Workforce planning is an area that requires strategic thinking and business acumen. Let's start by looking outside for examples to assess business strategies and workforce issues facing that industry.
1. Select an a company that you know of, are personally interested in, or that you personally work for. Describe what the company does as well as discuss which of the three business models the company most closely resembles (low cost, niche/focused, or differentiation).
2. Research the industry of the company you selected and identify some of the issues, constraints or challenges that the industry is facing. Summarize these issues and potential impact they will have on the business in the long term.
- To understand more about an industry, one place to visit are sites of consulting companies (e.g., McKinsey.com or Accenture.com). They tend to provide industry context given their level of expertise in those areas.
3. For that company or industry, continue targeted search to identify a skill gap(s) that they are facing. This should be a job (e.g., biologist, software engineer, teacher, machinist) that is important to the company’s business but one where there is an issue with a lack of skilled workers now or in the future.
Submit your analysis as a written paper (e.g., Word document) that addresses the three questions. Include cover page, reference/citations page and up to three (3) pages to respond to these questions. Paper should be double spaced.