Employers shifting focus from cost cutting to SWP

As the economic recovery progresses, employers will shift their focus from cutting labor costs to preserving talent and investing in key segments of their work force – issues at the very heart of strategic workforce planning.

"Employers who've been forced to focus on reducing headcount will return to deciding whether to buy, build, or rent the skills necessary to meet future business needs," said Mary Young, principal researcher at The Conference Board and author of a new report, Strategic Workforce Planning in Global Organizations.

"The economy's impact on SWP is likely to be moderated by the level of credibility, acceptance and integration that SWP had attained before the economic crisis turned things upside down," Young said.

SWP is the formal process that connects business strategy to human resource strategy and practices, and ensures that a company has the right people in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost.

The report finds that while some SWP strategies work fine on a global scale, others need regionalization to accommodate differences in demographics, skills levels and labor costs. One case study shows how, in just four years, 3M moved from knowing very little about its work force to clearly understanding global characteristics and trends, and important regional differences.

The report also includes case studies on Saudi Aramco, Sun Microsystems and UBS.