SECTION 1
Historical Perspective
Dan L. Ward
THIS FIRST SECTION OFFERS insight into earlier practices in
Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP). In 1969, James W. Walker
authored “Forecasting Manpower Needs” in the Harvard
Business Review, which created quite a stir when senior
executives were introduced to the concept. In the 1970s,
he founded the Human Resource Planning Society, now
known as HR People & Strategy (HRPS). We asked
Jim to write the first chapter of this book because no one is
more qualified to talk about how this field gained its prominence
over the past forty years. His chapter, “The Origins of
Workforce Planning,” allows the reader a chance to sit beside
Jim as he describes the professionalization of our field.
Borrowing the title from an old George Gershwin song, “How
Long Has This Been Going On?” is my own sometimes
lighthearted but sincerely heartfelt look at the ascent of
SWP. Our tools and techniques have evolved. We continually
refine our terminology, but the fact remains that humans
have always been concerned with the fundamental concepts
of SWP, even if our tools and terminology have become
sophisticated only in more recent years. We can claim this
is a brand-new field and define it carefully to support that
claim, or we can recognize clues that it may actually date
back to recognized community construction projects that
began 13,000 years in the past. One can accept or reject
the historical time line offered in this chapter, but I am
personally proud to be practicing in a career field that can
simultaneously be portrayed as both one of the world’s
oldest and youngest career specialties.
Alex G. Manganaris’s “The Evolution of Strategic
Workforce Planning Within Government Agencies”
offers another opportunity to sit alongside someone
who was there during some of the most significant
SWP efforts of past decades. SWP seems to flow in and
out of favor in a cyclical fashion within private industry,
but it has been steadily applied within many government
agencies.
Dan L. Ward is the associate department head for the
MITRE team providing support to the U.S. government
on workforce strategy and human capital topics. In this
role, he leads advisory support for workforce planning,
organization design, people strategy, and change
management activities. Dan has provided advice and
counsel to a variety of U.S. government agencies.
Ward earned his bachelor’s degree in social science and
his master’s in workforce economics from the University
of North Texas. Prior to joining MITRE in 2006, he held
senior level roles in HR, knowledge management, and
strategic planning at GTE, Texaco, and EDS. One-third
of the Fortune 100 companies have sought his counsel
on advanced people strategies.
He started his career as a management scientist with
Western Electric, developing workforce simulation studies.
His cost-benefit studies on alternate staffing strategies
have been cited in Fortune, BusinessWeek, the Wall
Street Journal, and the Work in America Institute, among
others. He is an award-winning photographer and has
published three photography books, the latest being
Tribute, a photohaiku study of Civil War memorials.
Bill Maki was an equal partner with Dan and Rob at the
beginning of this book project. He was one of the earliest
members of the Human Resource Planning Society
and a past president of the group. With a bachelor’s
degree in mathematics from the University of Washington
and a master’s in statistics and operations
research from Oregon State University, Bill was one
of the pacesetters for workforce forecasting and modeling.
He retired after thirty-nine years with Weyerhaeuser
and continues to write and speak on workforce planning
related topics. Bill helped design the layout of this book
and suggested some of the contributors.Due to a health
problem, he relinquished his editing role on the book but
continued to provide advice, counsel, and moral support
to Dan and Rob.
