To successfully workforce plan, it is critical that you understand the things going on inside and outside the organisation that affects the organisation’s future. Of course, there’s a profusion of information available to organisation and the important part of the process is not collecting data, but deciding which data to collect and ignore and why. The first step is classifying the information into one of four quadrants, indicating whether items represent workforce supply or demand and whether it is an internal or external factor. These four areas are described below. Internal supply, your employees, is where most organisations focus their attention; however, this will often lead to an emphasis on quantity rather than quality. The most important thing hence becomes collecting only the useful data, which consists of either profile or trend data. Profile data is a snapshot of the current workforce such as gender and age distribution, job levels and salary compensation, geography, employment mode, length of service, performance review and capabilities. Meanwhile, trend data is a picture over a period of time, including separation transfer rates, exit interview information, overtime applications and recruitment and redeployment plans. Collecting internal demand data involves analysing the organisation, what it is doing and what is the most important to it. You must be aware of business strategy and crucial priorities. This might include information about the culture and values, work organisation, business operations and processes, management systems, service agreements, budgets, client or customer survey information, new joint ventures and alliances, new technology or processes and changing responsibilities. Understanding the external supply, including availability, skills and preferences is one of the most important things to consider. Analysing the labour supply involves collecting external workforce data, demographic data and industry trends. It is important to consider both government information and other trend data as well as the other businesses that are competing for your employees. The final stage of this process involves analysing the external demand (or rest of the world!) to gain insight into areas beyond the organization, that is, the external demand. Information to collect could include data on political agendas, technological advancement, social trends, environmental awareness, education, legislation and regulations, and globalization.   There are some great technological aids to environment scanning (like Google Alerts), but it is the selection, and the effective embedding of the process into the organization, that really makes the difference.  If you'd like to get more information on how to set up effective environment scanning processes in your organization, contact us.