ow in its second century
of manufacturing legendary motorcycles, Harley-Davidson Inc. pulled in $5.7 billion
a year in 2007 from sales in 60 global markets and a workforce of 9,700. But it
also found itself facing the same labor shortages in critical fields, such as materials
and marketing, that now plague all manufacturers. 
"It was taking
more effort to fill our pipelines," says Lisa Coury, director of talent management.
Current openings at the company include engineers, material
planners and supply chain analysts. Production workers, represented by two unions,
make up two-thirds of the Harley workforce. Although U.S. sales slowed in 2007,
international sales increased 13.7 percent, and the company’s plants must keep pace
with growing global demand for the unique brand.
Harold Scott, Harley’s vice president of human resources,
noted changes in market conditions, the company’s heavy retirement rate and the
growing complexity of managing a multi-generational workforce, and tapped Coury
to create a workforce planning capability within the human resources function in
2007. "We needed to develop workforce planning as a set of defined processes,"
Coury says.
Coury began by conducting substantial research, benchmarking
and discussing workforce planning with organizations that already had planning processes
in place.
"We knew from talking to other organizations that we needed
to walk before we could run," she says. "So we started small, using pilot groups
and feedback from those groups to enhance our methodology and processes. It’s a
journey. The key is to work with business leaders who understand the value of workforce
planning." The first pilot group was the materials group, which was experiencing
high levels of employee movement.
Coury uses key quarterly metrics segmented by business unit
to spur interest in workforce planning. A 40-page deep-dive report on the salaried
workforce includes measures in 30 different areas and the potential business impact
of developments in those areas. The report shows trends over a three-year period.
"These key metrics whet the appetites of the executives and create the initial pull
for workforce planning," Coury says. "Then we work with these executives to begin
the process."
The workforce planning process involves a number of key members
in each business group. "We begin with one-on-one meetings with leadership to obtain
qualitative workforce information, and then we marry this to our detailed quantitative
analysis to project hiring needs over a three-year horizon," Coury says. "Then we
develop an action plan for the steps we need to take within an agreed-upon time
frame."
The planning process at Harley-Davidson now incorporates three
areas: forecasting, workforce segmentation and strategic skills identification.
To help build the process, Coury brought over an analyst from HR planning. "You
need someone with strong analytical skills," she says.
"It’s one thing to collect a lot of data and create a workforce
planning process, but the point is to achieve results," Coury says. "The objective
is to increase HR’s ability to service the business. That means turning data into
information that can help the business leaders make more informed decisions. We
pursue workforce planning for the value and the power it brings to the organization."
Workforce Management, April 21, 2008, p. 18
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