Workforce Planning Manager

Summary

Join SmartBug Media as a Workforce Planning Manager and play a strategic role in ensuring their professional services teams have the right people, with the right skills, at the right time. You will be responsible for forecasting workforce needs, managing resource allocation, and ensuring alignment between business objectives and workforce capabilities. This role requires a strong background in workforce planning and forecasting, resource allocation, data analysis, continuous improvement, and project management. You will collaborate closely with leadership and cross-functional teams to optimize resource utilization and ensure the company's success.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Finance, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in workforce management, resource planning, or operations within a professional services/ agency environment
• Proven experience implementing and managing resource planning software/tools
• Strong analytical skills with proficiency in data visualization and reporting
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills to effectively liaise with stakeholders at all organizational levels
• Ability to strategically analyze complex issues and propose actionable solutions
• Demonstrated capability in managing multiple initiatives simultaneously and meeting tight deadlines

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of workforce resource plans to meet short, mid and long term business objectives
• Forecast staffing needs, considering growth projections, seasonality, employee churn, absenteeism, and other variability
• Collaborate with leadership, finance, and HR to ensure workforce resource plans are in budget, providing recommendations for adjustments based on current and/or forecasted resource needs
• Provide coaching and support to leaders and managers on workforce planning and best practices
• Ensure effective allocation of talent across departments, projects and strategic initiatives
• Partner with leadership, department heads, and HR to ensure the right resources are deployed effectively and efficiently
• Create skills inventories of current employees to identify opportunities for optimizing existing resources, upskilling or reskilling needs, and/or hiring needs to align people resources with evolving business needs
• Conduct regular follow-ups with employees regarding their workload and adjust the forecast accordingly to ensure maximized capacity to support company work
• In collaboration with the HubSpot and CRM Practice Manager, assign projects in a way that allows resources to meet their goals
• Facilitate regular meetings with department heads and executives to proactively address resource allocation challenges and needs
• Analyze workforce data to create meaningful dashboards actionable plans
• Develop and utilize analytics to create predictive staffing needs and identify resource and skills gaps
• Manage and monitor billable hours and productivity targets for professional services teams
• Provide regular capacity and resource utilization reports to senior management, offering actionable insights and recommendations
• Supervise global reporting and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) for the team, providing insights to leadership
• Optimize billable hours
• Monitor effectiveness of resource planning processes, making improvements for greater efficiency and impact
• Stay up-to-date on best practices, tools, and trends Maintain and optimize templates/tools necessary for the planning process
• Oversee transition from current, manual workforce management process to sophisticated, technology-driven solution Lead research, selection, and implementation of a professional services workforce capacity and billable hours management tool
• Lead and coordinate resource planning projects
• Manage competing priorities and deadlines in a fast paced environment
• Key contributor/workstream owner on change management initiatives such as acquisitions and other organizational changes
• Serve as the central point of contact between sales and production to ensure strategic alignment, communicate operational changes to the team
• Oversee the onboarding and offboarding of team members and provide operational support in relevant systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Proactive and positive individual thriving in fast-paced environments, focused on Rocking It for the Customer
• Highly analytical, organized, and detail-oriented professional capable of managing multiple priorities independently
• Innovative thinker demonstrating initiative and creativity in data-driven solutions, pursuing growth and learning
• Critically thinks and problem-solves with an agile and resilient mindset
• Motivates and develops team members and others, contributing to building belonging and growth
• Self-disciplined and self-motivated, with excellent work habits, reliability, and a consistent commitment to meeting deadlines and achieving objectives

Benefits

• Health insurance with company contribution
• Paid maternity and paternity leave
• Paid time off and sick time
• 4 week paid sabbatical every 5 years of employment
• Winter Closure December 25th - January 1st
• Monthly remote work allowance
• 401(k) with employer matching
• Flexible spend plan
• Company-funded short-term disability and life insurance
• Long-term disability
• Training budget
• The flexibility of working remotely
• MacBook Air issued to you at time of hire