Medical‐workforce planning: an art or science?

Purpose – Illustrates how the NHS workforce‐review team looks at the area of medical workforce planning and some of the problems that planners face. Design/methodology/approach – Describes a structure for workforce planning and examines some of the challenges workforce planners and those working in the human‐resources field face. Findings – Argues that workforce planning is more than simply number crunching; it requires the application of both art and science skills. Practical applications – Demonstrates how the workforce is calculated in terms of the need, demand and supply for the future. Social implications – Highlights the important advantages, for individual organizations as well as for society as a whole, which can result from successful workforce planning. Originality/value – Fills a gap in the literature about whether workforce planning is an art or science.