Workforce Planning and Management Analysis

The assignment discusses the importance of workforce planning and management in achieving business goals. It identifies key challenges at Harley Davidson, including labor shortages in marketing and materials departments, which hinder the company's ability to meet consumer demands and reach its full potential. The analysis suggests that developing leaders, increasing efficiency, effective recruitment, and selection are critical aspects of workforce planning. It also emphasizes the need for a good human resource team to overcome these gaps and achieve business success.

Running head: WORKFORCE PLANNING CASE STUDIES
WORKFORCE PLANNING CASE STUDIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WORKFORCE PLANNING CASE STUDIES
Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 1:.................................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 2:.................................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 3:.................................................................................................................5
Answer to Question 4:.................................................................................................................7
Part B...............................................................................................................................................9
Answer to Question 1: “who are we?”........................................................................................9
Answer to Question 2 : “Where are we heading?”....................................................................11
Answer to Question 3 “ Where are we now ?”..........................................................................13
Answer to Question 4 “where do we want to be?”....................................................................14
Answer to Question 5 “ What don’t we have?”.........................................................................16

2WORKFORCE PLANNING CASE STUDIES
Part A
Answer to Question 1:
Workforce planning is an effective and systematic process, which aligns HR needs and
business. This helps in ensuring that right man is allotted the right job with right skills and at the
right time. This also helps in Understanding the workers plays a crucial role to deliver the best
output by motivating the employees. Knowing the employees also helps in managing the needs
and expectations of the organization. With adequate planning, the supermarket’s risk related to
the execution of business strategy can be easily minimized.
The two major elements for planning the workforce in the organization include
operational and strategic techniques. Through strategic workforce planning the critical roles of
the individual that will be needed in the future by the supermarket can be forecasted. On the
other hand, operational workforce planning leads to the fulfillment of the short-term demands
related to the business. This further determines any requirement for additional resources.
Workforce planning is highly significant for getting right number of individuals having
right skills and to be employed in the right time and place. This strategy helps in delivering the
both short term and long-term objectives related to the organization. The workforce planning
should also include diverse range of activities, like, job design, flexible working and succession
planning. Workforce planning is therefore viewed as strategic business goals and is crucial part
of the business planning process.
All together 40,000 employees are hired by the XYZ supermarket and the business model
is related to high turnover with low profit margin. Knowing the employees would also leads to
gain better productivity and results. The manager should also helps in understanding the job

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responsibilities and projects. Workforce planning is a fully integrated process of organization.
This involves proactively planning that avoid talent shortages or surpluses. If the supermarket
chain is highly efficient, the need panic hiring or layoffs can be easily avoided. Rapid talent
replacement can be possible within the supermarket chains. Understanding the workers would
lead to rapidly figuring out the positions that can be vacant due to any unavoidable or sudden
turnover. Moreover, talent forecasting is the process used for predicting any recent upcoming
changes in the organization.
Through talent forecasting the supermarket corresponding change for the talents needs
can easily be estimated. Forecasting and assessment would lead to ascertain the estimates. This
covers external and internal supply and demand in the supermarkets, labor costs and company’s
revenue as well as growth rate. Workforce planning leads to succession planning that is
designating and the progression plan related to key positions. The primary reason for developing
the workforce planning for the supermarket chain is to increase its productivity. Reduction in the
labor costs as right number of individuals with right skills is required. It helps the supermarket t
plan ahead and also considers eventualities. Effective planning of the workforce for the
supermarket will provide integrated talent management within the organization that has been
underappreciated and underused.
Answer to Question 2:
Demographic change in the recent times is the most vital reason for organizations
adapting their practices relating to workforce planning. It has created a major impact on the HR
departments and organization all over the world. Therefore leads to increasing the diversity n the
labor market. In the current scenario, labor forces are becoming diverse at a rapid rate. This has

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forced the firms to make considerable changes in its labor market. It is becoming quite difficult
to train, hire, manage and retain the entire new generation of workforce.
Ageing populations are visible all over the world. People live longer and healthier life
and also create huge implications for organizations in future. This shows that much larger
concentrations of older people will exist within the workforces in future. Therefore XYZ
Company should find way to create such working environment, where workers of all age group
can collaborate in an effective manner. On the other hand young workers are also a bigger
challenge of the organizations. The young workers are known to have very high expectations
from their employers. They are more focus on immediate future rather than the long-term result.
This increasing youthful labor forces also leads to strike a positive balance between personal and
professional life.
XYZ Company has to face major challenges while attracting and retaining these young
and restless staff in future. It is important for XYZ Company to provide opportunities for its
labor forces to retain them in the organizations. Training and development practices would help
in developing the workforce otherwise employee turnover would increase within the
organization.
A globalized workforce is another trend that is practiced in the current scenario.
Globalization gives chance to the employable populations to move more freely throughout the
world. This further lead to decrease in cultural homogeneity and increase in cultural diversity.
This is therefore a major challenge for XYZ Company in terms of inclusion as well as equality.
This would further lead the HR professionals so that they become culturally aware and more
equipped to mange labor within the organization. Recently, migration has also created a major

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impact on the composition and size of the talent pools. This lead to further affects the
recruitment practices. XYZ Company and its HR department have to become familiar with the
complexities relating to global education. The firm needs to make sure that its recruitment
practices are inclusive and fair as possible.
Moreover, female employment is its boom period and has also entered the economic
mainstream. An increase in the female workforces also impacts the working arrangement of the
organization. It is therefore important for XYZ Company is set to transform dramatically, as well
as professional workings in the XYZ company need to be a step ahead of the increasing trend.
Therefore it is clear that demographic shift in the nation will require the XYZ company to think
in new ways at a global level. To develop and retain its workforce XYZ Company needs to
update its business practices to meet the arising challenges.
Answer to Question 3:
The workforce planning factors for the Company XYZ, in the scenario related to an
increasing industry economic activity are given below:
 Budget: When there exists an increasing economy activity in a business environment
then the expenses of the organization also need to be increased as the activities have been
increased. This tends to have an impact on the budget and the budget for the human
resource development of the organization also increases in such a scenario. Hence, it
becomes increasingly important to utilize the high budget for the purpose of staffing the
organization accordingly. Therefore, the budget allocated tends to be a huge factor in
determining the workforce planning during better economic conditions.

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 Consumer demand- The demand of the consumer also tends to play a major role in
determining the workforce planning. If the demand of the consumers is quite high then
the work force has to be planned accordingly. Large number of people have to be
employed in order to see to it that all the demand
 Skill Levels- The skill levels required for the particular job also tends to be a huge factor
in determining the workforce planning. If the increased economic factor involves the
requirement of varied employees with different skills then they will be required to hire
accordingly.
 Organizational Structure- The organizational structure also determines the different
kinds of hierarchical role which are present in an organization. When there is a scenario
where the activity level is quite huge, the hierarchy present in the organization may be
subject to change. This shall then have an impact on the workforce planning system
When there exists a decreasing industry economy level then the following may have an impact:
 Budget- When a particular organizational is exposed to a lower level of activity then the
budget of the organization is generally low as the period is said to be a lean period
whereby the revenue of the organization takes a toll. In such a situation the company is
subject to restrictions based on the funds and hence the budget prepared is very stringent.
This then leads to a low budget for the human resource activities which may then effect
on the workforce planning.
 Consumer demand- When the economy activity is low, it has an impact on the demand
of the consumers as well. When the demands made by the customers are low, they tend to
have an impact on the productivity of the organization and this may then lead to a
conservative workforce planning as lower number of employees will be required.

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 Skill level- When the organizational activity levels are low then, it may have an impact
on the skill level required as not much will be predicted in the particular company and as
a result of this no specific result will be required. Hence, a lower skill level of the
employee is required in this case which requires a simple workforce planning
 Organizational structure- During the lean season, there may very often be a situation
when the organization may not require many workers and therefore, organizational
structure changes according to the given season. For this reason, the workforce planning
may be affected accordingly and fewer employees may be employed.
Answer to Question 4:
There are number of factors that affect the business of the supermarket chain. This
includes both the internal and external factors. Successful strategy related to human resources
always complements both the organizational goals and missions. The factors that influence the
workforce planning are not always static in nature. In order to maximize retention and
recruitment within the organization and minimizing the issues related to workers, it is important
to monitor both the internal and external factors. External factor that could affect the
supermarket productivity rate is technological improvement.
In the recent times, advent of latest technology has increased at a rapid rate. The
development of technology has directly impacted the organizational functional activities. These
are the scientific advances that influence the supermarket competitive position. Moreover,
maintaining awareness related to latest technology helps in promoting innovation and decreases
the possibility of being obsolete or out dated. For example, organization that makes better use of
online benefits management. The employees can easily make their own benefit plan and make

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changes to it accordingly. Technology in the business nowadays is a growing necessity.
Innovation breeds business, therefore technology needs to be sustained.
The XYZ Company needs to improve its technological usage as majority of business
transactions and operations therefore involves the application of technological usage. Through
the automated processes, latest technology leads to provides higher productivity in the XYZ
Company. Moreover, due to minimal resources also consumed in the processing business
activities, Efficient and faster services would be therefore provided to the clients and customers.
Technology could make the supermarket more successful in the local as well as national market.
Moreover through internet usage, XYZ Company can attract and retain more customers by using
it as a marketing tool.
For efficient workforce planning, it is highly important to assess the internal factors of
the organization for achieving its organizational goal. Staff development is one such factor that
needs to be addressed so that so that the existing gap present in the organization can be easily
fulfilled. Developing the staffs through effective management and training has proved to be a
vital asset for any organization. Through staff development practices within the supermarket the
performance rate of the employee can be improved. The employees that are provided adequate
training is able to perform more effectively as compared to the unskilled employees.
Staff development leads to increase the understanding for their roles, which in turn
increases and building the confidence level of the employees. Increase in confidence enhances
the employees overall performances, which also benefits the organization. Employees when feel
challenged and appreciated by the training and development process feels more satisfied towards
their job. Most of the employees have certain weaknesses that affect their workplace skills.

9WORKFORCE PLANNING CASE STUDIES
Effective training process allows the workers to strengthen and improve their skills. A
development programs also brings all the staff it a higher level so that equal knowledge and
skills is provided to all the workers. Moreover, robust development and training programs
ensures that the workers have consistent experience as well as background knowledge.
The internal factors are considered to be more important because their effect has a direct
impact on the organization. It is believed that, if the base of the organization which refers to the
employees is not strong, and then it is not possible for the firm to improve its external factors.
Hence, the internal factors are critical for its working planning process.
Part B
Answer to Question 1: “who are we?”
Harley Davidson is a motorcycle company founded in America. The organization has
survived various subsidiary arrangements, ownership arrangements, poor quality and intense
global competition. Harley Davidson uses a seasonal workforce plan for variety of work options
which includes both the part-time and full time positions within their manufacturing facilities
nationwide.
The seasonal employees are given complete and adequate training regarding modern
manufacturing processes and techniques. They also learn to build the world’ most sought after
motorcycles for its state of the art facilities. Moreover, the seasonal employees also plays a
crucial role in helping the Harley-Davidson business to achieve the critical business that results
in allowing in responding to customers demands and also includes vacation, training and other
absences. Moreover, the positions required for this are temporary with full-time hours for the
employees. The operational management of the company involves new technologies and high

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qualities. The company coordinates the production facilities activities by reducing its stock outs.
The company also has maintenance team for equipments and building.
The popular Harley –Davidson Company has a workforce of more than 9700 employees
during the year 2007. The company’s workforces mostly include engineers, supply chain
analysts and material planners. Company’s majority of workforce that is two-third of the
employees consists of production workers. Though the sales of Harley Davidson bikes slowed
down in the year 2007, the international sales have increased by more than 13.7%. Harley
Davidson’s motorcycles are best considered for their handcrafted and unique designs. The main
objective of the organization is to support the company’s brand image. The brand image
emphasizes motorcycle’s quality and also the innovative chopper design.
Human resource capability and adequacy are the major concerns for making the
operational management decisions. Harley-Davidsons use participatory approach and training
programs to empower its employees. The company operations management implements policy
for succession planning, where leaders can share the information’s regarding employee
performance. Moreover, such factors contribute to attain high quality bikes and related product
from the organization.
The main objective of the company is to provide quality products to meet the
expectations of its customers. The operations mangers at Harley- Davidson automate the entire
process to obtain maximum efficiency. Most of the company’s authorized dealers are located in
various city centre and towns. Majority of Harley-Davidson’s dealers themselves decides the
appropriate location for the dealership. Therefore, the company addresses this strategic decision
area by partially decentralized decision-making required for the dealership locations. Moreover,

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the locations of the organization’s warehouse are based on various locations of authorized
dealers. This further leads to optimization of cost and transportation efficiency of the
motorcycles.
Answer to Question 2: “Where are we heading?”
The future course of the company depends on the success of the processes involved in the
planning of the workforce of the concern. The company might face a reduction in the workforce
of the due to the heavy retirement rate among the workforce of the company. The concerned
management of the company is advised to conduct the researches that are necessary to put forth
the considerable solutions that are needed to be implemented in order to help the company to
overcome the problems that it has been facing in the recent times. The concerned management is
advised to employ the pilot groups in order to address the issues that have been occurring within
the organization.
These issues faced by the company include the shortage in the workforce that has been
serving the organization in the various critical departments like those dedicated to the materials
and the marketing of the products of the company. The company is advised to take up on the
issues faced by the company in the matters pertaining to the shortage of the workforce and the
concentration of the employees in the production department of the concern. The concerned
organization is advised to conduct the recruitment procedures that are needed for the posts that
remain vacant in the departments that are committed to the engineering of the products, the
planning of the needed materials and the analysis that is needed for the maintenance of the
supply chain in the organization.

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The company might attend to the various issues that might have arisen within the
organization by conducting the proper recruitment for the posts that might have been vacant or
might be vacated due to the retirement of the employee who had been holding the concerned
position at the concerned department of the company. The company is advised to conduct both
internal and external recruitments. The internal recruitments might result in the relocation of the
employees of the production department to the various other departments that have been facing a
lack in the staff. This might help the company to bring about stability in the distribution of the
workforce of the company.
The company is also advised to take resort of the various media that might help them to
attract the various potential employees who might be interested in joining the workforce of the
organization. The various methods of the external recruitment might include the advertisement
for the requirement of the various posts, the selection of the potential candidates, conducting the
interview processes for the concerned candidates and then selecting the best among the potential
candidates who had applied for the concerned post at the organization in discussion, Harley
Davidson. The members of the human resource management department of the organization is
advised to put forth the data that is collected from the survey organized within the organization
so as to present the business leaders with the information that is tabulated on the basis of the real
time information. This might help the concerned leaders to take decisions that are well-informed.
Harley-Davidsons have streamlined schedules concerning its business activities. While
making the strategic decisions the company mostly focuses on the intermediate and short-term
schedules so that its capacity can be maximized. The company addresses these concerns through
automated schedules relating to its supply chain as well as orders that involves authorized

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motorbikes dealers. Moreover, a traditional approach for operations management is used for
scheduling the activities of employee’s at the organization’s office.
Answer to Question 3 “Where are we now?”
The given case study suggests that the total workforce of the company employed by the
company comprises of 9700 employees who served the company in the global market that were
located all over the world at the sixty different locations. The revenue incurred by the company
during the year 2007 amounts to almost 5.7 billion dollars. The given case study suggests that the
company had been facing the issues pertaining to the amount of the workforce that had been
serving the organization. The major areas wherein the company is reported to have been facing a
lack in the number of the members who have been a part of the workforce in the departments
dedicated towards the marketing and the material departments of the company.
The company is planning to put up the openings for the jobs that are meant to attract the
younger generation to the departments dedicated to the engineers, the planners of the materials
and the analysts of the supply chain of the concerned company. The company declares that the
majority of the workforce that serves the workforce is employed in the production departments
and tends to form a huge two-thirds of the total workforce of the company. The company reports
suggest that the despite the slowing down of the sales in the United States, the company has
demonstrated an increase in the overall international sales that had gone up by a
whopping13.7%.

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The reports suggest that the workforce of the company involves a huge number of people
who have been approaching the retirement age thereby creating the conditions wherein there will
be a huge demand among the workforce of the company in order to carry out the functions of the
concerned company and facilitate the growth of the concerned company. The imminent
retirement of the concerned employees resulted in the growth in the complexity related to the in
management of a workforce that includes staff belonging to various generations.
The concerned management is advised to undertake the various methods and the
researches that might help the future planning in the matters related to the appointment of the
staff in the required departments. The director of the talent management of the company, Lisa
Coury is asked to conduct the necessary surveys that might help the processes for the planning of
the workforce of the company. Coury along with the vice-president of the human resources
department of the company studied the various conditions that were prevalent in the concerned
market conditions that might affect the workforce planning of the concerned organization,
Harley Davidson. The vice president of the human resources of the company suggested that the
workforce planning should be devised keeping in mind the factors that encouraged the
functionalities of the human resources. The processes related to the workforce planning majorly
encouraged the increment of the capability of the human resources department to serve the
concerned organization. The workforce planning helped the human resources department of the
organization with the better scope of providing the concerned management of the company with
the necessary information that is needed to make necessary decisions that are better informed.
Answer to Question 4 “where do we want to be?”
The Harley Davidson Company aims to become a market leader in the domain of
Motorcycles and automobiles. At present, although the company has received and sustained

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enough demand from the side of the customers. However, it will not be able to meet that demand
because of its shortage it has been facing with respect to certain departments like marketing and
materials. There are a wide variety of reasons for this which range from high retirement rate in
the industries to the situation of a multi=generation workforce.
Hence, through this workforce planning system in Harley Davidson`s company, the
management aims to build a capable Human Resource Team which is capable of services the
business in a manner such that the company prospers. The company wants to achieve e the
following:
 Build a good workforce system: The organization aims to build a workforce system
which is able to plan the different needs of the organization and target on the various
functional areas. The company needs to see to it that all the departments have adequate
workforce. If there exists any gaps in the number of employees who are present in each
department then it is quite obvious that there will exists a gap in the different services of
the business and it will not be able to reach up to its full potential. Hence, it is suggested
for the business that the company needs to have adequate number of workforce members
so that no function is left out and not performed.
 Develop Leaders- In order to achieve a sustainable future; a company will aim to develop
future leaders for the organization. It is believed that it is often best for the company if
the present workers in the organization develop their skills and become the future leaders
of the organization. This is termed as sustainable planning. In this function, the
organization through an efficient workforce planning would want to select certain
members whom they think are capable enough and try to develop their skills in order to

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ensure that they work according to their full potential and become successful leaders of
the organization.
 Increase efficiency- The main motive of the workforce planning system is to increase the
productivity of the organization. According to the case study, there exists no problems
from the demand side of the customers but from the supply side with respect to the
company because the company is unable to build a system whereby it is able to produce a
per their full potential. Employing a fair workforce system through workforce planning
shall go a long way in making the organization successful in its endeavors.
 Effective Recruitment and Selection- the Company also wants to form a workforce
planning system which has a well defined set of recruitment and selection plan which the
company can follow to recruit its workers. Recruitment and Selection are the basis of
employing a capable workforce and hence, it is the aim of the company to be in a position
such that it is able to recruit and select capable employees effectively and efficiently.
Answer to Question 5 “What don’t we have?”
The Harley Davidson Company lacks the following:
Labor shortage in the marketing field
Marketing is referred to as an art and a technique whereby the company is able to
showcase the products of a company in a manner such that the person is instigated towards
buying the particular product and the revenue of the company increases. Harley Davidson lacks
the given workforce in the given field of marketing in the complex business environment.
Marketing is not a task which everybody can do and thus the company requires a specialized

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marketing team which is capable enough to manage the business of the organization and is able
to market the products and increase the sales effectively.
Labor shortage in the Material field:
Materials are a very component of an automobile industry. Materials help in assembling
the various products of the business and help the company to match up to the demands of the
different consumers and achieve the sales target of the firm. Material is a department which goes
a long way in determining the success of the organization. The department also requires adequate
workforce as materials are generally stored in units and stock keeping forms an essential aspect
of the company. For the given reason, the company, needs enough man power in the materials
department which shall go a long way in keeping the firm`s stock up to date and preventing any
fraudulent activities in the organization. Therefore, according to the given case study the
organization lacks sufficient man power which would help the company to achieve the goals of
the organization and to manage the various material department tasks effectively and efficiently.
Capability to meet with the consumer demand:
As the company does not have enough man power in the two critical departments like the
Marketing and Materials hence, it is not being able to utilize its potential to the fullest and meet
with the respective consumer demands. This is leading to a fall in the revenue generated by the
company and keeping the organization away from its full potential. The capability to meet up
with the consumer demands is thus missing which is indeed a very important aspect of the
organization
A good human resource team:

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It can also be stated that the business is lacking an effective human resource team. The
given statement can be stated because, had a good human resource team would been present in
the given organization, the company would have been able to achieve its goals and targets
thereby the lack in the critical organizations of the company would not have been present.
Hence, it is advised to Harley Davidson to look after these lacks and plan accordingly to
overcome them.