Making Workforce Planning Work in the NT Public Sector

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Hard to fill job groupsHard to fill job groups are those that have enough peoplein NT or Australia to fill the jobs but generally people donot want to do these jobs for a range of reasons – suchas, the nature of the work, the salary levels, the location,the career opportunities and so on. If you have hard tofill job groups on your mission critical job group list thenyou need to consider retention and recruitment strategiesthat address redesign, working arrangements, growingyour own workforce, attracting the underemployed andthe underutilised labour market (that is, people who havethe skill sets you are looking for but who do not wish to work full time and areseeking alternative working arrangements).Risk assessmentAgencies can determine their own risk assessment methods for workforceplanning. These can be aligned to other business risk assessment methods, assimple as high, medium or low risk, or more sophisticated such as:• minor short-term – can be managed within workplace• sustained – cannot fill critical job group and therefore will have a sustainedimpact on the capacity to deliver service (the agency will need to consideralternative service provisions).• major – service will need to close.Tips:• Do not forget your supplysource is right in frontof you – the currentemployees will tell you whypeople are attracted to youragency and why they go.• When having difficultyattracting supply, rememberto recruit for match andattitude first.The question you need to ask is: What isthe risk to this agency of not attracting orretaining the number of employees requiredfor this job group?Supply source analysisIdentifying supply source can be one of the more difficult workforce planningtasks. If your agency has aligned your job groups/job families to ANZSCOcodes (Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations),you can simply look up the code and then search the ABS data to determine36
how many people in the region, the Territory or Australiahave these skills and then develop an appropriatemarketing strategy to attract the number you requireusing targeted recruitment strategies.If your agency does not align job groups or job groupfamilies to the ANZSCO codes, it is worth consideringdoing so as this is one method of providing evidencebasedworkforce planning data. It can be a complex andoverwhelming task for all job groups, so it is best to startwith your mission critical jobs and then systematicallyprogress through each of your job groups/job families.Supply source can also be identified by accessingregional information about the underutilised labourmarket. They may come from recruitment agencies,career reference centres, industry peak bodies andassociations who may have access to data on people who have the skill setsyou are seeking but who do not wish to work full-time or are seeking alternativeworking arrangements.Supply source identification can also be strengthened if you include allworkforce segments in your workforce planning such as: contractors, temporarystaff and volunteers. Often the people with the skills and attributes you requireare already working for you in some way and just need to be asked about theirworking life intentions with your agency and in the labour market generally.Supply source can also be ‘grown’ - particularly for regional and remotelocations. The opportunity to grow the skills required can be strengthened ifincluded in your longer term workforce development strategies.Succession planningThe public sector generally in Australia has not undertaken successionplanning well, in part because of the on-going commitment to selection bymerit. However, if incorporated as a part of the workforce planning process,and supported by transparent selection and appointment criteria, it can be apowerful workforce planning tool.Tips:• The ANZSCO codes arevery useful and easilyunderstood, but keepyour systems as simpleas possible so it does notbecome unmanageable.• Ideally, every employeeshould be able to describethe career path optionsassociated with their joband the link these optionshave to the agencysuccession plan for missioncritical job groups and theninto the ANZSCO codes.Succession planning is most effective if only the current incumbent in a job isidentified by name and the succession positions are identified only by role andclassification.37
Page 3: Contents4 Introduction5 Why is work
Page 7 and 8: What isworkforce planning?Workforce
Page 10: A systematic approach to workforce
Page 19 and 20: Job Category by ANZSCOMAJOR GROUPSE
Page 21 and 22: Step 9:Identifying workforce develo
Page 23 and 24: • Monitor your agency workforce c
Page 25 and 26: Succession Planning TemplateJob Gro
Page 27 and 28: A sample checklist for workforce pl
Page 29 and 30: Remember if you do not build on a s
Page 31 and 32: Other cohorts that should be monito
Page 33 and 34: Tips:Workforce engagement• Rememb
Page 35: Mission critical job groupsThese ar
Page 39 and 40: Where codes cannot be aligned, the
Page 41: • Australian Bureau of Statistics

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