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: the necessary external talent (recruitment, entry schemes, graduates, apprentices, pay and reward).
Build: internal talent (progression, succession planning, L&D (Learning & development), talent schemes, high potential, diversity, culture).
Borrow: contracting, outsourcing or bringing in (secondments, agency workers, professional services, seasonal temps).
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: refocusing employees and using performance management (retraining, redeployment, secondments, partnership schemes and as a last resort redundancy).
Balance: appropriate combination of the rest (operational transformation, budget, service levels, performance improvement, technology, organisational design).
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.
HR
Behaviour and standards
Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence
- Supporting Victims or Survivors
- Guidance for Managers
- Guidance for Colleagues
- Asking Difficult Questions
- Perpetrator
- Help and Support
Employee relations
Employee Support
Equality & Diversity
FAQs: Employees
- Sickness Absence
- Flexible Working
- Shared Parental Leave
- Maternity Leave
- Adoption / Surrogacy
- Purchase of Additional Annual Leave Scheme
- Premature Birth/Hospitalised Baby Leave and Pay
FAQs: Managers
Flexible working
Jobs & Careers
Leave and absence
- Adoption & Surrogacy Leave
- Annual Leave
- Career Break
- Compassionate Leave
- Disruptions to working arrangements
- Flexi-time
- Maternity Leave
- Parental Leave
- Paternity Leave
- Purchase of Additional Annual Leave
- Premature Birth/Hospitalised Baby Leave and Pay
- Shared Parental Leave
- Time off for dependants
- Unpaid leave
Restructuring
Sickness Absence
- Recording Absence
- Return to Work Interviews
- Phased Return to Work
- Attendance Management Meetings
- The Stages of Sickness Absence
- Occupational Health
- Occupational Health Referrals
- Occupational Sick Pay
- Case Conferences
- Reasonable Adjustments (Disability)
- Ill Health Retirement
- Ill Health Retirement - Non Teachers
- Ill Health Retirement - Teachers
- Related Absence
- Sickness & annual leave
- Managing COVID-19 related absence
Volunteering
Workforce and succession planning
- Introduction
- Stage 1 - Starting Point
- Critical Role Analysis
- What is your demand and supply?
- Gap Analysis
- Action Plan
- Reporting
- Workforce and Succession Planning Solutions
Recruiting an Agency Worker
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