INTRODUCTION: HUMAN CAPITAL PLANNING PROCESS The Department’s Human Capital Planning Process is a continuous cycle of activities that fit together to form an integrated planning and execution system. As Figure 3 below shows, this five-step process links human resources to strategic goals, improves workload and staffing forecasting, and uses performance metrics to monitor progress. Figure 3.
Human Capital Planning Process
This process utilizes and combines strategic planning tools, such as Mission and Bureau Resource Requests, with mathematical staffing models that account for attrition, retirement, career advancement, and promotion. The result is a comprehensive blueprint for more robust and proactive engagement of a truly global nature. The Five Year Workforce and Leadership Succession Plan that follows is organized along these five high-level areas.17 Section VI, Leadership Planning, is similarly structured. ESTABLISH STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT Strategic Requirements and Direction Business Case The Department’s mission and strategic goals identify the types of work to be accomplished. The workforce planning process, informed by the Department’s QDDR and Mission and Bureau Resource Requests, translates the Department’s strategic goals into future functional workforce requirements. Additionally, in early 2014, State and the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) developed a Joint Strategic Plan that set forth the direction and priorities
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for both organizations and presents how State and USAID will implement U.S. foreign policy and development assistance for the coming years. The Department has two models that are used to project future resource requirements: the Overseas and Domestic Staffing Models that calculate the number of positions required to carry out the Department’s mission by overseas post and domestic element. These models have been adjusted to reflect new strategic priorities and expanded skill set needs identified through the QDDR. IDENTIFY GAPS BY ANALYSIS OF DEMAND AND TALENT POOL Workforce and Leadership Succession Demand Targets Talent Pool Strengths and Gaps The Department has two models that are used to project changes in the current FS and CS workforces. The FS Model and CS Workforce Planning Model project attrition and career advancement in the Department’s workforces. These models are tools for analyzing workforce issues, including projected resource and skill requirements, as well as forecasting attrition (retirements and other separations), current and future demographics, potential mission critical occupations, promotions, and current and probable staffing gaps. DEVELOP MANAGEMENT PLANS
Current Programs, Policies, and Practices Workforce and Leadership Succession Management Strategies Implementation Plan Evaluation/Accountability Plan
Management plans and initiatives establish specific Department strategies to achieve human resource goals and objectives. Strategies include the programs, policies, and practices that assist the Department in recruiting, developing, and retaining critical staff to achieve program goals. The Department’s Human Capital Accountability System continuously informs the development of management plans by ensuring that HR efforts meet mission goals and objectives across the organization in an effective and efficient manner. Analysis of HR program execution data collected during compliance reviews, HR program evaluations, and HRStat quarterly data-driven reviews are used in analyzing the effectiveness of programs and informing decisions about current and future program plans.
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IMPLEMENT MANAGEMENT PLANS Communication and Change Management Strategies Workforce and Leadership Succession Management Strategies: Recruitment, Selection, Development, and Retention Metrics Data Implementation of management plans ensures that resources are allocated and appropriately aligned to support of the workforce strategies. Meaningful human capital metrics and milestones, incorporated within the Department’s Bureau of Human Resources Resource Request and other key workforce planning documents, define standards of measurement to ensure that HR goals and priorities are met. Data metrics are used as indictors of progress, providing insight about the implementation of HR program activities, progress against program milestones and interim goals, and the likelihood of objectives being achieved. EVALUATE AND ADJUST STRATEGIES Results Improvements HRStat The Department’s integrated multi-year planning, budgeting, program, and performance management framework maximizes the way in which the Department does business by weaving program and performance management into existing processes to improve bureaus and missions performance. To further refine strategies essential to mission accomplishment, the Department is institutionalizing HRStat, an evaluative mechanism that analyzes key HR performance indicators against cross-cutting goals and targets related to Presidential directives, Department mission, HR priorities, and government-wide initiatives. Particular emphasis is on specific HR management results, trends, challenges, and actions that lead to effective and efficient HR performance or reduce costs. This analytical process assures that results are achieved across operational, tactical, and strategic levels.
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