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Founded in 1908, Williams, through its subsidiaries, finds, produces, gathers, processes, and transports natural gas. Williams' operations are concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Gulf Coast, and Eastern Seaboard. Through its three business units, the company operates 15,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline and has proved reserves of 4.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. In 2007, Williams generated revenues of $10 billion and employed 4,400 staff.
In late 2006, analysis of Williams' workforce data revealed that the company faced an aging workforce within several critical job functions, including engineers and technicians. The situation's severity prompted the company to form a Workforce Analytics & Planning Center of Excellence to lead a new human capital measurement initiative. Combining external research on workforce planning with a workforce planning needs assessment for each business unit, Williams identified two challenges that organizations commonly face in implementing enterprise-wide workforce planning:
With the results of the aging workforce analysis providing a strong business case for a new approach, the Center of Excellence team began enterprise workforce planning to ensure that "the people strategies of today mitigate talent-related operational risks of the future."
Williams took several steps to balance each business unit's current workforce planning practices with the need for long-term enterprise plans:
1. Outline HR's Role in Workforce Planning
In keeping with our philosophy that workforce planning should be owned by the business and guided by HR, Williams' Center of Excellence team offers a prescriptive approach, teaching the nuances of workforce planning to line managers-such as how to conduct effective workforce planning conversations with business leaders-and collaborating on forecast design. Additionally, process documentation and timelines were created to ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities.
2. Attend Workforce Planning and Workforce Analytics Workshops
To obtain the skills needed to create and manage workforce plans, more than 20 members of Williams' HR team have attended our workforce planning and workforce analytics workshops. The sessions combine lecture, case studies, and group breakouts to ensure that participants learn the complete planning and analytics process and test their knowledge through real-world business examples.
3. Launch Workforce Planning Application to Complement Home-Grown Systems
Our workforce planning application guides users through the process of creating both enterprise and business unit-specific workforce plans, including growth-based scenario plans, demand forecasts by job role, location and organizational unit, automated supply forecasts and gap analyses.
4. Facilitate a Kick-Off Meeting With Williams' HR Leaders
Through a one-day onsite session of key stakeholders-Williams' HR leaders, Center of Excellence team and Inform-attendees reviewed our workforce planning process, outlined project plans, and discussed examples of how other energy companies conducted workforce planning. The kick-off meeting ensured that stakeholders were aware of, and committed to, implementing the new approach.
5. Determine Phase 1 Scenarios, Select Job Functions to Include and Define Time Horizons
In conjunction with the HR business partners, Williams' Workforce Analytics & Planning Center of Excellence team modified two existing scenarios to ensure full alignment with the company's growth strategy without "reinventing the wheel." The scenarios were used to guide demand and supply forecasts in light of changing market conditions.
Phase 1 also saw the team establish demand and supply forecasts for 17 of the company's 24 job functions, with data available by function/location and for time periods of one, three and five years.
1. Heightened Awareness of Workforce Risks-The enterprise initiative has created a sharper focus on planning and strategy development for key, critical and high-risk positions within the organization. Workforce planning is a standard component of business unit leaders' strategy development meetings. They can now better articulate risks and develop strategies to fill the potential workforce gaps.
2. Greater Accountability for Long-Term Talent Management-Williams' senior leaders have committed to executing Williams' long-term workforce plan in their 2008 performance goals.
3. Improved Workforce Data Integrity-During Phase 1, Williams' Workforce Analytics & Planning Center of Excellence team identified several job functions that possessed inconsistent role definitions, an issue that would only have come to light during this initiative. Accordingly, the company has revised its job functions to ensure internal consistency within each segment.