Workforce planning — practice questions

Audit: Branch staff skills — customer service, cash handling; IT team capacity.

Forecast: Fewer branch roles; more digital support and data/security skills needed.

Gap: Surplus branch tellers; shortage digital agents and cyber specialists.

Actions: Redundancy/redeployment with retraining packages for some tellers into phone/chat support; external recruitment for IT roles; off-the-job training (2.1.6) for digital tools — links 6.1.4 technology.

This requires a step-by-step calculation to determine the recruitment need.

Step 1: Calculate Current Workforce

• Number of stores = 50
• Employees per store = 20
• Total current employees = 50 stores * 20 employees/store = 1,000 employees

Step 2: Forecast Labour Demand

• The business needs a 10% increase in staff to support sales growth.
• Increase in staff needed = 10% of 1,000 = 0.10 * 1,000 = 100 employees
• Total demand for next year = Current employees + Increase needed = 1,000 + 100 = 1,100 employees

Step 3: Forecast Labour Supply

• This calculates how many current employees are expected to remain.
• Annual staff turnover rate = 20%
• Expected staff loss = 20% of 1,000 = 0.20 * 1,000 = 200 employees
• Forecast internal supply = Current employees - Expected loss = 1,000 - 200 = 800 employees

Step 4: Calculate the Workforce Gap

• The gap is the difference between demand and supply.
• Workforce Gap = Total Demand - Forecast Supply
• Workforce Gap = 1,100 - 800 = 300 employees (shortage)

Step 5: HR Action Plan

• The analysis reveals a deficit of 300 employees.
• The HR department must recruit 300 new employees over the next year to cover both staff turnover (200) and expansion needs (100).
• Actions: Initiate a large-scale external recruitment campaign, possibly using recruitment agencies. Develop an induction and training programme for the new hires. Review pay and conditions to see if the 20% turnover rate can be reduced in the future.