Positioned: Strategic Workforce Planning That Gets the Right Person in the Right Job Capa dura - 2013

Strategic workforce planning is a rigorous approach to solving the ongoing challenge of putting the right people in the right jobs at the right time. Yet many organizations still rely on haphazard planning methods or launch into crisis mode when talented people leave and knowledge vacuums arise.

Don't be caught unprepared. Positioned gathers some of the most distinguished thought leaders in the field of strategic workforce planning (SWP). In all, 25 articles span the history of SWP, best practices now used in organizations across the globe, new developments in analytics, and future directions expected for the field.

Merging practical information and case studies with theoretical thinking and projected trends, Positioned draws its lessons from the private and public sectors, and from organizations in the United States and abroad, including China, Singapore, Europe, the BRIC nations, Australia, and more. Practical and thought provoking, this indis-pensable book distills key SWP ideas and strategies through a wide range of voices, including:

- Robert D. Motion's "It's Not Just Data: Work-force Planning and Change Management" uncovers the "burning platform" that led Raytheon to develop an effective SWP process.

- David Howerton's "Workforce Planning: Does It Hurt Enough to Begin?" recounts how EDS's pain points led to integrated workforce man-agement processes.

- Naomi Stanford's "Workforce Planning in China" examines the enormous challenges faced by HR managers dealing with rapid growth and global enterprises competing for talent.

- Marta Brito Perez's "Strategic Workforce Planning in the Federal Government" looks at the central role that robust workforce planning plays at the National Cancer Institute's Center for Global Health.

- Peter Howes's "Wisdom on Workforce Planning" examines SWP as a risk mitigation process and offers advice for integrating it with HR and business strategy.

- Jeremy Shapiro and Tom Davenport's "The Rise of Talent Analytics" spotlights high-level busi-ness and HR leaders who are using analytics for better decisions.

- Jac Fitz-enz's "Disrupting the Future" points to new types of metrics, such as Talent Devel-op-ment Reporting Principles, that fly in the face of conventional wisdom about measur-ing training investments.

- Dave Ulrich's "The Future Targets or Outcomes of HR Work" urges readers to remove their vision blinders and refocus on capabilities that may exist only via temporary virtual relationships.

Packed with best practices from Microsoft, Boeing, HP, IBM, Raytheon, Google, and many others, Positioned captures the best workforce planning practices from leading organizations and the world's foremost SWP practitioners.

Dan L. Ward is associate department head of Cyber Intelligence and Intelligence Community Workforce for the MITRE Corporation. Previously, he led strategic workforce planning at EDS, Texaco, GTE, and AT&T-WE. He lives in Oakton, Virginia.

Rob Tripp is a Workforce Planning Manager at Ford Motor Company. He lives in Redford, Michigan.

Bill Maki is the retired director of strategic workforce planning for Weyerhaeuser and past president of the Human Resource Planning Society. He lives in University Place, Washington.