The government workforce of the future : innovation in strategic workforce planning in OECD countries

Strategic workforce planning is gradually becoming a key priority and core management practice for public sector employees in OECD countries. In times of limited resources, governments are required to demonstrate workforce planning capability to meet current and future challenges for service delivery and to produce efficiency gains. Since experience in workforce planning remains limited, a simple but pragmatic approach that takes into account the national context is recommended. To send consistent messages about financial and human capital resources required to achieve government‘s programmatic goals, workforce planning should be aligned with the budget process. Its success depends on the cooperation between the finance authority, the central Human Resource Management (HRM) body, and line managers in individual ministries and agencies. The implementation of workforce planning continues to present difficulties for practitioners. Therefore, management flexibility, incentives to engage managers, developing workforce planning capability, and revisions to the HRM process are critical to pave the way for a successful implementation. Monitoring and evaluating progress of the workforce plan and its contribution to the programmatic goals should be conducted systematically.