Goal:
Identify different work and workforce scenarios to deliver organisational goals and the estimated cost of each scenario.
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