Camden Delta Consultants Present at Workforce Planning Conference 2010

Atlanta, Georgia – June 24, 2010 – Camden Delta Consulting, LLC a strategic human capital consulting firm was pleased to be a presenter at this year’s Workforce Planning Conference in Chicago. The second annual conference, organized by the Human Capital Institute, had over 200 organizations and practitioners in attendance exploring and discussing one of the hottest strategic planning topics around.

Workforce planning is an emerging management discipline and one where the process, organizational capabilities and tools are evolving at a fast pace. Vendors who are developing tools to conduct deep human capital analytics, forecasts and predictive modeling are pushing the envelope of how organizations are planning and managing their human capital assets.

At the conference attendees heard that organizations are still defining the work processes and organizational capabilities needed to leverage this emerging functional area.

Challenges expressed by speakers and thought leaders included:
■ How do we build strategic consulting capability in the HR Business Partner role?
■ How do we define a process that is scalable?
■ How do we effectively manage change and embed this process in the organization as a “business process” and not an HR process?

Camden Delta was fortunate to be asked to facilitate a pre-conference workgroup with thought leaders and functional experts from Fortune 500 companies and large public organizations. The workgroup explored both the advances as well as the challenges in leading workforce planning efforts for their organizations. The group began to put forth some specific points of view, common tools and thoughts on leveraging data to accomplish organizational goals.

On the last day of the conference, Donna Neumann, Principal and HR Strategy and Workforce Planning Practice Leader for Camden Delta and Glen Kallas, Managing Partner for Camden Delta presented thoughts on the “make”, “buy” or “borrow” continuum for workforce investments. While today nearly 26% of the workforce is considered contingent labor, that number is expected to grow over the next several years to about 1/3 of the total workforce.

Neumann and Kallas pointed out that Chief Financial Officer (CFO) forums and professional associations continue to predict a heavier use of contingent labor and are viewing labor as a variable cost for the foreseeable future. Financial professionals also expect unemployment to remain at about 9% (US). The presenters asked conference attendees to consider the process by which the organization weighs the make, buy or borrow human capital decision by applying financial decision-making processes, adapted from those used for making other long-term investment decisions. The presenters also explored how organizations need to drive for consensus and clarity on both role segmentation and the key financial and non-financial assumptions underlying human capital asset investments.

Finally, the consultants suggested that participants consider the longer term organizational impact from employing a larger/growing contingent labor force. Attendees were asked to opine on the implications for associate and customer engagement, the need for knowledge management, implications for broader talent management processes such as performance and development, and lastly the influence on organizational culture as just some of the dimensions that HR must consider when planning for and managing a larger contingent labor force.

Recommendations from Neumann and Kallas included:
■ Start with a strategic workforce plan
oStart with strategic human capital drivers and business indicators
oDefine and agree on assumptions in collaboration with the business
oDefine and thoroughly explore alternatives, such as developing current talent, outside hiring, or using contingent labor
oConduct a sensitivity analysis to identify the most critical assumptions
oAfter the investment, review and conduct a post-analysis; capture key learnings to improve future investment decisions
■ Hold HR accountable-HR is best positioned to plan for and manage the total human capital portfolio
■ View contingent labor “purchase” as a strategic human capital decision-beyond the “warm body”
■ Leverage third party alliances
■ Ensure adequate governance of the make, buy or borrow decisions

These steps are necessary to ensure the organization is ready to address the implications of a larger contingent labor pool and to adequately adjust to changing conditions..

About Camden Delta
Camden Delta Consulting, LLC is a management consulting firm founded in 2006 and headquartered in Atlanta. Its services include strategic organizational change management, HR strategy and organization effectiveness, talent strategy and planning, integrated talent management process improvement, and leadership/individual coaching for success. Globally based clients include mid cap to Fortune 500 companies across various industries. For more information please visit, visit www.camdendelta.com

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