Coca Cola Amatil

In this report the three aspects of workforce planning; balancing supply and demand, labour demand forecasting, and labour supply analysis will be identified and assessed. Recommendations have been made to help organisations to be able to successfully provide their team with adequate workforce planning.

According to the business dictionary workforce planning is a “systematic identification and analysis of what an organization is going to need in terms of the size, type, and quality of workforce to achieve its objectives. It determines what mix of experience, knowledge, and skills is required and sequences steps to get the right number of right people in the right place at the right time.”

Workforce planning encompasses exactly what a company needs to accomplish during a certain time frame including what knowledge, skills and experience are required to get the job done properly and efficiently. It is about achieving goals set out in a strategic plan by a particular company and is part of the human resources planning cycle. It includes strategies such as preparing for recruit, attracting staff, recruiting and selecting staff, as well as developing staff in order to improve and efficiently run the company.

The three important aspects involved in good workforce planning include; balancing supply and demand, labour demand forecasting and labour supply analysis. When these aspects are successfully planned and set into action, they are able to contribute to workforce planning and in turn, the success of an organisation.

Balancing supply and demand

Supply and demand in human resources is important as it is the ability to supply employees to areas that are needed. This is inclusive of being able to provide skilled employees to areas that are lacking skills, knowledge and attitude. An example of this is nurse’s shortage in Sydney hospitals. As it states in the article of nurses in Australia, “Most hospitals frequently use casual staff to back fill sick leave and roster shortages, and use agency staff when desperate”.

It is also clear that being able to obtain skilled employees is part of balancing supply and demand, as it keeps important numbers and skills within the company, benefitting the company in the long-run.

By developing human resources programs to expand or reduce the workforce, the balance of supply and demand is able to be appropriately met. Programs that are able to monitor what skills are needed are important to determine what crucial knowledge and skills are needed and in which sections of the organisation they are needed. These programs also allow evaluation procedures to provide feedback to the human resources team in being able to meet labour demand as well as managing supply.

Labour demand forecasting

Labour demand forecasting identifies what is needed in