Workforce Planning Begins

Our workforce planning initiative has begun in earnest with several training sessions this month for the project teams. The project teams include individuals asked by their vice president to lead the workforce planning efforts in their departments. Nearly 70 managers and others who have been identified as having a specific insight into the work of their area received a comprehensive overview of the process, as well as an introduction to the available tools and resources to support their efforts. You should be hearing from a member of the project team in your department with regular updates as our work together unfolds.

What they learned is that workforce planning is an ongoing process of workforce analysis focused on identifying our future needs and developing solutions to address the gaps between our current workforce and those needs. Simply stated, they learned that workforce planning is a process to ensure that we have the right people with the right skills in the right jobs at the right time so that Middlebury can achieve its highest goals and objectives. This is the most important work we can do to ensure Middlebury is on a course for success for the next 50 years.

The process begins with us articulating what outcomes we want for the institution’s future. This is what you will hear your project team and others refer to as our future state. Only when we understand what we are trying to achieve, what we want our future state to be, can we determine the work we need to do in order to achieve those outcomes.

The workforce planning effort comes at a time when Middlebury must also address financial sustainability. This can prompt thinking about how to move forward with less. Workforce planning asks us to shift that thinking. Instead of asking, “How can we do 10 percent less work?” let’s ask, “What work do we need to do for our future, and how much of that can we afford today given our current financial constraints?” By engaging our talented and committed community, we can shift from a mindset of scarcity to one of possibility.

So we invite you to take a moment to dream—what will be the outcomes of your work in the future? How will the institution be better or different? Why is that important to our future? And then look for the opportunities to share your insights with your department’s project team.

We will use MiddPoints and other venues to keep you updated on our progress. In the meantime, you can find out the members of your project team here.

-Karen Miller