As a firm specializing in Workforce Management and operational planning, Althéa helps companies reconcile financial objectives with operational human resource needs through its support services.
Efficient and Sustainable Planning
Efficient and sustainable planning is both simple and complex. Operational, financial, and social challenges are interdependent. Recent crises have exacerbated problems such as understaffing, absenteeism, and the labor shortage crisis ou talent shortage crisis. Sectoral constraints, such as quality of care in hospitals or processing times in call centers, further complicate planning.
Anticipating changes in resource needs is therefore a key challenge: poor management of activity peaks or staffing requirements can quickly become costly for the company.
The effectiveness of operational planning rests on 4 pillars: the accuracy of activity forecasts, the optimization of planning, employee satisfaction with their schedules, and operational efficiency.
Anticipate your resources, optimize your operational planning!
We are here to support you.
Staff Planning Process
The Staff Planning Process goes beyond the notion of planning and schedules. This agile and cyclical process combines the 3 levels of company planning: strategic, tactical, and operational. It unfolds in 4 stages:
- Forecast Budgeting
- Activity forecasting and conversion into workload by skill
- Detailed planning of teams and their schedules
- Updating the initial budget as activities progress
This comprehensive assessment offering proposes a progressive approach with targeted actions and an implementation methodology for process and organizational dimensions.
With an average duration of 10 days, it is aimed at all types of companies in all sectors seeking greater efficiency and better service for their internal and external customers.
Time Staff
The Time Staff offering optimizes the availability of internal resources versus external workforce.
The objective is to minimize periods of overstaffing or understaffing by taking into account imposed constraints, upstream calculated needs, and available personnel, while remaining agile and flexible.
This offering provides support from planning assessment, needs gathering, solution selection, and implementation support.
Our offerings apply to all sectors of activity (call centers, healthcare, retail, etc.) and facilitate the integration of new organizational models and practices, such as remote work.
Key Figures
of managers spend more than 3 hours per week on HR administrative tasks (Source : étude UKG)
reduction in excess hours through better control of activity planning
of Excel files used by managers contain errors (Source : Journal of End user computing’s)
Our References
For a home appliance retail leader
12,000 employees – “Planning Audit”
Mission duration: 16 months
Development of an HRIS roadmap followed by an audit of planning and operational processes, leading to the deployment of a new Time & Attendance Management (GTA) & Planning solution.
Achievements
- Audit and harmonization of practices, planning rules, and management processes;
- Identification of main pain points and Quick-Wins;
- Determination of avenues for automating exchanges and ensuring data reliability;
- Definition of the implementation budget and cost projection over a 5-year horizon,
- Production of an audit report.
Results:
- Productivity gains in annual resource planning
- Optimization of all scheduling-related processes (absences, modulation, budgetary elements)
For a luxury beauty retail leader
4,000+ employees – “Planning IS Modernization”
Mission duration: 2 years
IT modernization project following the discontinuation of maintenance for the existing tool and the desire to simplify and improve the technical-functional architecture within the GTA/Planning scope.
Achievements
- Detailed audit of all processes
- Identification of main pain points and areas for improvement
- Drafting of a recommendation report and roadmap
- Benchmark of solutions considered in the consultation
- Drafting of the specifications for the consultation
- Assistance with negotiation/contracting
- Support for solution implementation
- Assistance with training end-users (store planners)
Results
Provision of an integrated planning tool within the GTA application for managers to eliminate the use of Excel files.
Challenges
Align Company Strategy with Its Operational Execution
Permanent understaffing, increased absenteeism, stressed personnel, labor shortage crisis ou talent shortage crisis… these are common ailments encountered by companies, both public and private.
AIncrease Employee Satisfactionugmenter la satisfaction des collaborateurs
Effective planning relies on employee satisfaction: desired hours, flexibility, fairness, regularity, and employability. “Social Planning” combines production and employee well-being.
Control Planning Costs
Absenteeism, training, contracts, recruitment, and turnover affect productivity. AI can predict turnover and absenteeism and improve planning.
Contacts
Your questions about operational planning
What are the three levels of operational planning in a company?
Strategic planning, driven by general management, defines the company’s long-term vision over a 3 to 5-year horizon. It establishes major orientations, market positioning, and the allocation of primary resources. This crucial step relies on tools such as strategic plans and balanced scorecards to define the desired competitive advantages.
At the intermediate level, tactical planning transforms these strategic objectives into concrete action plans over 1 to 2 years. Managed by department heads, it ensures resource deployment and the definition of operational budgets. This phase uses specialized planning software to effectively coordinate different departments.
Key tactical tools:
- Annual action plans and provisional budgets
- Performance indicators and dashboards
- Resource management systems
Operational planning, on the other hand, concerns the daily implementation of activities. Managed in real-time by team leaders, it organizes daily work and monitors production. This short-term planning requires great flexibility to adapt to daily constraints.
These three levels work in synergy, forming a global process where fluid communication and integrated information systems play an essential role.
How can activity peaks be managed in operational planning?
Effective management of activity peaks represents a major strategic challenge in companies’ operational planning.
This dimension requires both a proactive and flexible approach, the objective being to achieve a balance between operational responsiveness and cost control.
The implementation of a robust forecasting system is the first step. Modern planning software allows for the analysis of historical data and the identification of trends, thus providing a clear vision of upcoming periods of high activity. This anticipation helps managers make informed decisions to adapt resources accordingly. The operational plan then defines several response scenarios, integrating different levels of team mobilization.
Adapting to activity peaks also relies on close collaboration between departments. Real-time communication and information sharing allow for rapid adjustment of necessary staffing and skills. This flexibility is supported by dynamic dashboards that continuously measure workload and performance indicators, thus facilitating the overall adaptation process. Finally, the scalability of the system in the face of activity peaks must be part of a clear roadmap, defining the steps and means to be implemented to transform constraints into opportunities for continuous improvement. This long-term vision allows for anticipating future needs and progressively adapting operational planning processes.
How can rest period monitoring be automated?
Controlling rest periods represents a major challenge in operational planning. Automating this process requires the integration of planning software capable of analyzing legal and organizational constraints in real time. This solution must take into account different levels of rest (daily, weekly, annual) while adapting to the specific context of each department.
The implementation of an automated system optimizes working time management by defining preventive alerts and systematic controls. Managers can thus monitor key indicators and make informed decisions to achieve objectives while complying with legal obligations. Technology helps transform the supervision of rest periods into a fluid and reliable process.
How much autonomy should employees be given in managing their schedules?
Autonomy in schedule management constitutes a significant competitive advantage for the company. The implementation of operational planning clearly defines the conditions and limits of this autonomy, taking into account the needs of key personnel and production constraints.
This approach requires:
- Accessible digital tools
- A clear roadmap
- Simplified validation processes
- Transparent communication
The objective is to empower employees while maintaining efficient activity planning.
How can employee satisfaction with their schedules be assessed?
To measure the satisfaction rate regarding schedules, it is essential to develop a systematic approach integrating multiple perspectives. The evaluation process must combine quantitative data (questionnaires, dashboards) and qualitative data (interviews, focus groups) to obtain a broad and precise view.
The creation of relevant indicators allows for monitoring the evolution of satisfaction over time. These measures should include:
- Work-life balance
- Schedule flexibility
- Fairness in schedule distribution
- Predictability of timetables
The results of this evaluation serve to optimize activity planning and improve collaboration between teams.
