Explanation:

Workforce planning is a core business process which aligns changing organisation needs with people strategy. It can be the most effective activity an organisation can engage in. It doesn’t need to be complicated and can be adjusted to suit the size and maturity of any organisation. It can provide market and industry intelligence to help organisations focus on a range of challenges and issues, and prepare for initiatives to support longer term business goals.

This factsheet examines the concept of workforce planning. It distinguishes between strategic and operational workforce planning, 'hard' and 'soft' workforce planning, which work together to generate and analyse information before planning actions. It also explores the stages of the workforce planning process and highlights key issues and action points for implementation.