Workforce Planning Risk Assessment
The University will identify the risk areas that need to be managed within workforce planning processes to ensure business continuity. Faculty and Divisions will be asked to nominate key risks as part of the annual Planning and Budget reporting process and from this, the Division of Human Resources will undertake an analysis of, the likelihood and consequence of existing and anticipated gaps between workforce demand and supply and the extent to which they affect the capacity to:
- Achieve the University Strategy 2007-2011 and beyond
- Meet government regulations [for quality and funding]
- Comply with financial management expectations of expenditure on staffing [less than or below 60% of operating expenditure]
- Manage employee expectations and relations [eg development of Enterprise Agreement - competitive wage pressures, conditions of employment]
The Division of Human Resources will annually review the impact of the following issues and provide advice which will inform medium and longer term workforce planning processes:
- Issues and challenges for attraction of staff in a tightening labour market
- Turnover of senior staff - both current and anticipated
- Anticipated loss of staff and corporate knowledge through anticipated retirement
- Issues and challenges for retention of staff in a tightening labour market
- Potential specialised knowledge loss in a competitive higher education sector
- Current and anticipated occupational gaps and skill set shortages
- Capacity to develop attractive workplaces for critical workforce segments
- Investment in the development of current staff and embracing a build vs buy approach
- Reliance on a contingent labour force eg contract, casual, honorary, adjunct, conjoint - the capacity to attract and retain this workforce and maintain quality and performance
- Extent to which leaders understand, respond to and evaluate workforce planning challenges
- Issues of performance and cost of responding to work preference changes for:
- an older workforce,
- a younger workforce,
- a feminised workforce,
- workers with carer responsibilities.