Why is it so hard to be proactive - to actually plan for those workforce needs?
Maybe companies are so busy trying to survive the moment, they just don't have time. Research conducted by i4cp (2008a) found that only about a quarter of responding firms said they had formal plans for their future hiring needs, although the figure was 50% for large organizations.
Or perhaps planning just isn't the forte of a lot of U.S.-based companies. When Watson Wyatt polled organizations in 37 countries in late 2008, the results showed that more than eight out of 10 UK firms had workforce plans in place to help them deal with staffing issues resulting from economic fallout. In Ireland, the percentage was 85%. Even in Italy, which often doesn't fare well in employment issues, 82% of firms had contingency plans.
