Assessing the Landscape: Workforce Challenges

You’ve accepted a new leadership challenge or role and quickly realized that you are facing a myriad of workforce challenges. Building on the organizational‑wide risk assessment framework introduced in the first article, this second installment focuses specifically on workforce‑related risks and challenges. As part of the series, the article is designed to help public sector leaders identify risks, ask the right questions, and develop an actionable plan to tackle those challenges. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to review the first article in this series, which provides a broader organizational risk assessment framework.

The origins of many public sector problems are almost always rooted in workforce challenges, and these challenges require exploration, time and commitment across the organization to resolve. The checklist below, assembled over the course of my public sector career, is designed to help you assess the organizational landscape and identify key workforce risks so that a plan of action can be developed to address those risks – preferably within the first 100 days, but valuable at any time and at any level of the organization.

Complaint Assessment and Investigation Processes

One of the most effective ways to identify workforce challenges is to review employee complaints and how they are handled. Complaints can be varied and may include general complaints to the Executive office, outside organizations, Human Resources or an EEO Officer. They may also include contract grievances, Whistleblower complaints, merit or discrimination complaints, or legal actions. Review the complaints themselves, as well as the processes for intake, tracking, and the handling of the complaint – for example, whether the complaint was referred for investigation, effectively investigated, closed, and whether the supervisor addressed the findings and took appropriate action. 

Threat Assessment

One of the first risk assessments public sector organizations should undertake is reviewing or developing the escalation evaluation process for potential workplace threats.  Unfortunately, threats to public sector employees are on the rise and can take many forms and occur in any location.  If a threat assessment process is not in place, I recommend establishing one and clearly communicating it to your employees. 

Labor Law Compliance

Labor law compliance can vary across public agencies, but leaders should ensure that an effective injury and illness program is in place, required labor law policies and notices are posted or communicated, and the administration of workers’ compensation benefits and the return-to-work process is reviewed.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Review the organization’s DEI policies and practices, review training provided (e.g. unconscious bias and harassment prevention) and identify employee committees and volunteers dedicated to an inclusive organizational culture.

Classification and Compensation

 A common theme in public service is outdated job descriptions, which can also mean that salary scales have not kept pace with the competition. You may find that hard-to-recruit classifications could benefit from a classification study, job specification revisions and/or salary studies to broaden applicant pools.    

Organizational Structure

Review your organization charts and ensure you understand the structure, and that the structure aligns with business needs. Public sector employers outgrow their structure over time, and examples like insufficient supervisor to staff ratios, or insufficient staffing in high workload areas can lead to significant workforce problems if the organization structure doesn’t change.  A comprehensive review and analysis of staffing models can be tremendously helpful in addressing many workforce challenges.  

Organizational Policies

The origin of many public sector challenges can be traced to a lack of clearly communicated organizational policies.  If employees are not told what the rules are, we can’t expect them to follow them. From conflict-of-interest rules to sexual harassment and social media policies, organizational policies vary widely. To mitigate litigation risk and other day-to-day workplace challenges, review your organization’s policies to ensure they are comprehensive and up to date.

Performance Management

Ensure that performance management and coaching training is provided to managers and supervisors, that the Human Resources team supporting this function is skilled and customer-service oriented, and that managers and supervisors regularly provide employees oral and written feedback on their performance.   

Training Plan and Training Administration

Like policies that are not clearly articulated or kept up to date, the same can be said for training – particularly compliance training.  Review your organization’s training plan and curriculum, the rate of training completion, and how training is administered, with particular focus on required training such as Information Security, Ethics, Harassment Prevention, and Workplace Violence Prevention.  As gaps are identified, tailor your training plan to address those gaps.  For example, if you observe that processes are cumbersome and causing backlogs, you may want to initiate training focused on operationalizing processes for efficiency (e.g. Business Process Improvement). 

Workforce Plan

A workforce plan is a written document that typically outlines the challenges and opportunities within an organization and lays out an action plan to tackle those challenges.  This plan can look vastly different from one agency to the next depending on the challenges faced.  In my experience, workforce plans have been used to outline recruitment challenges and related tactics.  For example, after identifying hiring challenges in hard-to-recruit classifications, the workforce plan can be used to identify ideal candidates and outline strategies for recruiting those candidates.  This may include using a marketing firm or search firm to help target specific candidate profiles, or it could be utilizing existing team members as recruiters to focus on leveraging multimedia tools such as social media, posting in key job boards, listservs, websites, out-of- home advertisements, and word of mouth.  Recruitment efforts may also include developing collateral materials, creating or revising website and job posting language, participating in job fairs, and conducting mass hiring efforts.

Retention

 A workforce plan may also be helpful in outlining your organization’s retention strategy, particularly if the organization is at risk for turnover.  Retention efforts may include the following strategies:

• Employee engagement and feedback
• Upward mobility or career development programs
• Leadership development, succession planning and mentoring
• Knowledge transfer strategies
• Wellness programs
• Recognition programs

Conclusion

I hope this checklist is helpful in assembling your plan of action to thoroughly review and analyze your workforce challenges.  It’s likely you already know which of these items rise to the top in your organization and are already engaged in tactics to address them.  I encourage this systemic review, alongside key personnel in your organization, to ensure that there are no surprises and that you and your team are focused on the highest priorities.  This analysis should also be communicated in the organization, where possible, to key stakeholders, as it can be very helpful in gaining support as you begin to implement various tactics.  Many successful organizations tie their workforce plan or workforce strategies to their budgeting process and annual strategic planning process so stakeholders clearly see the organizational alignment.  Your employees will also appreciate the focus on internal infrastructure as they recognize that sometimes you must focus on your team first so they, in turn, may better support others.  When leaders intentionally invest in their workforce—through clear expectations, thoughtful planning, and meaningful development—they strengthen the organization’s ability to deliver on its mission, serve the public effectively, and navigate future challenges with confidence.