Recruitment & Selection:
Workforce Planning and Establishing the Position
Step 1a: Workforce Planning
The purpose of Workforce Planning is to plan the human resource requirements that underpin and align to the department’s operational and strategic plan. From time to time departments may need to re-shape or re-invigorate their workforce to accommodate changes in student demand, discipline emphasis and provide for appropriate succession planning.
Workforce planning is a dynamic process, involving frequent modifications of direction in response to changing economic and University conditions.
Review of Workforce Plan
A workforce review may be triggered when a vacancy occurs. It involves consideration of:
- the strategic and operational plans of the University and the Department;
- projected budget forecasts;
- retirement, resignation or other career plans of existing staff;
- the Department's current succession plans.
Succession Planning
Positive staff development initiatives within departments and the wider University enable a core of qualified staff able to undertake new roles or additional responsibilities, in the Department or elsewhere in the University. Departments need to consider opportunities to further develop staff as part of their workforce plan to ensure they can meet their workforce requirements in the short and long term.
Additional Information
Your Human Resources Consultant can provide advice and support in the development or review of a workforce plan.
Making Melbourne A Great Place To Work (.pdf) provides a strategic framework that outlines the human resources related issues likely to impact the University into the next decade and the challenges Managers face in the short to medium term. The document provides guiding principles from which Faculties/Divisions and departments can use to assist in the preparation of a workforce plan and to implement strategies at a local level that take into consideration the local issues and requirements.
Step 1b: Establishing the Position
When preparing a position description, it is important to consider elements of good job design. A well designed job:
- enhances the productivity and efficiency of the work unit;
- provides for skill development;
- provides more satisfying and meaningful work for job-holders;
- includes a minimum of four (4) distinct tasks;
- ensures that keyboard tasks take up no more than 40% of the work; and
- ensures no single task accounts for more than 50% of time spent on the job.
Today’s workforce is well educated and sophisticated. To accommodate the expectations of the workforce, well designed jobs should enable a degree of freedom and independence. Staff should be given discretion to organise, schedule and/or determine procedures within standards required by the University. Jobs should include tasks for which staff accept responsibility for controlling the quality of their output and apply a range of skills to a variety of activities.