Workforce planning helps Birmingham to ride storms of change: City council seeks to avoid knee-jerk reactions

摘要

Purpose: Describes how workforce planning, talent management and the improved use of human-resource information and workforce market intelligence have supported Birmingham City Council to respond to current financial pressures. Design/methodology/approach: Draws on the work undertaken by the workforce intelligence and planning team, which is a center of excellence in the new HR structure built through the award-winning project, Excellence in People Management, to redesign the HR service in Birmingham City Council. Findings: Argues that a structured and strategic approach to workforce planning provides an effective framework to manage the financial situation the city council faces. Practical implications: Shows that workforce planning needs to be driven by service-delivery requirements and therefore integrating service, financial and workforce planning is the key to delivering workforce efficiencies. Social implications: Reveals one way in which public authorities can squeeze more out of ever-tighter budgets. Originality/value: Demonstrates that implementing workforce intelligence and planning has resulted in direct, positive influences on directorates and improved performance against financial constraints.