Manpower planning in the Royal Navy

摘要

Manpower planning in the Royal Navy aims to balance a rapidly changing requirement against a slowly changing strength. It must take account of changing social trends that influence terms and conditions of service and be cognisant of the reducing demographic pool of recruits in the under 25 age bracket. The requirement for naval personnel is influenced by the political climate, technology, maintenance policy and financial strictures, all of which has resulted in a changing mix of officer, senior and junior ratings. Whilst behaviour patterns are predictable and the engagement structure is simple, there is a desire to build in more flexibility to the personnel structures to improve the speed of response. With a constraint on the number of personnel who can be trained at one time, increasing emphasis on retention has resulted in a number of innovations in recent years. This paper considers the key innovations and also looks forward to other concepts likely to impinge on the manpower environment over the next few years.