Use Dynamics 365 to plan and recruit your workforce as part of the hire to retire business process

Applies to: Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Human Resources, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

This article describes how you can use Dynamics 365 products to plan and recruit your workforce as part of the hire to retire business process. Planning and recruiting represent a foundational business process area that is upstream of most business processes across a business. It's important that you define department structures, and define and manage jobs and positions, so that you can assign workers to tasks. In addition, before you can record time and attendance, and pay employees, you must create and manage shifts, and define work calendars and schedules. You should plan and recruit your workforce early in the implementation, because the associated configurations are required to support day-to-day operations and business processes.

Input from various stakeholders is required to complete these steps. The list includes but isn't limited to the following roles:

  • Finance is required to define the relevant financial dimensions.
  • HR and Administrative stakeholders are required to define organizational details.
  • IT Operations might be required to import data.

Plan and recruit your workforce process flow

The following diagram illustrates the Plan and recruit your workforce business process area.

Business process relationships with upstream and downstream processes that are explained in the next paragraphs.

Each solid gray rectangle on the diagram represents an end-to-end business process. The solid blue rectangle represents the business process area. The diagram shows the subprocesses for the business process area. The arrows on the diagram show the flow of the business process in an organization. If a subprocess can lead to more than one other subprocess, the parallel subprocesses are shown as branches.

The following steps are illustrated in the Plan and recruit your workforce flow diagram.

  1. Start

  2. Hire to retire

  3. Plan and recruit your workforce

    Parallel branches connect to the following end-to-end processes that are shown on the right side: Forecast to plan, Project to profit, and Plan to produce.

    1. Define department structure

      A parallel branch connects to Update department structure.

    2. Create jobs

      A parallel branch connects to Manage changes to jobs.

    3. Define corporate operating hours and schedule

    4. Plan budget & headcount

      A parallel branch connects to Manage headcount.

    5. Create positions

      A parallel branch connects to Manage changes to positions.

    6. Create and manage teams

    7. Create and manage shifts

    8. Recruit and hire candidates

    9. Onboard and manage the employee lifecycle

  4. End

Parallel branches from Start include the following processes:

  1. Record to report (Define company structure) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Define department structure) and (Update department structure).

  2. Forecast to plan (Define strategic and operational plans) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Plan and budget headcount, Create positions, and Define department structure). Plan and budget headcount connects to Forecast supply and demand (Forecast to plan).

  3. Acquire to dispose (Plan and budget assets) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Plan and budget headcount).

  4. (Not pictured) Case to resolution (Create cases) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce from almost anything that you can make a case for.

  5. Project to profit (Resource a project) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Plan and budget headcount) and (Create and manage teams). Create and manage teams connects to Manage project budgets (Project to profit).

  6. Concept to market (Define service offerings and strategy) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Create positions).

  7. Service to cash (Establish servicing policies and procedures) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Create positions).

  8. Order to cash (Manage store operations) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Create and manage shifts).

  9. Plan to produce (Plan production operations) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Create and manage shifts). Create and manage shifts connects to Define production strategies (Plan to produce).

  10. Source to pay (Procure materials and services) connects to Plan and recruit your workforce (Recruit and hire).

The following end-to-end downstream processes that are also depicted in the diagram have connections to End:

  • Forecast to plan

  • Project to profit

  • Plan to produce

Plan and recruit your workforce benefits

Effective workforce planning and recruiting can help organizations achieve their business goals. The right approach helps them ensure that they have the right people in the right positions at the right time. At the same time, it helps reduce costs and improve productivity. Many key benefits can monitor and measure the success of the technology that you use to support the business processes. The following sections outline the key benefits that an organization might monitor and measure for Plan and recruit your workforce.

Cost savings

An accurate forecast of the number of employees that are required, and of the skill set that those employees must have, helps the organization ensure that it has the right number of people in the right positions to meet its current and future needs. In this way, the organization also controls labor costs and avoids overstaffing.

Increased productivity

Effective workforce planning can help identify skill gaps and training needs. The result can be improved productivity and employee satisfaction. Effective recruiting can help an organization hire candidates who have the skills and experience that they need to "hit the ground running." The right approach can help improve productivity and employee retention. At the same time, it can help reduce the likelihood of turnover.

Faster time to hire

Effective recruiting can help an organization streamline its hiring process, reduce the time that is required to fill open positions, and minimize the risk of losing top candidates to competitors.

Improved employer brand

Effective recruiting can help an organization build a strong employer brand. In this way, it can make the organization more attractive to top candidates and improve its reputation in the marketplace.

Improved diversity and inclusion

Effective recruiting can help an organization build a more diverse and inclusive workforce. The result can be better decision making, increased innovation, and improved employee engagement.

Next steps

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your hire to retire business processes, use the following resources and steps to learn more. (Links will be added later, when the articles are ready.)

  1. Plan and recruit your workforce (the article that you're currently reading)

  2. Onboard and manage the employee lifecycle

  3. Manage occupational health and safety

  4. Manage employee performance and growth

  5. Manage employee time and attendance

  6. Manage travel and expenses

  7. Manage employee benefits and compensation

You can use the following resources to learn more about the hire to retire process in Dynamics 365.

Contributors

This article is maintained by Microsoft. It was originally written by the following contributors.

Principal author:

  • Rich Black | Microsoft FastTrack Solution Architect

Other contributors: