How to create added value with decentralized personnel planning

Personnel or personnel cost planning has some special features that set it apart from other planning disciplines. Above all, personnel planning must be flexible and agile, but at the same time reliable. The special role of personnel planning also becomes clear from the following factors:

• Personnel costs account for the largest share of total costs in many companies. Accordingly, personnel planning requires special care.

• Personnel cost planning must reflect various special features such as insurance allowances or individual bonuses. Short-term changes in the workforce lead to greater uncertainty as the planning horizon increases.

• Due to its small-scale nature – planning is often carried out for specific jobs or employees – personnel planning is enormously time-consuming.

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Best practices for decentralized personnel planning

With the following best practices, companies are in a position to perform resilient and comprehensible personnel and personnel cost planning.

Benefit from the knowledge of managers

Taking into account already existing personnel information is a significant aspect for a resilient personnel planning. Due to their staff responsibilities, managers usually know best about current and upcoming developments and changes in their employees. Accordingly, it is optimal for resilient planning if managers, with the support of HR business partners, carry out HR planning decentrally on a quality-assured data basis and within a clear set of rules.

Delegating and assuming responsibility

The direct involvement of managers supports a fundamental culture of delegating and taking responsibility. Individual units are given more decision-making authority within a framework to be defined, which contributes to stronger ownership and a greater sense of responsibility.

Higher acceptance of planning

Direct involvement and accountability significantly increase the acceptance of planning. This corrects a major weakness of centralized planning. In addition, managers experience trust and appreciation.

Bridging the gap to possible incentives

The aforementioned aspects also lead to greater motivation to implement the planning and to achieve budget targets that they themselves have helped to create. This aspect proves extremely helpful, for example, if budget targets are to be part of the incentives.

Centralized control

Experience has shown that one important basic rule applies to decentralized planning approaches: Central (HR) controlling is responsible for the overall result and must therefore be able to control and adjust the process at any time.

Use of planning software

Above a certain company size, the use of planning software is inevitable for decentralized planning approaches. The greatest advantages of such software are:

• Action planning as a basis for transparency

  An essential component of the set of rules for personnel planning is the definition of uniform measures, on the basis of which managers carry out their planning. This ensures, for example, that an entry is always an entry and not a new position, or a transfer is always a transfer and not a job reduction.

• Permanent transparency on status and content

  The central planning instance (HR) Controlling maintains an overview of the planning status at all times within the planning process. Accordingly, (HR) Controlling can intervene at an early stage if unexpected planning results become apparent.

• Facilitated reporting & deviation analyses

  A clear set of rules and the planning of measures enable structured and rapid analysis for meaningful reporting.

• Harmonization of sub-planning processes & planning occasions

  Planning software facilitates the consolidation of results from different units. In addition, different planning occasions can be harmonized. For example, the results of the annual budget planning can be used as a starting point for the planning during the budget year (forecast, estimate) – without the need for manual calculations and the tedious creation of Excel files.

• Workflows and communication

  Workflows can be easily stored and controlled, for example, the activation of the planning application, reminders or completion notifications. In addition, communication between the planners and the central planning instance is also possible by storing comments on the individual planning measures.

• Integrated interfaces and data protection

  Neatly set up interfaces and robust authorization concepts prevent uncertainties and data leaks when sending planning files or editing them locally. Data protection concepts can be taken into account and deletion routines can be stored.

Criteria for successful decentralized planning

Decentralized planning is not a foregone conclusion. Two criteria in particular should be taken into account for successful implementation:

• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

• Clean rules and coordination processes within the planning process

These two factors form the basis for consistency in planning, transparency and traceability. The trust of those involved in personnel planning increases, and conflicts and misunderstandings are minimized. In addition, the criteria are the basis for an efficient process that is as smooth as possible and reduces risks as far as possible.