Plan the workforce

​This standard is about planning the workforce. You engage with stakeholders and specialists to assist with workforce planning. You evaluate your organisation's strategy and plans to identify what is required to deliver them. You also review the current workforce for capacity and capability to deliver and identify learning and development needs. The standard includes checking workforce diversity and developing plans using internal and external specialists. You confirm that employment contracts and resources are in place to meet your organisation's requirements. You also communicate workforce plans and consider contingencies to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

This standard is for all managers and leaders.

1. engage colleagues and key stakeholders in planning workforce requirements
2. confirm specialist resources to assist in workforce planning activities, where necessary
3. evaluate your organisation's strategic objectives and plans to obtain information needed for workforce planning purposes and identify any key issues for further consideration
4. identify the knowledge, skills and competence required to deliver your organisation's strategic objectives and plans
5. review the capacity and capability of the current workforce to meet identified knowledge, skills and competence requirements
6. identify any learning or development needs of the current workforce to meet requirements
7. check that the diversity of the workforce provides a suitable mix of people to achieve its objectives
8. interpret the range of needs of your workforce
9. develop workforce plans that meet the organisation's long, medium, and short-term requirements, making effective use of internal and external specialists
10. check that employment contracts meet the needs of the organisation
11. confirm that resources needed to recruit, develop, retain and redeploy people are available
12. develop contingency plans to deal with unforeseen circumstances and maintain business continuity
13. identify any recurring issues that cause people to leave your organisation and seek to address these
14. communicate workforce plans to colleagues
15. review your workforce plans when required by your organisation, or in the light of changes to your organisation's strategic objectives and plans

General knowledge and understanding

1.      how to engage employees and other stakeholders in workforce planning

2.      what an effective workforce plan should cover to meet organisational requirements

3.      the information required to undertake workforce planning

4.      the legislation and requirements relating to employment, workers' welfare and rights, equality and health and safety

5.      how to take account of equality, diversity and inclusion issues in workforce planning

6.      the strategies and services which need to be in place for when employees leave, including redundancy counselling

7.      the importance of putting contingency plans in place and how to do so effectively

8.      the different ways in which workforce requirements can be met, their advantages and disadvantages, costs and benefits

Industry and sector specific knowledge and understanding

9.      the types of employment contracts typically used within the industry and sector

10.   the patterns for employing, recruiting, and retaining employees in the industry and sector

11.   the trends and developments in the sector which are relevant to workforce planning

12.   the legislation, regulations and codes of practice that apply in the industry and sector

13.   the working culture and practices of the industry and sector

Context specific knowledge and understanding

14.   the individuals within your organisation, their roles, responsibilities, competences and potential

15.   the internal and external specialist resources available for workforce planning and how to make use of them

1. Analysing
2. Communicating
3. Contingency planning
4. Decision-making
5. Evaluating
6. Information management
7. Monitoring
8. Planning
9. Prioritising
10. Reviewing
11. Scenario building
12. Thinking creatively
13. Thinking strategically