Build Baseline
The build baseline stage is the first stage in workforce planing process
In order to know what your organization will look like in the future, you need to start with what it looks like right now
The build baseline stage allows the selection of the required Dataset to create a snapshot of the current state of the workforce
Baseline Dataset Requirements
The dataset used to build your baseline must be a POSITIONS type dataset and any text properties to be used as Planning Dimensions must be tagged aggregate
. See Property Tags for further detail on applying property tags
When selecting the dataset to build your baseline it is important to understand how certain properties are used by workforce planning and the impact to the process if they are not included in your baseline dataset
The tables below detail the properties which are either required or recommended for your baseline dataset and the impact of not mapping the property when building the baseline or having invalid or blank property values in a row of your dataset
Planning Dimensions and Position Properties
Property Group | Property | Property Type | Purpose | Mandatory | If property unmapped | If row value blank | If Row value invalid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Planning Dimensions | Role cluster | Text | The functional dimension of the workforce enabling segmentation based on the type of work done | Yes tagged aggregate | Mandatory, baseline cannot be built | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Planning Dimensions | Business unit | Text | The organizational dimension of the workforce enabling segmentation based on a high-level organizational structure | Yes tagged aggregate | Either Business unit or Location must be mapped | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Planning Dimensions | Location | Text | The geographical dimension of the workforce enabling segmentation based on geographical location | Yes tagged aggregate | Either Business unit or Location must be mapped | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Position | FTE | Number | Full Time Equivalent A full-time position is 1 FTE A part time position less than 1 FTE | No | Headcount will be used so all positions equal 1 FTE | Assumed value of 1 | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Position | Cost | Number | Enables cost analysis of planned impact | No | No costs calculated | Assumed value of zero cost | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Position | Position start date | Date | Identifies if position exists at plan start, or when positions will be created in the future. | No | All positions assumed as existing before plan start | Assumed position start date precedes plan start date | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Position | Position end date | Date | Helps to identify when positions will be closed. | No | All positions assumed as existing until end of plan | Assumed position end date succeeds plan end date | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Employee Properties
Property Group | Property | Property Type | Purpose | Mandatory | If property unmapped | If row value blank | If Row value invalid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employee | Employee joining date | Date | Identify current employees and future joiners | No | All employees assumed as joined before plan start | Assumed joining date precedes plan start date | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Employee | Employee leaving date | Date | Identify when known future employees will leave the org creating vacancies in plan | No | No known leaver will be calculated in plan. Leave reason not required | Assumed non leaver | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Employee | Type of leaving | Text | Leave reason analysis | Yes if leaving date mapped Must be tagged aggregate | Mandatory if leaving date mapped, baseline cannot be built | If leaving date is present row will be ignored and excluded from baseline | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Employee | Gender | Text | Gender ratio analysis | No | No gender analysis possible | Value ignored but row still included in baseline | Value ignored but row still included in baseline |
Employee | Date of birth | Date | Provides insight on age of workforce and required to identify filled positions in plan | Yes | Mandatory, baseline cannot be built | Open position with no employee assigned | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
External Workforce | Workforce Type | Text | Identifies positions in your baseline that are filled by external workforce | No but must be tagged aggregate to be mapped | All positions assumed to be internal workforce | Position assumed to be internal workforce | Row is ignored and excluded from baseline |
Set up your Baseline
Selecting the Build Baseline option from the homescreen for a new Workforce Plan start the process of taking a snapshot of your current baseline data which will be used to build your workforce plan
Select Set up your baseline
to continue
Select your dataset
To select the baseline data:
- Select the
Select Dataset
button - This will open the dataset selection window displaying all datasets in the tenant
- Select the required dataset
- Select
Continue
Once the baseline dataset is selected a summary of the dataset will be shown containing:
- Dataset name
- Owner and Last Updated date
- Select
Change dataset
to choose an alternative dataset - Select
Next
to progress to the Map Dimensions
Map Dimensions
This step enables you to select the properties in your dataset that will be used to slice the data for use in the plan
The minimum requirement is to select a property for Role Cluster
that will group the roles in the dataset and one of either Business Unit or Location
Any properties that are to be used to slice the data must be tagged aggregate
via the property manager for the selected dataset
For more detail see Property Tags
For each option select the required property from the dropdown list
The options for selection are:
- Role Cluster: Group of roles either derived by clustering together individual roles due to similarity in activities, competencies and accountability's, or using a cross-section of role families and levels
- Business Unit: Segments of the organization, typically sliced by its main profit and/or cost centers
- Location: Segments of the organization sliced by geographical criteria
Map Position Properties
The next step to building the Baseline snapshot is when you map properties in your selected dataset to key properties in Workforce Planning
While none of these properties are mandatory it is recommended that you map these to your dataset to achieve the maximum insight from the Workforce Planning process
The Position Properties to be mapped are:
- FTE: Measure of labour. It describes the labour as a fraction of the time a full-time employee (e.g. 5 days a week, 8 hours a day) can provide
- Cost: Total people cost as the sum of all cost incurred per person over the timeline interval
- Position Start Date: Start date for the position. Independent of the start date of the employee occupying that position. An empty start date implies that the position was created before the start date of the timeline
- Position End Date: End date for the position. Independent of the exit date of the employee. An empty end date implies that the position's end date extends beyond the end date of the timeline
Map Employee Properties
The employee properties to be mapped are:
- Date of birth: Used to calculate age of employee for retirement. If mapped then any row with blank value will be assumed as a vacant position in baseline
- Employee Joining Date: The day on which a new employee joins your organization. If mapped then any row with a blank value is assumed as preceding the plan start date and included in initial supply
- Employee Leaving Date: The day on which an employee leaves your organization. If mapped then
Reason for leaving
becomes a mandatory property that must be mapped - Reason for leaving: Mandatory if
Employee Leaving Date
is mapped - Leave Reason category's: If
Reason for Leaving
has been mapped then each of the leave reasons in your dataset must be mapped to 1 of the 4 Leave category's:- Voluntary Leaving
- Involuntary Leaving
- Retirement
- Early Retirement
Note: If
Date of birth
andEmployee Joining Date
are not mapped then all positions in baseline dataset are assumed as filled positions
External Workforce
Select the property used to identify external workforce
Property must be tagged aggregate
to appear in selection panel
Initial external workforce will be calculated from the baseline based on this property
Mapping Summary
This screen summarises properties that have been mapped in your baseline
No changes may be made on this screen select the Back
button to return to previous screens if any mapping changes are required
Preview Build
The preview build screen provides a summary of your baseline dataset across 3 sections:
- Positions: Detail of the nodes in the dataset and any nodes excluded along with the exclusion reasons
- Initial Demand: The number of nodes included in the initial demand along with details of any not counted and the reasons for exclusion
- Initial Supply: The number of nodes included in the initial supply along with details of any not counted and the reasons for exclusion
No changes can be made on this screen. Select the Back
button to return the Mapping Summary screen or Build Baseline
button to Complete Build Baseline
Completing build baseline
Once all mapping has been completed select the Build Baseline
button to create a snapshot of the original selected dataset and build the baseline for the Workforce Planning Process
This will present the completing build baseline window which will show a completion message once the Baseline has been successfully built with 3 options
At this point a copy of the originally selected dataset will be made and this will appear in your tenant named as per the original dataset with the suffix WFP snapshot yyyy-mm-dd
- Original dataset
- Snapshot dataset