PRACTITIONERS’ TOOLKITS, QUESTIONNAIRES AND

CHECKLISTS

Workforce Planning

1. Internal factors affecting demand and supply of people

2. Scenario planning
3. Forecasting activity levels
4. Workforce implications of the business plan
5. Demand forecast schedule
6. Workforce analysis
7. Forecasting supply of people
8. Balancing demand and supply
9. Action planning

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 2

1 Internal factors affecting demand and supply of people

Factor Occurrence in organization Impact on demand and supply

of people

Changes in working
arrangements - hours, flexibility.

Changes in organization –
different structures, new
functions.

Changes in roles – new jobs,

greater role flexibility,
amalgamation of existing roles,
enlargement of roles.

New activities or services.

New skills – demand for new or

different skills.

More part-time working.

More outsourcing of work.

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 3

2 Scenario planning

Environmental Assessment of developments that Workforce plan implications

factors are likely to affect the organization

Political

Economic

Social

Technological

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 4

3 Activity level forecast

Applicable Current Current Ratio: Forecast level of

Activity
role (s) level of number in roles to activity on:
activity role(s) activity* Date: Date: Date:

* For use in ratio-trend analysis

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 5

4 Workforce implications of business plan

Question Answer

What are the key features of the

business/operational plan?

What are the implications of the

business/operational plan on the
need for new or different skills?

What are the implications of the

business/operational plan on the
numbers of different categories of
people required?

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 6

5 Demand forecast schedule

Occupation Present Forecast numbers Basis for forecast

number required on:

Date: Date: Date:

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 7

6 Workforce analysis

Occupational group Number

Senior managers

Middle managers

Junior managers

Supervisors/team leaders

Senior professional staff

Professional staff

Senior technical staff

Technical staff

Senior sales and service staff

Sales and service staff

Senior administrative staff

Administrative staff

Skilled operatives

Semi-skilled operatives

Unskilled operatives

Senior support and service staff

Support and service staff

Drivers

Others

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 8

7 Supply forecast schedule

Occupation Present Forecast numbers Basis for forecast

number required on:

Date: Date: Date:

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 9

8 Balancing demand and supply

Occupation Forecast for (date): Forecast for (date): Forecast for (date): Proposed
action
Demand Supply Deficit Demand Supply Deficit Demand Supply Deficit heading(s)*
(-) or (-) or (-) or
surplus surplus surplus
(+) (+) (+)

* Headings:
 Recruitment/procurement plan
 Retention plan
 Learning and development plan
 New methods of working
 Redefining roles
 Productivity plan
 Controlling workforce size

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information
 Workforce Planning 10

9 Action planning

Action plan headline Summary of possible actions

Recruitment/procurement  Numbers and types of people needed to make up any deficits and when
plan needed
 Likely sources of external recruits
 Proposals for attracting good candidates
 Proposals for dealing with any recruitment problems
 The recruitment programme
 Other sources of people from training programmes or by retraining/reallocation
 Develop talent management programmes

Retention plan  Analysis of the factors affecting retention

 Plans for overcoming weaknesses in policies and practices leading to wastage

Learning and development  New skills required and how they will be developed
plan  Number of trainees/ apprentices required and proposals for recruiting and
training them
 Number of existing staff who need training or retraining and the programmes
required
 New courses to be developed or changes to be made to existing ones

New methods of working  Increase operational flexibility by introducing flexible patterns of work
 Provide more scope for flexible hours
 Review traditional employment patterns
 More outsourcing
 More sub-contracting
 Use more temporary and part-time staff and job sharing

Redefining roles  Enhance role flexibility

 Encourage multi-tasking and multi-skilling

Productivity plan  Improve or streamline methods, procedures and systems

 Deploy more technology including computers
 Reduce duplication and waste
 Enhance engagement

Controlling workforce size If a reduction in numbers is unavoidable (ie if methods mentioned above are
insufficient) consider the following options (in order of preference):
 Freeze recruitment
 Reduce working hours
 Encourage voluntary redundancy
 As a last resort, use compulsory redundancy

This resource is part of a range offered free to practitioners and academics and/or
students using Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, 12th edition, as part of their course.
Please visit www.koganpage.com/editions/armstrongs-handbook-of-human-
resource-management-practice/9780749465506 for more information