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How to Guide:

Planning and Performance:

‘Strategic Workforce Planning’

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CONTENTS

Topic Page

1 Introduction to Strategic Workforce Planning 3

2 Benefits of Strategic Workforce Planning 3

3 Who is responsible for developing a Strategic Workforce Plan? 4

4 The process of Strategic Workforce Planning 4

5 Strategic Workforce Planning considerations - Questions to ask yourself 5

6 Strategic Workforce Planning Framework 8

7 Working with Workforce Data Sets 9

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Planning and Performance: Strategic Workforce Planning

1. Introduction to Strategic Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is an integral part of people management and provides the context for most

activities concerned with the recruitment, development and deployment of people resources. It flows

from the University Strategic Plan and links people management into the operational business process.

Workforce plans need to be robust enough to manage short term activity but flexible enough to cope

with a range of future scenarios.

At its simplest, effective workforce planning ensures you have:

a workforce of the right size;

the right skills and diversity;

a workforce that is organised and structured in the right way;

a workforce doing what you want them to do; and

a budget that you can afford.

Effective workforce planning is an integral part of the Planning and Performance Cycle and it is essential

that there is a clear link between the Workforce Plan, the Faculty and/or Professional Services plans and

the University’s Strategic Plan. The workforce planning process must be organisation-wide and requires

communication between HR, leaders of the Departments and Faculties, Finance and Strategic Planning.

Many managers will do workforce planning as part of their daily managerial responsibilities such as

devising rotas, staff development plans and skill matrices. This guide is primarily about strategic

workforce planning as part of the University’s Planning and Performance Cycle, although some of the

issues raised here would also be relevant to more routine managerial activity.

2. Benefits of Strategic Workforce Planning

Overall, workforce planning provides a strategic approach for making critical people management

decisions and allows managers to:

plan for new activity and any activity that will cease;

anticipate and resolve issues such as staff and skills shortages;

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identify critical roles and skills without which important planned activity would be put at risk;

ensure that staff deliver quality and excellence;

ensure that staff are undertaking the roles required to meet the current and future needs of the

department;

review the efficiency of current staffing structures;

manage staff costs;

plan staff development needs;

consider the flexibility and makeup of the workforce to respond quickly to changing needs;

encourage collaborations crossing professional boundaries; and

succession plan.

3. Who is responsible for developing a Strategic Workforce Plan?

Leaders at Level 3, 2 and 1 need to work together to establish a Workforce Plan that can be submitted

as part of their business case for resource during the Planning and Performance Cycle. It is essential

that the plan is not devised in isolation. Discussions with the Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP),

Finance Accountant and the Strategic Planning Department will ensure an understanding of the likely

impact of your plans on the broader University. It is often at this stage that the consolidated

Institutional position will highlight resource challenges that require managers to prioritise activity.

Having already completed a robust workforce analysis, discussing final refinements can be achieved

more easily as essential issues, such as the need to fill risk critical roles, future critical research activity

or staff development for critical skills, can take precedence over more ‘nice to have’ developments.

In respect of the Workforce Plan, the HRBP will work closely with leaders and other stakeholders during

the timetabled planning process to consider your workforce needs as well as the people strategies you

need to implement. The timetable for submission of plans is usually started in October of each year

through the Strategic Planning Office. It should be noted that the Universities Planning cycle is iterative

and not an annual cycle but each year it takes a formal look at plans against progress and leaders are

asked to submit their updated plans to the Senior Executive Team via the Strategic Planning Office. The

HRBP will also regularly review and monitor activity against your plans as will Finance.

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4. The process of Strategic Workforce Planning

The process of workforce planning splits into 3 distinct areas:

a. Designing the future workforce…

The type of operating environment you need to have in the future, the impact this might have now and

how you develop the infrastructure, people and the resources to achieve this.

b. Developing the future workforce…

The skills and competencies needed to deliver activity in the future, where they come from and making

provision for developing or finding these skills internally or externally.

c. Delivering the future workforce…

The people management strategies needed to ensure that people are engaged in appropriate workforce

activity. Pivotal aspects to this will be through key processes such as …

recruitment and selection;

reward and retention;

training and development; and

performance management.

5. Strategic Workforce Planning considerations - Questions to ask yourself

There are many business ‘buzz’ words that are associated with workforce planning and the table below interprets

these in relation to a University setting. Following this, Section 6 contains a Workforce Planning Framework that

provides a 6 stage process for producing a Workforce Plan.

What? Questions Think About

Horizon scanning

What might be the impact of a change of activity/direction by Government, HEFCE, other universities, Research Councils, employers, knowledge exchange partners, HEA, etc? What context are we currently operating in and how is this likely to change over the next three years? What are the anticipated changing demands of the sector?

Gathering intelligence from attendance at conferences, meetings etc

Stakeholder/civic engagement

Networking

Surveys

Customer focused activities

Market intelligence

New areas of research

New innovations in teaching and learning See University Environmental Scan Report here

Scenarios What are the likely future scenarios to Fulfilling accreditation requirements

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impact the organisation? ‘What if’ situations? E.g. more students/less students , change in nature of study (e.g. move to part-time), change in funding (e.g. for PG study) Loss of key skills areas?

Trend analysis

Economic environment/fees

Demographics

Popularity of relevant A level subjects

Supply and demand for study in your subject area. See Market Intelligence information here

Social Trends

School leavers/global students intent on HE UK

Balance of research and teaching portfolio

Curriculum developments

Structure Does your structure best support the delivery of your objectives, as set out in your three year plan? If not, how does it need to change and what impact will this have on your staff and skills requirements? Do you have a management and leadership structure that has the right skills and is effective? Is there a need to develop these skills for the future to meet succession plans? Are there succession plans for leadership roles?

Numbers, grades

Leadership/management levels

Reporting lines, span of control

Workforce composition

Does the current workforce composition meet future requirements? If you need to reduce resource in an area, can this be done through the holding of vacancies and/or planned retirements, or will you need to restructure?

Types of contracts - permanent, insecure funding, fixed-term, casual, zero hours etc.

Internal/external sourcing (possible outsourcing of services?)

Appropriate use of apprenticeships and interns

Recruitment

Skill sets no longer required

What new areas of activity/research/teaching?

Link to other areas of planning such as space or capital planning

Skills analysis What new skills are required in the future? How will critical capabilities be developed? Think about any skill or experience gaps there are that you need to fill. How are you going to address them?

Who’s research active?

Are we ready for the next REF?

What are development strategy to move to 3*4*

Who’s got the skill set to move forward?

Technological changes requiring new skills

Projects requiring specialist skills

Leadership skills

Business Process Improvement

Training and Development Plans

Performance Management

Turnover and staff changes

Are there any foreseeable losses of staff within the next 3 years? What are the reasons that staff leave? Can you fill any gaps in skills and/or roles from inside the organisation (through

Planned retirements

Rate of employee initiated turnover

Succession planning

Retention strategies for critical roles

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moving staff, providing them with some development or support)? If not, do we need to recruit from within/outside of the UK? How soon do we need to do that?

Performance Management strategy

Compliance and legislative requirements

Are there any legislative changes or compliance requirements that will impact on your area?

Reporting obligations

Obligatory training

Health and safety

Risk assessment

Required recognition awards e.g. Athena Swan

Accreditations

Workforce diversity

Do all groups have the same opportunities? What equity and diversity issues have been identified?

Workforce mix data

Recruitment and promotion for underrepresented groups

Career opportunities

Organisational change

What new activities or services need to be introduced? What activities/ projects need to be discontinued? What changes to processes /new technologies need to be introduced?

Organisational reviews

New operating/MI systems

Centralisation v decentralisation

Numbers of and nature of projects

Changes in research/teaching portfolio

Critical jobs What are your risk critical roles? Which roles are difficult to fill/retain?

Roles that would jeopardise output if current post holders left

Succession plans to limit risk of losing critical staff

Recruitment, retention, career management

Ways of limiting single person dependency

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6. STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING FRAMEWORK: The framework outlines the 6 stages to preparing a Workforce Plan

ORGANISATIONAL PLANS COSTS ENVIRONMENT PEOPLE

1. ACCESS CURRENT DATA SETS

Strategic Plan

Institutional Three Year Plan (inc. capital plan and I&E)

Planning Unit Plans

Quarterly Performance Reports

Performance against KPIs and SPIs

Strategic and Operational Risk Registers

League Table Position (inc. NSS and other student satisfaction results)

Academic Holistic/Professional Services Thematic Review Action Plans

Professional Body Accreditation Plans

Outcomes of audits/inspections

Current staffing levels (what grade?, what type of contract?, FTE)

Current research activity (value of grants, how many?, application success rates, trends)

What other resources? (other operating expenditure, capital)

Assumptions (wage inflation, pension costs)

Research and Knowledge Exchange Research capability; Funding for research; REF; Competitors; Interaction with business

Student Experience Student demand—current numbers, fees, market trends, UKBA rules; student feedback—NSS, module feedback; student:staff ratios

Widening Participation Increased fees; Access Agreement; outreach

Enablers Comparison tools; legislation and regulations; technology e.g. New systems See developing dashboard on comparator data here

Staff profile—demographics, diversity information, FTE, level, age

Academic: Professional Services split

Academic promotion trend

Leadership profile and turnover

Qualifications and skills

Staff Survey report

2. ANALYSIS OF CURRENT SITUATION

Future strategic direction

Identify growth and risk areas

What has changed? (student numbers, staffing requirements, research funding environment/rules, other income streams)

How do I ensure sustainability taking into account these changes? e.g. defer, refocus.

Consider the impact of any changes from prior plans— can I offset any reductions in income with savings in expenditure?

Student demand

Changes to technology

Changes to legislation

Changes to academic programmes

Working practices/organisational structures

Business Process Improvements required

Organisational culture

Staff trend data including equality profile, grades movement and academic promotion data

3. FORECASTING NEEDS

(3 year horizon)

DEMAND

Skills required in the future

Workforce diversity

Roles/jobs required in the future

Roles/jobs not required in the future

Number and types of contracts required

Consider impacts on current workforce

SUPPLY

Review current workforce and anticipate staff turnover and future requirements

Areas that are difficult to recruit to

Promotions using trend analysis

Availability of required skills and experience in the market

GAP ANALYSIS - compare demand and supply

Potential surpluses and shortages

Risk areas

4. PLANNING STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT WORKFORCE PLANS

DEVELOP STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT THE WORKFORCE PLAN PEOPLE AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Recruitment, retention and promotion

Re-structuring and redeployment

Staff development

Performance management

Succession and career planning

Staff engagement

COSTS

Cost of resourcing strategies

Can we share resources? (equipment, staff)

Analysis of efficiency gains

Remuneration and incentives

ENVIRONMENT

Build in any likely changes to technology and infrastructure

New buildings/ equipment

Business Process Improvements

Legislative or compliance requirements

Policies and processes

5. IMPLEMENT STRATEGY

Integrate Workforce Plan with your Operational Plan

Seek approval and feedback through Planning and Performance Cycle

Communications strategy

Consider changes to technology and University infrastructure

Operational changes that affect plan

Monitor progress against plan through management and team meetings, reviews with HR and finance partners, and PDR

6. REVIEW AND EVALUATE

Review strategy and evaluate impact of changes

Consider changes to Workforce Plan based on changes to Operational Plan, new strategy or direction

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7. Working with Workforce Data Sets

Quarterly Planning and Performance Reports will be based on the new performance indicators and information will be made available via the Monitoring Performance Dashboards and Explorer Analytical and Drill Reporting Tool on TULIP. Further information, not available on the dashboards, will be provided to Planning Units by Professional Services areas and from within Planning Units themselves. The Strategic Planning Office, Finance and HR are working together to realise helpful data that will provide evidence for workforce plan discussions that will inform plans over a period of time.

A number of the Monitoring Performance Dashboards are now live (several others are works in progress) and there are numerous Explorer spaces

available. There continues to be an MI Development Plan which will be used throughout the course of the year to prioritise when further data will appear

on a dashboard or be made available via Explorer. Ultimately, it is anticipated that all management information will be available via these tools.