1. Identify three reasons why Enterprise uses workforce planning.
Workforce planning is the process of analysing an organization's likely future needs for people in terms of numbers, skills and locations. It is an essential process in Human Resource Management as it ensures that a firm has the right number of people in the right place, with the right skills at the right time. Workforce planning often has 5 steps. The first step is the ‘Environment Scan’ which involves managers look at why workforce planning is important, the strategic objectives, the internal and external environment. The second step is ‘Current Workforce Profile’ where managers look at their current profile, current skills and competencies of the workforce, and current strengths and development needs. The third step is the ‘Future Workforce View’ which is when managers look at what future products and services will be provided by the organization, what the future environment will require, what the future workforce supply and demand is, what future skills and competencies are required etc. The fourth step is ‘Closing the Gaps’ is when the business has to see what the key areas of need/action are to move from where the organization is now to where it wants to be. It involves basically filling all the gaps that are needed to be filled in order to have a successful workforce plan. The final step is the ‘Conclusion/Evaluation’ where managers can check what the key outcomes of the workforce plan were, how they can evaluate the strategies in the workforce plan and what the next implementations are of the workforce plan. Enterprise is the largest car rental business in North America. In 2007, it had 728,000 rental cars in use, employing over 65,000 people with an annual turnover of over 4.5 billion pounds. The car rental market is increasingly competitive and Enterprise continues to expand its range of services to meet customer needs and wants. Enterprise