DEED Workforce Strategy Resources

According to DEED, to Assess Your Business is to evaluate the current state of your workforce before progressing through the rest of stages in the WOC. There are a variety of ways to review your current status, including employee surveys, legal considerations, workspace capacity, and financial stability.

You can read more about assessing your business here.

Many factors influence revenue and labor demand. Some inputs, like change in product orders and supply chains will serve as initial indicators to future sales. Less predictable is how well consumer confidence will rebound. On a macro-level, consumer spending accounts for approximately 70% of GDP. While concerns about health, safety and financial stability are likely to linger and affect spending patterns, there are some tools to help business owners gauge what has changed and anticipate future behavior.

You can read more about projecting labor demand here.

To outline these choices and set a plan, businesses would be wise to convene a Return to Work team made up of a diverse group of employees. The primary goal of such a group is to make preparations for various sets of workers to transition smoothly into new work conditions. Generally speaking, there are four groups of workers to prepare for: workers returning to location, those working remotely, workers eligible for future protections, and those permanently let go. Figure 1 illustrates this transition over time and the role of a Return to Work team in the restructure.

You can learn about conducting a workforce gap analysis here.

Building a strong talent pipeline is at the core of business productivity. Redesigning your hiring and training programs will help business shift from a reactive to a proactive approach in recruiting. When businesses successfully build and communicate career path opportunities within their company, it increases employee morale and decreases turnover. Employees feel they are in control of improving their job skills and potentially increasing their pay, which builds their self-esteem and in turn, loyalty to the company.

You can learn more about developing workforce strategies here.

More so today than ever, the importance of communicating early and often to your employees cannot be overstated. Clear and honest communication builds a trusting and loyal workforce and employees appreciate feeling like they have been involved in the process. Your communication strategy should be clear and consistent and take many forms from verbal to written, such as open forums, team meetings, one on ones with supervisors, memos, letters, and emails. All new policies and procedures should be given to employees to review and training should be made available. Be sure to keep in mind your English language learning staff and have necessary information translated. It is necessary that any new procedures are understood. If changes are made, notification to staff should be done immediately to avoid confusion and continued spread of outdated information.

Read more about how to communicate and implement workforce strategies here.

The sixth and final stage in the Workforce Optimization Cycle (WOC) emphasizes the need for businesses to monitor, evaluate and adapt to changes within the new workforce Landscape. As Minnesota businesses continue to open, ramp up and implement new strategies, it’s important to establish metrics to measure the effectiveness of these new strategies. Routine self-checks and reflections can mean the difference between an employer who has the potential to become a champion within their industry and an employer who faces challenges with bouncing back to business as usual.

Read more about milestone management here.