Action Plan

Page updated: 02/02/2024

The action plan is where you establish the best way to close the skills and capability gaps identified between supply and demand.

The most common framework utilises the 7 B’s: Buy, Build, Borrow, Bind, Bounce, Bot, and Balance.

 Buy

Buy: the necessary external talent (recruitment, entry schemes, graduates, apprentices, pay and reward).

 Build

Build: internal talent (progression, succession planning, L&D (Learning & development), talent schemes, high potential, diversity, culture).

 Borrow

Borrow: contracting, outsourcing or bringing in (secondments, agency workers, professional services, seasonal temps).

 Bind

Bind: retain key employees and capabilities (market supplement, review staff benefits (what are staff asking for?), offer contractual flexibility, explore flexible retirement, look at return to service).

 Bounce

Bounce: refocusing employees and using performance management (retraining, redeployment, secondments, partnership schemes and as a last resort redundancy).

 Balance

Balance: appropriate combination of the rest (operational transformation, budget, service levels, performance improvement, technology, organisational design).

 Bot

Bot: use of automation to augment or replace existing capacity or capability (robotic automation, machine learning, cognitive automation).



Consider which B’s will support you when action planning. Remember the critical roles you identified earlier and recognise how you are using or could use the levers for better critical roles management.
Consider who your primary stakeholders are that you need to influence, seek advice from, consult and collaborate with to help you with your workforce plans.

Typical stakeholders include:Your teams

  • Operational leads
  • HR business partners
  • Finance
  • Procurement
  • IT/digital
  • Estates/facilities
  • Recognised trades unions.

Once you have established what you need in your plan, you can then bring it all together. Use an action plan template attached to do so (you can recreate and adapt the table to suit your needs). An action plan template helps you understand what your key workforce issues and gaps are by consolidating them into one place.

In doing so, it helps you answer questions such as:

  • What are the workforce gaps and issues to be addressed?
  • What talent interventions will you use to address these?

Stage 3 of the workforce planning critical role analysis spreadsheet will guide you with this analysis.

 

Critical Role Analysis Template.xlsx

HR

Behaviour and Standards

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence

Employee relations

Employee Support

Equality & Diversity

Flexible Working and Job Share

Jobs & Careers

Leave and absence

Leaving the council

Meet the Team

Pay & benefits

Recruiting an Agency Worker

Recruitment

ResourceLink / MyView

Restructuring

Sickness Absence

Volunteering

Whistleblowing

Workforce and succession planning

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