Workforce Planning: The Wider Context

A literature review

Whilst workforce planning has been around for a number of years, there has been a resurgence of interest in this HR practice as organisations have begun to realise that the need for planning is greater than ever.

Commissioned by the Employers' Organisation for local government, this review was part of its project to support local authorities through the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

The main purpose of the report was to summarise research and literature primarily outside local government. No attempt was made to detail the specific techniques and models or to describe how they should be applied.

Instead, academic literature, practitioner literature and case studies were drawn upon to illustrate the context of workforce planning: its history, who uses it and why.

In addition to highlighting the benefits that workforce planning can bring to organisations, the report addresses some of the difficulties that practitioners may expect to experience.