Making Workforce Planning Work in the NT Public Sector

How do you doworkforce planning– getting startedTip:• You need to start with whatyou have now – then buildon the data over time asyou refine the process andbuild workforce planningcapabilities in your agency.If the agency executive has clearly demonstrated strategic leadership andgovernance in workforce planning and you are a part of the team of ‘champions’identified to implement workforce planning, you can be confident to proceed.If, however, you have been delegated responsibility for workforce planningwithout the support of the team of ‘champions’, you may need to first buildthe business case for workforce planning and submit this to executive forsign-off. This is best kept concise with an emphasis on providing a snapshotenvironmental scan and risk assessment for your agency. That is, the riskassessment of not undertaking workforce planning.Step 1:The snapshot environmental scanThis should be as brief and concise as possible and include the followingquantitative data:• the current agency workforce profile by cohorts• the broader relevant industry workforce• the Northern Territory labour market indicators relevant to your agency• trends in key job groups, divisions and/or locations• projected increase and/or decline in industry demands• available supply and associated implications for the agency’s capacity tomeet projected service demands• a cost benefit analysis of projected costs of recruitment (includingmarketing) of employees to mission critical job groups in comparison tocosts associated with retention of existing employees in these job groups• projected risk assessment of the agency’s capacity to meet legislative andregulatory service demands.Step 2:Linking corporate, business and workforce planningLook at what the agency has nominated as its strategic and corporatedirections, and at the new projects/services it is anticipating and the projects/services being reduced or completed (i.e. emerging or declining business14