Questions to support comparing options to achieve outcomes:

• How are current employees divided into useful workforce segments, and have groups for development, retention and mobility been identified?
• Are the required capabilities readily available within the organisation or the labour market?
• How well does the current workforce align/ support the organisational plan/strategy?
• What employment arrangement types are present within the current workforce (e.g. ongoing, temporary, casual, contingent, volunteers, contractors, interns, cadets, trainees etc.) and what is their contribution?
• How many employees are at each organisational level and location?
• What are the diversity statistics for each workforce segment, and are there opportunities to target the recruitment of diverse groups?
• How flexible is the workforce? Does the organisation make use of non-full-time appointments such as job sharing?
• What is the grade structure (distribution) and is it fit for purpose?
   

Possible sources of evidence:

• Relevant and validated internal data (e.g. recruitment data, organisational structure analysis)
• Relevant and validated external data (e.g. wider industry trend predictions, workforce supply and demand data)
   

Suggested actions:

• Compare different operational models to determine the best fit for delivering desired outcomes
• Analyse the composition of the existing workforce and benchmark across all labour types internally and with the external labour market
• Consider future ways of working, taking into account the impact of emerging technologies and the need for organisational and work redesign
• Determine the most cost-effective way forward
• Forecast the demand for workforce capacity and capability over the defined period
• Define the culture and conditions needed to effectively meet workforce requirements
• Complete scenario planning to identify plausible future events and their workforce size and cost implications