li>
<li>Closed and open-loop activities are distinguished by those with a fixed sequence (closed), such as working from a checklist or work instruction, and those where there are continuous and repeated responses without a clear start and finish (open), such as problem-solving. Capabilities associated with open-loop activities decay at a much slower rate than closed-loop activities.<sup>6</sup>&nbsp; This means that workers in more entry-level and administrative roles are at a far greater risk of capability decay.<br><br></li>
<li>Physical and mental abilities, different aspects of our physiology, decay at different rates. Physical capabilities, based on manual dexterity and muscle memory, such as manual labour, suffer slower decay than mental capabilities for tasks requiring cognitive dexterity, such as problem-solving.<sup>3<br><br></sup></li>
<li>Speed and accuracy are vital components of productivity. Capability decay is over three times higher on the accuracy in completing tasks than it is on the speed to complete a task.<sup>3</sup>&nbsp;So whilst capability decay may not be obvious in the early days, its impact may not be felt for days or weeks.</li>
</ul>
<h2><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/capability-decay/rich-text-content/capability-decay-500x500.jpg?h=500&amp;w=500&amp;hash=0EB8270CD02F26CD97BF862C5742102E" alt="Person removing building block from tower">Why should we be concerned?</h2>
<div>The capabilities that organisations had back in March of this year are not what they have today. Of course, many businesses will have lost workers and others will have needed to hire new people. However, even for those who have remained, capabilities across two segments of the workforce will have decayed: those who have been furloughed and those where working practices have changed.</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div>Think of the password resets that happen when people return from a week away at Christmas; that will pale into insignificance when compared to the loss of capabilities from those who have been furloughed. Add to this the impact to their mindset and mental wellbeing that will have generated through a loss of purpose and connection, a drop in income and prolonged uncertainty.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>For those who have been able to continue work, processes may have temporarily changed to accommodate social distancing, remote working and the significant changes in customer requirements. As we look to return either to pre-existing practices, or new ways of working, we face an uphill struggle in bridging that gap between the capabilities we have and what we need to recover from the impact of the pandemic.</div>
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<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>Capability decay will be a challenge for all organisations throughout the year, but if we act now then we can both delay and reverse this decline:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Furlough need not be absent.&nbsp;</strong>Providing it does not generate revenue or provide a service for the business, those on furlough can still undertake training. Which activities have not changed that can be refreshed and over learnt? Create training for activities that have changed and upskill your furloughed staff. At a minimum, be more proactive at a first-line manager level in connecting and interacting with those on furlough. Out of sight need not be out of mind.<br><br></li>
<li><strong>Forecast the gap.&nbsp;</strong>Look at the range of activities that you conduct and identify those where capability decay is most likely. Which carry the greatest risk to your reputation? Where has the greatest impact on revenue and customers? Though budgets will be under considerable pressure, focus on those areas that will be critical to operational recovery.<br><br></li>
<li><strong>It&rsquo;s not only about 2020</strong>. Business survival under the current conditions is vital, but would you really expend this amount of energy on recovery if you genuinely expect the business to fold at Christmas? Work under an assumption that you will survive and thrive and ensure you have an eye to the future. What capabilities will you need next year and in the coming years to ensure success?</li>
</ul>
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<p>The loss of revenue is one of the most obvious impacts we have seen in our businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, during lockdown there has also been quieter loss from our organisations: capability.</p>

Capability Decay

<h2>Engaging with stakeholders</h2>
<p>The key challenge to overcome at this stage is to convince a stakeholder to let us provide a firm evidence-base from which decisions around the workforce can be made. The tendency is for stakeholders to favour particular initiatives or courses of action before the evidence is presented or the problem understood fully, a tendency that will be based heavily on cognitive biases. The four main biases we are aiming to overcome are:<em>&nbsp;anchoring; attribute substitution; the availability heuristic</em>, and;&nbsp;<em>pro-innovation bias.</em></p>
<ul>
<li>Anchoring is a concept where people depend too heavily on an initial piece of information when making a decision.<sup>4</sup>&nbsp;If we arrange a meeting with a stakeholder to discuss workforce planning and one of the first things we mention is diversity, then the meeting may well anchor to that specific factor.</li>
<li>Attribute substitution is where the complexity of the situation is substituted for a heuristic, either the anchor or some other factor, and then judgement is made based on that substitute.<sup>5</sup>&nbsp;For example, a stakeholder may focus on a specific factor of workforce diversity, like gender balance in the executive board, as a heuristic for the wider challenge of improving the diversity of the workforce.</li>
<li>The availability heuristic is a mental shortcut where examples that a stakeholder can recall are viewed more strongly than alternatives.<sup>6</sup>&nbsp;Stakeholders will either recall initiatives that others have implemented, or ones that they themselves have implemented, and promote those.</li>
<li>The pro-innovation bias is where a stakeholder has such a strong bias in favour of an initiative that they are unable to see the weaknesses or the limitations when applying it in a new situation.<sup>7</sup></li>
</ul>
<p>These biases, either separate or together, will often result in what I call&nbsp;<strong>stealing other people&rsquo;s artificial grass.</strong>&nbsp;Stakeholders have either seen that another organization has taken a particular action, or they themselves have done it in a different organization. Some are unaware of the specific relationship between the action and the effect that is created; others are thinking that the problem the action solves is the same as the challenge we are presenting. Depending on our relationship with stakeholders, we can either challenge the bias or pivot.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/influencing-stakeholders-as-part-of-workforce-planning/rich-text-content/influencing-stakeholder-page-break.jpg" alt="influencing stakeholders"></p>
<h2>Agree terms of reference</h2>
<p>The critical final stage is to agree the terms of reference for the next stage of workforce planning. If we are well established workforce planning function, we may have a green light from key stakeholders to continue through to action plan and possibly to deliver within certain tolerances. If this is a new function, then this stage may simply focus on gaining agreement to proceed to the next stages of supply, demand and gap analysis. Regardless of the aim, it is critical that we have clear agreement from key stakeholders on the following areas.</p>
<p><strong>Organizational Levels</strong><br>Firstly, we need to agree the level of the organization on which we will be conducting workforce planning. The power of our stakeholder is a key determining factor: we will be unable to operate effectively at the macro level if the power of our stakeholder is limited to the meso level. If we are operating at the meso level, be specific around functions and departments.</p>
<p><strong>Roles of Interest<br></strong>In agreeing the organizational levels, we will also need agreement on the roles of interest in this exercise. Be clear around the rationale for those roles: the cohort needs to be of sufficient size that an exercise in workforce planning would be able to achieve a return on the investment of time.</p>
<p><strong>Workforce Analytics<br></strong>Having agreed the roles of interest, we also need to agree the workforce analytics. Crucially, this must include the&nbsp;<em>counting rules</em>: the characteristics that determine those who are in or out of scope. These counting rules may relate to the exclusion of contractors or the inclusion of those on secondment. Agree the broad approaches to how we will model and forecast both supply and demand, which we will cover in the next two parts of the book. The importance of this is to avoid surprizes at a later point in time, we do not want to be discussing the forecast further down the line and a key stakeholder have a fundamental disagreement with our model.</p>
<p><strong>Horizons<br></strong>Next, we will need to agree the planning horizon. If this is a new venture, then planning at a minimum of horizon two (the next budgetary year) must be the minimum time period. In my experience, planning in an organization with a low maturity in workforce planning, can be slow. Therefore, planning in horizon one may take longer to get to execution than the timeframe of the forecast. As organizational maturity grows, our speed to conduct a workforce planning cycle will increase and allow us to deal with a shorter timeframe. If we are looking at planning in horizon three for the first time, then it is wise counsel to set the limit where are we are able to forecast with an accuracy of plus or minus twenty percent.<sup>8</sup></p>
<p><strong>Scenarios</strong><br>Finally, we will need to agree the scenarios. Scenarios are a qualitative explanation of how the present might evolve to the future and the plausible variations of that future.<sup>9</sup>&nbsp;Therefore, the basis of these scenarios will be the strategic alignment, environmental scanning and understanding of the workforce that we have already conducted within the context of the planning horizon we have agreed. Firstly, what is the organization planning to do: does it plan to grow or maintain its revenue, and is it planning to improve in a different metric (brand advocacy or sustainability, for example)? A consideration at this stage is if the organization already has specific strategies or plans in place that relate directly to the workforce: is there already a commitment to close a workplace or to outsource work? Finally, we consider the future on the basis of the environmental scanning, what Porter calls &lsquo;macroscenarios&rsquo;<sup>10</sup>. Firstly, what do we anticipate might happen in the future regarding our business and what is the likelihood of those events? For example, how attractive do we expect our industry to be and are we vulnerable to disruptive technologies? Secondly, do we anticipate any significant changes that will impact our workforce and what is the likelihood of those events? For example, a political change that could impact the flow of migrant workers.</p>

Influencing stakeholders as part of workforce planning

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<h2>Turnover</h2>
<p>The universal truth of the workforce is that, over time, workers will leave the organisation. There are finite ways for a worker to leave an organisation: resignation, dismissal, mutual severance, end of contract, retirement, and death in service.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Resignation</strong>&nbsp;is where the worker chooses to terminate a contract of employment.</li>
<li><strong>Dismissal</strong>&nbsp;is the opposite of resignation, where the organisation chooses to terminate a contract of employment. Dismissal requires cause in most jurisdictions, typically this cause is poor performance of the individual, or layoffs where the organisation is getting rid of roles and either unable or unwilling to accommodate a worker elsewhere.</li>
<li><strong>Mutual severance</strong>&nbsp;is a hybrid of resignation and dismissal, where both the worker and the organisation agree to sever the contract of employment. It tends to be typified by a disbursement from the organisation, hence the term severance pay. Mutual severance is often found in what is termed&nbsp;<em>voluntary redundancy</em>, where layoffs are announced, and a worker volunteers for dismissal. It is also found where an organisation may wish to dismiss a worker, but either lacks cause (or sufficient evidence of cause) or the worker has leverage (consider employees who have witnessed impropriety and leave with a payoff and a non-disclosure agreement). Despite the term mutual, the initiator is typically the organisation.</li>
<li><strong>End of contract&nbsp;</strong>most often relates to temporary workers who are employed on a contract basis. An organisation may have the ability to either renew or extend a contract and may choose not to (or a worker may choose to reject the offer of an extension or renewal), that circumstance would be a revision of an agreement with a specified end date. This categorisation can also apply to workers who would be considered permanent, such as the military, who will have specified engagement durations to either compulsory or voluntary active service.</li>
<li><strong>Retirement</strong>&nbsp;is multi-faceted and can have hallmarks of resignation, mutual severance or end of contract, but differentiated by provisions that allow access to pension benefits. The main type of retirement is age-related; in many countries, such retirement was mandatory at a retirement-age but has since become a voluntary choice for many workers with the proliferation of legislation against age-based discrimination. Even where such legislation exists, certain professions may still have mandatory retirement; these are often military, law enforcement and airline pilots. Ill-health can often result in retirement if it is sufficiently chronic to warrant access to pension benefits, otherwise ill-health may lead to mutual severance instead.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Recruitment</h2>
<p>Recruitment is a catch-all term that covers the myriad ways that a worker may join an organisation. It is an activity that results from one of two causes: firstly, a vacancy in an existing base of supply that occurs when the incumbent leaves a role either through turnover or internal mobility; secondly, a new demand that results in the creation of a new role. This recruitment bucket also includes the act of workforce inheritance, triggered by mergers and acquisitions.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Internal Movement</h2>
<p>Internal movement is a change in either a worker&rsquo;s role or their position within the organisational structure and is either vertical or horizontal. Vertical movements are promotions and demotions.</p>
<ul>
<li>A promotion is a movement to a role of greater seniority and may involve an application for a more senior role and/or an organisation-wide process to determine a cohort for promotion.</li>
<li>A demotion, on the other hand, is a movement to a more junior role and likely triggered by the underperformance of a worker. Two further common types of a demotion are as a result of a role being made redundant and a worker choosing to accept a more junior, and usually lower-paying role as an alternative to a layoff. The final type is usually driven by a change in personal circumstances, for example a desire to spend more time with the family. By moving to a more junior role, a worker may perhaps reduce their overseas travel commitments or otherwise achieve a less demanding schedule. Common instances of this may be an element of partial retirement, where a worker at retirement age takes a step back from a senior role but remains in the organisation.</li>
</ul>
<p>Horizontal, or lateral movement, takes place where a worker takes a role of similar seniority in a different part of the organisation. This is typical when applying for a vacancy in another part of the organisation, but may also result from a restructuring exercise, for example the closure of a department and the redeployment of workers to another department.</p>
<h2>How do we use organisational churn in workforce planning?</h2>
<p>We use the model of organisational churn as a basis to forecast how our workforce will evolve over time.</p>
<p><strong>Recruitment and Internal Movement Modelling:&nbsp;</strong>Recruitment and internal movement are organisational choices. Without recruitment, the impact of turnover will gradually whither the organisation; without internal movement, the rate of turnover would likely increase. On this basis, the modelling and forecasting of recruitment and internal movement are completed assuming either of two things. First, that there is no recruitment and/or internal movement; second, that the planned level of recruitment and/or internal movement is maintained. Including recruitment and internal movement at the planned rate can help articulate where the organisation will go if it continues on the current trajectory. Therefore, the basis of this model would either be a continuation of the existing trends or the inclusion of a new planned level.</p>
<p>Modelling recruitment is straightforward in that we are adding new heads to the organisation at our chosen rate:</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/the-impact-of-organisational-churn/rich-text-content/modelling-recruitment-chosen-rate.jpg" alt="organisational churn"></p>
<p>For example, 100 new workers every 30 days. Modelling internal movement is a little more complicated and I recommend a stochastic model&nbsp;<sup>1, 2, 3</sup>&nbsp;due to the simplicity it can provide. At any given time, each worker has a propensity to move internally; these propensities can be seen as trends in any of our workforce segments.</p>
<p>Creating a model without recruitment and internal movement is the most critical version as these are controllable actions. As a result, modelling the workforce without controllable actions provides the clearest view of our workforce supply and the greatest options for action planning.</p>
<p><strong>Turnover Modelling:&nbsp;</strong>There are a variety of options for turnover modelling that trade speed and ease for accuracy. According to the standards for human capital reporting&nbsp;<sup>5</sup>, the recommended calculation for the turnover rate is:</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/the-impact-of-organisational-churn/rich-text-content/turn-over-modelling.jpg" alt="organisational churn"></p>
<p>The benefit of this approach is that it avoids the outflow of workers being watered down by new hires. Though this approach is highly effective for monthly and even quarterly reporting to support modelling for first and second horizon planning, it becomes problematic beyond then. A study of nearly a quarter of a million workers, found that nearly thirty eight percent of all turnover was attributable to those leaving within their first year . This means that between the start and end of an annual reporting period, over a third of workers will both join and leave the organisation. Using the ISO approach on an annual basis effectively counts the terminations of workers that are not recorded at the start. As a result, I recommend the most common method of calculation:</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/the-impact-of-organisational-churn/rich-text-content/common-method-calculation.jpg" alt="organisational churn"></p>
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<div class="l-container">For a quick model, we can extrapolate the turnover trends and project them forward over the planning horizon. To increase our accuracy, particularly over a longer period, then we need to model based on the correlations of the specific segments. Resignations are probably our largest group of exits and consistent across the workforce. The starting point lies in the existing trends and the rates of resignations for the workforce segments we are examining; this rate can serve as a baseline for resignations in the model. The same approach can also be taken with death in service, unless there has been an outlier incident that has impacted the trend. Dismissals, mutual severance and end of contract data needs to be abstracted from those that result from redundancies, restructures and layoffs. That will calibrate the figures to account for a normal base of workforce performance. The modelling of retirement requires a different approach as, except for ill-health retirement, it is a choice tied to the characteristic of age. To ensure an accurate approach, it is important to segment those workers by age and gender to understand the retirement rates at a more granular level. By applying those rates to the baseline workforce over time, an accurate forecast can be made.</div>
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<p>Much of modern organisations makes them almost unrecognisable in comparison to those of the last century. That said, the basis of organisational churn remains mostly unchanged. To some, the word churn is used interchangeably with concepts such as turnover and attrition; in reality, they are subsets within churn.&nbsp;</p>

The Impact of Organisational Churn

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<h2>Workforce segmentation</h2>
<p>Workforce segmentation is a vital step to better understand our people and prioritise roles for action. One of the simplest ways to do this is in line with the framework for human resources architecture, devised by Professors David Lepak and Scott Snell . An adapted version of this framework, below, proves highly effective for segmentation of the workforce based on their capabilities.</p>
<p>It separates the workforce into four quadrants based on the uniqueness and value of workforce segments to the organisation.</p>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Specialists</strong>&nbsp;are those roles that are unique to the organisation or the industry and tend to require expertise in exclusive technologies or processes. As a result, performance levels are fairly uniform; once competence is achieved there is little or no variability in the value that is generated. A great example are drivers on the London underground: their high levels of training are focused on operating the tube trains and do not transfer to a bus. Provided they are competent and safe, a driver cannot operate in the underground in a way that creates greater or lesser value to passengers than their peers could generate.<img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/identifying-critical-workforce/site-image/identifying-your-crtical-workforce-diagram2.png?h=440&amp;w=550&amp;hash=9EB864C9137E5799E226D736DAE3BBB1" alt=""></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Professionals</strong>&nbsp;are very much the opposite of specialists and are common across all industries. Great examples are those who work in HR, finance and project management, where professional standards are set by bodies that sit outside the organisation, such as CIPD, ACCA and APMP. These knowledge workers rarely find themselves working within constrained processes; as a result, the performance and value generated between two different professionals can differ greatly.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Operators</strong>&nbsp;are the administrative and manual roles that exist within our organisations. They include the entry-level roles that might be the first step towards a specialist or a professional role. Though their capabilities are common across industries, they remain guided heavily by processes, which means there is little variability in performance and value.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<ul>
<li><strong>Criticals</strong>&nbsp;share many characteristics of both specialists and professionals, which is often the background of those workers. Like specialists, these roles will have capabilities that are unique to the organisation. However, just like professionals these are knowledge workers where individual performance can drive exponential value for customers and the organisation. These roles are what are often known as the &ldquo;A Positions&rdquo; within a business,&nbsp;&ldquo;those in which top talent significantly enhances the probability of achieving the business strategy&rdquo;.</li>
</ul>
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<h2>What is the importance of identifying critical roles?</h2>
<p>For many organisations, their identification of critical roles often follows hierarchical lines. They start with the CEO and work their way down through their direct reports, perhaps to CEO minus 2 or even CEO minus 3. However, it is vital to recognise that criticals are not exclusive to the top tiers of the organisation.&nbsp;</p>
<p>An article by McKinsey &amp; Company&nbsp; highlighted the example of a CEO who, in pinpointing criticals, had neglected to identify an account manager for a key customer. It entailed high levels of responsibility and demanded a rich mix of technical and interpersonal skills from a role that needed to respond adroitly to changing client needs. For a relationship vital to current and future growth, this account manager was critical to achieving the business strategy and a source of both current and future comparative advantage.</p>
<p>Not tracked as a critical role, the firm were unaware of the increasing dissatisfaction of the high-performing incumbent. When the account manager suddenly accepted a job at another company and announced her resignation, her superiors were caught off guard. Not tracked closely enough, they had missed the opportunity to retain her and had no form of succession plan to ensure continuity for their client. As a result, performance suffered whilst they tried to secure temporary cover for the role.</p>
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<h2>Which are our critical roles?</h2>
<p>There is no predefined list of critical roles for organisations; like fingerprints, they are unique to values, strategy and objectives of the business. Indeed, the critical roles that you may have identified before the pandemic may not necessarily be the case now. Criticals will always meet at least one of the following criteria:</p>
<ul>
<li>They are critical to achieving the business strategy; either in the design or the execution of that strategy. They are the roles where the loss of a high-performing incumbent could result in a business disruption or a loss of revenue.</li>
<li>They are a source of the organisation&rsquo;s current comparative advantage; their capabilities provide differentiation from competitors that enables them to provide a service for customers that is either unique, or otherwise faster or at lower cost.</li>
<li>They are a source of the organisation&rsquo;s future comparative advantage; their capabilities will enable the organisation to excel in the future in comparison to competitors. This means that some critical roles may not yet exist.</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<p>No Datasource</p>
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<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Once you have identified your criticals, look to do the following:</p>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Check alignment.</strong>&nbsp;Is the execution of the tasks within those critical roles still relevant? If strategies and objectives have changed, it is vital to ensure these are aligned. Though criticals are imperative to success, they can steer the organisation off-course if not properly aligned to the new direction.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Prioritise retention.</strong>&nbsp;The pandemic has been a challenging time for all of us, which may well have fallen significantly upon those in critical roles. Possible increased levels of dissatisfaction are coinciding with increased hiring as businesses look towards recovery; those who are vital to your organisation will be at a higher risk of poaching from other companies. Take an individual interest in your criticals and prioritise activities to improve their wellbeing and incentivise their continued employment.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br>
<ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Reimagine work.&nbsp;</strong>What work being done by criticals could be done differently, which would make their lives easier and drive greater value for your organisation. Strip out repetitive work and examine where robotic process automation (RPA) could replace or augment that activity. Could lower value work, that acts as a mental drain, be moved elsewhere to allow criticals to focus their efforts.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<strong><br></strong>
<ul>
<li><strong>Plan for succession.</strong>&nbsp;The only guarantee in life is that, eventually, a worker will leave their current role; they may leave the organisation or secure promotion elsewhere. You need a plan in place to ensure continuity of service and, given the high level of uniqueness and value of the capabilities of criticals, this cannot be done on receipt of resignation. Look at multiple options for succession and develop these to ensure your critical roles endure.</li>
</ul>
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Identifying Critical Workforce

<h2>The Impact of Scenarios</h2>
<p>The longer the planning horizon, the greater the extent that the gap between supply and demand is influenced by multiple scenarios. These scenarios, identified during environmental scanning and agreed with our key stakeholders, produce a range of possible outcomes. The extremes of these ranges are the best-case (B-C) and worst-case (W-C) scenarios, with the most-likely (M-L) scenario sitting within the range. It is essential to recognize that these apply separately to both the supply and the demand, as seen in the following chart.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/workforce-planning/conducting-a-workforce-planning-gap-analysis/rich-text-content/impact-of-scenarious-diagram.jpg" alt="how to gap analysis"></p>
<p>If we think back to our earlier example of the Right Size, considering an organisation with a growth ambition, then:</p>
<ul>
<li>The best-case scenario would be high consumer demand, which would lead to a high derived demand for labour.</li>
<li>The worst-case scenario is clearly the opposite, low consumer demand and low derived demand for labour.</li>
<li>The most-likely scenario sits between these two ranges.</li>
</ul>
<p>It is, of course, possible that the most-likely scenario is also either the best or the worst-case. The best-case scenario, when looking at the size of the supply, is for a lower level of turnover that leads to a lesser reduction in workforce numbers and a smaller gap to bridge. In the worst-case, the reverse is true with high turnover and a greater workforce reduction. As we can see from this example, the combination of a best-case demand scenario and a worst-case supply scenario results in the largest gap to overcome through planning. In an organization with poor planning, that combination is likely to be the worst-case scenario for a human resources department.</p>
<h2>The Gap in the Seven Rights</h2>
<p>The gap analysis is quantified along six strands of the seven rights: capability, size, shape, location, time and cost. The gap in the risk cannot be gauged at this stage as it relates to the secondary demand generated in the action plan. The nature of the six strands will look quite different depending on the organizational level and planning horizon. Here I will endeavour to provide the broadest steer for all practitioners.</p>
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<p><strong>The Right Capability</strong><br><br>A simple approach is to start with the key capabilities that exist in the workforce today. Next, be clear on the nature of capabilities that are demanded now and what is expected at the end of the planning horizon. The final stage is to consider any capabilities that might be needed during the planning horizon that have not yet been captured.<br><br><strong>The Right Shape</strong><br><br>At an inter-capability level, our demand calculation will enable us to calculate each other element within the internal supply chain based on the representative ratios. Therefore, er will have a clear indication, for example, of our frontline customer service staff and the associated management and support infrastructure that they would require.<br><br><strong>The Right Time</strong><br><br>By the process of understanding the gap as something that evolves, we will have captured the nature of each gap based on time. Time must be the constant factor across all forecasts. The critical aspect is to recognize that this gap will evolve during the next phase of agile workforce planning, the creating the action plan.</p>
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<p><strong>The Right Size</strong><br><br>For this, we will need to look at the macro level as well as the meso level. The macro level is the biggest expected gap existing between the best-case demand and the worst-case supply. At a meso level, this can look quite different. To understand the implications of the right size fully, it must be overlaid against the right capability. That means quantifying the size of each of the capabilities that have been defined.<br><br><strong>The Right Location</strong><br><br>If the organisation is not expected to change, then at both a geographic and structural level, there will be gaps through the decline of supply. If there are existing plans to open new locations, then there will be an obvious deficit as there will be no supply at that location. Conversely, if there are proposals to close an existing location then we can anticipate a surplus over a short planning horizon; the gap is reversed by having a demand of zero at an existing location, accompanied by some form of existing supply.<br><br><strong>The Right Cost</strong><br><br>This is the gap between the forecast workforce and the two dimensions of the cost of the derived demand and the budget. Though this is typically the easiest gap to forecast, planners often look to close the gap between the workforce and the budget without solving the problem of getting work done.</p>
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Conducting a Workforce Planning Gap Analysis

Need help finding staff?

<p>Unlike more traditional approaches to workforce planning, we are now executing a living plan that must remain both flexible and antifragile in a VUCA world. This means that, whilst specific projects will be initiated and concluded to deliver incremental moves toward the right workforce, the workforce plan requires management for the duration of the planning horizon.</p>

Delivering the right workforce

<p>The workforce plan is a formula to change the future, or a number of possible futures, and create the right workforce. Once we have established the best combination of workforce levers and the most appropriate initiatives to execute those levers, we need to combine these together to create a workforce plan.</p>

Creating the Plan

<p>Ensuring that demand is fully optimised before we commit the scarce resource of supply has been noticeably absent from both the workforce planning and HR agenda. As a result, almost like trying to fill the bath without putting in the plug, there is tremendous waste of money and the endeavours of the workforce.</p>

Demand Optimisation

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<h2>Temporary staff retention begins with smart recruitment</h2>
<p>The key element of retaining temp staff within your organisation begins with robust recruitment practices and effective induction. A good recruitment and induction process can help to ensure that:</p>
<ul>
<li>Staff with the right knowledge, skills and values are recruited into the organisation.</li>
<li>New staff are supported when they join an organisation, and throughout their entire contract term.</li>
<li>The time from interview to effective start date is shortened, so that staff can begin their new role promptly.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Pursuit of Happiness</h2>
<p>Creating a working environment in which employee happiness can thrive, plays a big part in temporary staff retention. To do this you need:</p>
<ul>
<li>Direction &ndash; ensure your employees know what their purpose at work is and why they carry out their tasks.</li>
<li>Environment &ndash; create a positive, creative and collaborative work environment that fosters happiness.</li>
<li>Authenticity &ndash; to establish trust between your employees and their team leaders, promote authentic psychological safety at work.</li>
</ul>
<p>In our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/what-is-the-link-between-happiness-and-productivity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earlier post</a>&nbsp;we discussed how the improvement of employee happiness can increase their productivity at work. This applies as much to temporary staff as it does to permanent team members.</p>
<ul>
<li>Feedback - carry out a survey of your temporary staff using a bespoke questionnaire, you can read our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/how-do-you-measure-the-happiness-of-temporary-staff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post on how to measure their happiness at work.</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>By establishing a positive working environment, with trust and a transparent ethos, you can unlock employee happiness across your temporary workforce. This will not only maximise their productivity but ensure that they remain with you throughout their contracted term. This can also result in many temps hoping for a permanent position, an extended contract, or an opportunity to return at a later date.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/-/media/bluearrow/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/why-is-it-important-to-increase-retention-of-temporary-staff/rich-text-content/staff-retention-page-break1.jpg" alt="increase staff retention"></p>
<h2>How to recruit a temporary workforce with retention in mind?</h2>
<p>In order to recruit temps who will stay with you, we suggest that you:</p>
<ul>
<li>Streamline your recruitment processes and pre-employment checks.</li>
<li>Manage expectation by giving full details of the assignment, including the length of the contract, to ensure candidates are provided with the right information about the role and what it entails.</li>
<li>Provide good induction support that also strengthens attachment to the employer.</li>
<li>Invest time and resources in staff development.</li>
<li>Simplify the process for easy inter-departmental moves without having to resign and reapply for new roles.</li>
<li>Keep in touch with new starters in the first week of their placement.</li>
<li>Enabling new recruits to start in their roles promptly creates a good first impression, so ensure that any training is completed as quickly as possible.</li>
<li>Use a Values-Based Recruitment (VBR) approach (attracting and select employees whose personal values and behaviours align with those of the business) such as a values-based question and answer session, tailored to individual role types. Conducting a short question session like this during the interview process can help you to assess the alignment of a candidate&rsquo;s priorities to your organisation&rsquo;s goals and values.<sup>2</sup></li>
</ul>
<p>These actions can contribute to a reduction in staff turnover, which in turn can lead to more happiness and productivity in the workplace.</p>
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<h2>How to improve retention</h2>
<p>Streamlining your approach to recruitment, induction and pre-employment checks creates a positive start to an employee&rsquo;s journey within your organisation.</p>
<p>By continuing to support them through training, development and with a happy work environment, you can also contribute to an employee&rsquo;s intention to remain for the entire contract term and perhaps even further, when you have permanent opportunities.</p>
<p>In this series, we are looking to unlock the secrets behind empowering, engaging and motivating your entire workforce with the power of happiness. Although they are often under-represented within existing productivity and business development guidance, Blue Arrow believes that temporary workers are an integral part of the wider workforce driving your business. To find out more about how you can use happiness to improve productivity throughout your entire organisation,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity">click here.</a></p>
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Why is it important to increase retention of temporary staff

<p>Meaning is the new money, when it comes to increasing productivity, motivation and employee retention. 9/10 people would chose a job role that provides more meaningful work according to recent Harvard Business Review report.&nbsp; Across all age and salary groups, people are willing to pay a significant amount to find meaning.</p>

Benefits of meaningful work

<p>Find a unique way to say thank you to all your staff who have adapted to huge amounts of change and shown tremendous resilience in the face of yet another difficult year.</p>
<p>Post-pandemic, there is a noticeable shift towards a kinder, more mindful society with people discussing wellbeing more openly and seeking to support others more overtly than has been perhaps seen before. Being kind goes a long way and so not carry this through to thoughtful and considerate festive celebrations? Kind gestures and giving gifts are a great way to help your staff feel appreciated and valued.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The impact of gratitude</h2>
<p>Throughout this 2021 series of articles titled &lsquo;The Happiness Project&rsquo;, we have written extensively on the impact of happy employees in the workplace being more engaged in their work and delivering superior productivity.</p>
<p>A study into the science of gratitude reported that if an employer or manager showed their employees gratitude, 81% of people said they would work harder and 70% said they would feel better about themselves. Showing gratitude at work clearly impacts productivity levels and how team members feel about themselves, which will feed into their general happiness.</p>
<p>Being recognised for their good work helps employees to feel appreciated, so they achieve more. This in turn should lead to increased job satisfaction and therefore, employees remaining with the company for longer.</p>
<p>When a company depends heavily on the performance of its employees to be successful, saying thank you is a very simple way to improve your productivity. By showing your gratitude for a job well done, you are essentially boosting moral, and improving your worker&rsquo;s mental health. Employees who are mentally healthy are more likely to engage in physical activity, and those who are physically healthy are less likely to take time off work.</p>
<p>The domino effect of gratitude in the workplace will not only improve your employee&rsquo;s wellbeing and engagement, but it will most likely make you and your team leaders feel good too. Whether you are on the giving or receiving end, the effect can be just as profound.</p>
<p>Gratitude has been described as the &ldquo;social glue&rdquo; that fortifies relationships and serves as the backbone of our society. Therefore, establishing a culture of gratitude can create a positive working environment where your teams feel bonded together and appreciative of each other.</p>
<h2>How to say thank you at Christmas</h2>
<p>The traditional way to say &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; to your employees is an annual Christmas party. However, these types of gatherings are not permitted with the new COVID-19 prevention rules. Instead of a party, help your employees to feel uplifted and show your gratitude by giving well thought out thank you gifts.</p>
<p>Everyone is different when it comes to gifts, try to think of everyone as an individual instead of one-size-fits-all. You could give staff an extra day of paid leave, book a team building away-day when COVID-19 permits, give gift vouchers or hold a virtual wine tasting or cocktail-making class.</p>
<p>You could break the tradition of sending wasteful Christmas cards and be more eco-friendly by making a charitable donation to a cause your team is passionate about. Alternatively, ask the management team to make a thank you video for all the staff. Try translating your message into multiple languages, so that everyone feels included</p>
<p>Saying thank you in a personal and thoughtful way will help your temporary workers to feel they are valued and appreciated, helping them to be engaged and&nbsp;<a href="../../../../../../recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/how-working-with-purpose-can-impact-productivity">work with purpose</a>, which in turn will increase their&nbsp;<a href="../../../../../../recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/what-is-the-link-between-happiness-and-productivity">productivity and happiness at work.</a></p>
<h4>References</h4>
<p>1. Panagopoulos, Costas (2011). Character Virtue Development, Gratitude. [Internet] Accessed December 2021. https://www.templeton.org/discoveries/science-of-gratitude</p>

<p>How showing gratitude to your temporary staff can increase engagement and boost productivity.</p>

Thanking temporary staff at Christmas

Benefits

<h2>Twelve tips on how to support your team</h2>
<p>1:&nbsp;<strong>Emphasise company culture &ndash;</strong>&nbsp;shared values and common goals will help to define your company culture. A positive company culture can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bluearrow.co.uk/recruitment-solutions/workforce-insights/improving-productivity/creating-a-productive-work-culture">improve teamwork, raise moral and increase efficiency and productivity</a>.</p>
<p>2:&nbsp;<strong>Strengthen communication protocols</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; misunderstandings at work can result in costly mistakes. Clear communication protocols, open and frequent communication via user friendly channels and education on how to use them, will improve communication, reduce the chance of misunderstandings, and ensure accountability.</p>
<p>3:&nbsp;<strong>Team collaboration&nbsp;</strong>&ndash; hire people who are ready to collaborate. Achieve this by assembling a team that has the breadth of skills needed and enable them to share knowledge quickly. This will allow the flexibility required to deal with the unexpected, and efficiently complete tasks to deadlines.</p>
<p>4:&nbsp;<strong>Set a purpose</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; setting a purpose and enabling your team to reach their full potential can help your team to grow and learn. Defining your company&rsquo;s North Star, or true goal, can help to give your team direction and improve their long-term growth.</p>
<p>5:&nbsp;<strong>Identify and align goals with performance</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; when done correctly, goal setting can help to improve employee engagement, elevate performance, and benefit the business. Bespoke and meaningful goals that are measured on an individual&rsquo;s performance will focus commitment and drive higher productivity.</p>
<p>6:&nbsp;<strong>Encourage learning opportunities</strong> &ndash; providing opportunities for employee training and development is essential to company success. Giving your staff the opportunity to improve their skills and develop their talents will enhance employee engagement and increase job satisfaction.</p>
<p>7:&nbsp;<strong>Instil a culture of coaching</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; developing your employees through a coaching programme will help them to improve their communication and collaboration, take greater responsibility for their assigned tasks, and gain higher satisfaction from their work.</p>
<p>8:&nbsp;<strong>Provide employees with technology &ndash;</strong>&nbsp;information sharing platforms, performance management tools, online training, task automation, or inventory control platforms; all these tools can encourage collaborative working, increase peer-to-peer recognition, improve companywide communication and workplace social engagement. Choose solutions that are simple to use and accessible to all, as everyone interacts better with technology they are familiar with.</p>
<p>9:&nbsp;<strong>Lead with gratitude&nbsp;</strong>&ndash; showing genuine gratitude to your team isn&rsquo;t about platitudes. It is about instilling appreciation into your working day and offering positive reinforcement that will create a culture of trust and boost productivity.</p>
<p>10:<strong>&nbsp;Be authentic and vulnerable</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; emotionally connected staff are more likely to be productive. Sharing your emotions and experiences can build an authentic relationship with your employees. However, getting the boundaries right is important, as work is not the right place to overshare.</p>
<p>11:&nbsp;<strong>Prioritise well-being</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; with one in six<sup>2</sup>&nbsp;British workers experiencing mental health problems at any one time, looking after your employees&rsquo; mental and physical well-being promotes a more holistic work culture. Team leaders are in the unique position to influence how well-being is viewed and implemented in the workplace. Mentally and physically healthy employees will have more stamina to adjust to change and more resilience when faced with problems.</p>
<p>12:&nbsp;<strong>Support a culture of asking for help&nbsp;</strong>&ndash; many people are reluctant to ask for help. Creating a workplace where this is the norm will enable your employees to speak up when something is wrong. Leading by example will encourage your team to seek advice and help to change their mind set by emphasising the view that asking for help is a sign of strength.</p>
<p>Supporting your team in this way will encourage staff engagement, strengthen company culture, increase job satisfaction and collaboration &ndash; all factors that feed into employee happiness at work.</p>
<p>Happy and engaged employees within the workplace are more likely to remain loyal with 24% less turnover of staff. They are less likely to be off work, indicating a 41% reduction in absenteeism and efficiency is proven to be higher with a 17% increase in productivity.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Evidence shows that there is a direct link between staff who are happy and increased productivity and that one of the biggest impacts on staff happiness is being managed by a supportive team leader or line manager.</p>

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<h3 class="p2">The impact of gratitude</h3>
<p class="p3">Throughout this 2021 series of articles titled &lsquo;The Happiness Project&rsquo;, we have written extensively on the impact of happy employees in the workplace being more engaged in their work and delivering superior productivity.</p>
<p class="p3">A study into the science of gratitude reported that if an employer or manager showed their employees gratitude, 81% of people said they would work harder and 70% said they would feel better about themselves. Showing gratitude at work clearly impacts productivity levels and how team members feel about themselves, which will feed into their general happiness.</p>
<p class="p3">Being recognised for their good work helps employees to feel appreciated, so they achieve more. This in turn should lead to increased job satisfaction and therefore, employees remaining with the company for longer.</p>
<p class="p3">When a company depends heavily on the performance of its employees to be successful, saying thank you is a very simple way to improve your productivity. By showing your gratitude for a job well done, you are essentially boosting moral, and improving your worker&rsquo;s mental health. Employees who are mentally healthy are more likely to engage in physical activity, and those who are physically healthy are less likely to take time off work.</p>
<p class="p3">The domino effect of gratitude in the workplace will not only improve your employee&rsquo;s wellbeing and engagement, but it will most likely make you and your team leaders feel good too. Whether you are on the giving or receiving end, the effect can be just as profound.</p>
<p class="p3">Gratitude has been described as the &ldquo;social glue&rdquo; that fortifies relationships and serves as the backbone of our society. Therefore, establishing a culture of gratitude can create a positive working environment where your teams feel bonded together and appreciative of each other.</p>
<h3 class="p2">How to say thank you at Christmas</h3>
<p class="p3">The traditional way to say &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; to your employees is an annual Christmas party. However, these types of gatherings are not permitted with the new COVID-19 prevention rules. Instead of a party, help your employees to feel uplifted and show your gratitude by giving well thought out thank you gifts.</p>
<p class="p3">Everyone is different when it comes to gifts, try to think of everyone as an individual instead of one-size-fits-all. You could give staff an extra day of paid leave, book a team building away-day when COVID-19 permits, give gift vouchers or hold a virtual wine tasting or cocktail making class.</p>
<p class="p3">You could break the tradition of sending wasteful Christmas cards and be more eco-friendly by making a charitable donation to a cause your team is passionate about. Alternatively, ask the management team to make a thank you video for all the staff. Try translating your message into multiple languages, so that everyone feels included</p>
<p class="p3">Saying thank you in a personal and thoughtful way will help your temporary workers to feel they are valued and appreciated, helping them to be engaged and <span class="s1">work with purpose</span>, which in turn will increase their <span class="s1">productivity and happiness at work.</span></p>
<hr>
<p class="p2">In this series, we are looking to unlock the secrets behind empowering, engaging and motivating your entire workforce with the power of happiness. Although they are often under-represented within existing productivity and business development guidance, Blue Arrow believes that temporary workers are an integral part of the wider workforce driving your business. To find out more about how you can use happiness to improve productivity throughout your entire organisation, <span class="s1">click here.</span></p>
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<p class="p2"><span class="s1">References&nbsp;</span></p>
<ol>
<li class="p2">Panagopoulos, Costas (2011). Character Virtue Development, Gratitude. [Internet] Accessed December 2021. https://www.templeton.org/discoveries/science-of-gratitude</li>
</ol>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>

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<p>As the Christmas season approaches, many companies struggle with how to show their appreciation for their temporary staff. Unlike permanent employees, who may receive bonuses or other perks, temporary staff often feel overlooked during this time of year. It can be difficult to find the right way to say thank you to temporary staff at Christmas, but it's important to remember that they are an integral part of your team and deserve recognition for their hard work and contributions.</p>

<p>Company culture consists of shared attitudes, beliefs, and values. The way you treat your customers and employees reflects the type of candidates you attract. To be successful, your management team need to empower your employees by embodying your core values.</p>

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<blockquote>
<p class="p2" style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="p3" style="text-align: center;">Steve Jobs</p>
<hr></blockquote>
<p class="p1">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">Are we working productively and efficiently?</p>
<p class="p3">A common misconception is that people must work long hours in order to be productive. In reality productivity is the ability to achieve what you want to achieve with the least amount of effort.</p>
<p class="p3">How productive we are, comes down to how effectively we use our time.</p>
<p class="p3">This isn&rsquo;t about to turn into yet another article on time management because in reality, it&rsquo;s impossible to manage time! You have no control whatsoever over time. We all have 24 hours, or 1,440 minutes in a day, and that&rsquo;s going to tick by no matter what.</p>
<p class="p3">But what you and your team can manage are what you do with your time, the tasks you undertake, the resources and tools you have available to get things done, your priorities - what&rsquo;s important, decisions you make and most importantly maybe, the attention you can give in the time available.</p>
<ul>
<li class="p3">Is time spent working on the right things at the right time?</li>
<li class="p3">Is the amount of effort applied appropriate to the task?</li>
<li class="p3">Is the amount of time actually spent appropriate to the task?</li>
<li class="p3">Are tasks being prioritised?</li>
<li class="p3">Are tasks being scheduled?</li>
</ul>
<p class="p3">To boost productivity, we need to help our teams to be more efficient with the time they are spending and the attention they are able to give.</p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p class="p2" style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;When you say YES to others, make sure you are not saying NO to yourself.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="p3" style="text-align: center;">Paulo Coelho</p>
</blockquote>
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