Building Organisational Capabilities through Strategic Workforce Planning: A successful start to the journey at La Trobe

Fiona Reed Executive Director HR (La Trobe University) Richard Frampton Executive Director Student Services & Admin (La Trobe University) Ephraim Spehrer-Patrick Practice Leader Workforce Planning & Analytics (Mercer) Sydney | 4th September 2014

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Agenda

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La Trobe University Context – an imperative to change 1.

Building Strategic HR Capabilities – starting our journey with Student Admin 2.

“Science and Art” of Workforce Planning & Analytics – enhancing over time 3.

Key Success Factors 4.

Our Journey Ahead 5.

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La Trobe University Context – an imperative to change

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Australian Higher Education Context Fundamental shift under way

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University Environment Critical capabilities and La Trobe’s response with “Future Ready”

• Innovate and create new sources of revenue

• Target and attract students

• Digital technologies

• Business acumen to manage the shift to a leaner professional services model

• Relationship building with industry etc.

• Global thinking, strategic planning, M&A

• Utilisation of facilities and driving a more productive workforce

• Making difficult divestment decisions

Critical Capabilities

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• Research Focus Areas

• New College Structure

• Changes / Investments in Student Admin

La Trobe “Future Ready”

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La Trobe has recognised the importance of Workforce Planning to underpin Future Ready

Source: La Trobe Future Ready 5

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Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) Definition

SWP provides a rational basis to prioritise, fund and develop the people practices that support the vision, mission and strategy of La Trobe University.

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Right Time with the Right Cost

Right People / Capabilities

Right Area / Location

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Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) Definition: what it is – and what it isn’t

Resource Allocation/ Workload Planning

Performance & Development

Process

Career/ Succession

Planning

Strategic Workforce Planning

Operational Strategic

Function level

Individual level

• Is a pro-actively managed process

• Is future-oriented

• Goes beyond the one-year horizon

• Is integrated with business strategy and planning process

• Is leveraging HR and other organisation data to facilitate decision making

KEY ELEMENTS

Strategic Workforce Planning is not replacing any of the existing workforce processes on an individual level, such as workload planning, performance management, development and succession planning.

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SWP is a Collaborative Process with Business Leaders and HR

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Gain strategic insights 1 Identify the

gap risks 2 Model workforce management options 3 Take action 4

Quantity Quality Areas

Develop Internally

Recruit Externally

Borrow, Partner, Redeploy or Exit

Workforce Plan

Workforce Plan

Workforce Supply

Workforce Gaps & Risks

Workforce Demand

Risk Assessment

Gap / Risk Assessment

• Attraction • Recruitment • Talent

Development • Role Design • Performance

Management • Leadership • Culture

Talent Solutions & Ownership Model

Workforce Solutions & Ownership

Business Imperatives

Workforce Implications

Workforce Insights & Assessment

Critical Capabilities

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La Trobe University How we started

Identify Pilot

Build Process

Train

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A Playbook guiding all stakeholders at La Trobe

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Strategic guidance Process facilitation

Workforce data & analytics Process & quality guidelines

Strategic guidance and context Financial data and benchmarks Support development of

workforce solutions Own implementation

Facilitate process with line managers (faculties, schools, functions)

Decision coach Implementation in faculty

Define process, provide guidance & templates

Communication and training Expert advise for workforce

solutions (build, buy, borrow, redeploy, exit)

Objective source of data in workforce planning

Provide reports and workforce analytics

HR Business Partner

HR Expert Team

Faculty / Business

Reporting / Planning

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Building Strategic HR Capabilities – starting our journey with Student Admin

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Do less or the same with more

CAPACITY

OUTPUT (revenue, student experience, etc.)

Do less or the same with less

Do more with less

Do more with more

More

Less

Less

More

La Trobe Pilot with Student Admin – our context and imperatives “Doing more, and differently…!”

-1% -2% -3% -4% -5% -6% +6% +5% +4% +3% +2% +1%

-1%

-2%

-3%

-4%

+1%

+2%

+3%

+4%

Do more with the same, but differently …

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Student Admin Workforce Evolution Where are we today and what do we want to achieve in the long term?

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Longer Term Perspective (2016 and beyond)

Value Proposition

Governance / Operating Model

Critical Workforce & Capabilities

?

?

Student Admin TODAY

Operating Model / Governance

• Centralised Student Support Service team consisting of multiple functions, with activities performed in faculties and regions. These activities are across the student lifecycle and include enrolment through to graduation, course and unit Admin.

• Duplication of efforts between faculties and decentralised knowledge management

Workforce Structure / Capabilities

• Pockets of excellence, but inconsistency in leadership and staff capabilities

• Lack of innovation /and business process improvement capabilities

• Lack of consistent performance mgmt process

• Promising new experiences (e.g. managing outbound campaigns with casuals to drive increase of student enrolments)

Transformation Period (2014/2015)

Operating Model / Governance

• University Business Partner model: The structure is proposed to consist of a central division hub, college hubs, and regional hubs.

Workforce Structure

• Consolidation of mgmt overheads

• Redesign and simplification of the faculty model (2 college model)

• Restructure of Student Admin

• Larger spans of control

• Student contact centre (integrated with libraries)

• Better utilisation of staff by reducing manual workflows

• Redesign and implementation of student hubs

• System enhancements to automate manual processes

• Improved marketing and mgmt of function spaces (external revenues)

We knew how to drive cost improvements... But the question was:

what does success look like when we have implemented

our new structure? And is this shared across the

leadership team?

?

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La Trobe Student Admin (Pilot) A shared understanding of what winning (success) looks like

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ACTIONS

Describe the specific actions that need to be taken to execute the

strategy

BARRIERS

Describe the barriers that may interfere with

“winning”

What is standing in the way of winning that is within your ability to

influence?

“WINNING”

Describe what “win-ning” will look like

Expressed in the past tense, as if the result has been achieved

Source: Single Frame © Mercer

Looking at what success looks like from the perspective of our key stakeholders: Executive Team, students and alumni, La Trobe staff (all), Student Admin staff, and competition.

ENVIRONMENT ST. OBJECTIVES

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Student Admin Workforce Productivity Drivers Understanding key drivers for productivity in Student Admin, was critical to build the case for changes and define key metrics

15 Source: Mercer Workforce Productivity Drivers Framework applied to Student Administration context (high level overview, with details underpinning each lever)

Workforce Structure

Capabilities & Sourcing

Cost & Capacity

Leadership

Process Efficiency

Utilisation

Data & Systems

Engagement & Culture

Enrolment/ Research

Revenues

Services / Student Experience

Economic Sustainability

Inputs Processes / Moderators Outcomes

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Student Admin Workforce Productivity Drivers Key metrics to drive performance and transformation across campuses

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Goal Area KPI reflecting the goal KPI Value / Metric

Roles supporting achievement of

Target KPIs

Productivity Changes

(2014 -2017) Workforce

Implications Data

sources

Baseline Target (2017)

Template

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Summary: Student Admin - Pilot Area Our WF Priorities and Planning Themes for Implementation

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La Trobe University Strategy (2017)

Student Admin Value Proposition to support the Strategy

Our Priorities and Planning Themes (2014 – 2016)

Address critical capability gaps particularly in customer service and advice, timetabling and business process improvement

Build a culture of innovation and empowerment across all Student Admin teams to support the University strategy and future profitable growth

Cascade and communicate performance standards and accountabilities for Student Admin, to drive the required transformation and change

Build and enhance CRM systems and analytics capabilities to drive transparency, single-source of information and a positive customer experience

Encourage employee mobility and development within and beyond Student Admin to build and advance the La Trobe talent pipeline

1

2

3

4

5

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Summary: Student Admin - Pilot Area Leadership team was actively engaged throughout the process and supportive of the change required

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How much change will be needed to achieve our Future Ready objectives?

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Products and services Improvements andinnovations

Organization and People Culture and identity Financials

No change Minimal change Some change A lot of change Essential change

How critical is the change needed to achieve our Future Ready objectives?

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

Products and services Improvements andinnovations

Organization andPeople

Culture and identity Financials

Not important Somewhat important Important Very important Essential

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Success Factors & Journey Ahead

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Success Factors A pilot area with strong leadership where change is happening

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Business / Leadership support

Process of co-creation (with stakeholders along the process)

Science and Art capabilities within the team

Strong partnership with HR

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Drive it from the top: you need a “push” (VC, pilot, proof of concept) to create the “pull” in the organisation.

Find the right people and ensure ownership of the Business.

Your workforce plan should lead to action. Even basic analysis can provide clarity. Leverage the data you’ve already got.

Build capabilities along the way – strong quantitative capabilities are critical.

Workforce planning is not an “event”; build capabilities over time.

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2

4

3

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Our lessons learned: Push – Own – Analyse – Act – Sustain

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Our Journey Ahead Roll out across university, focus on continuous capability building

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Alignment with La Trobe Strategy Updates

Developing / continuous learning

Recruiting WFP Capability

Leadership Facilitation Skills

Analytics Business Acumen

Technical expertise