Workforce Planning in Academic Institutions

A report for Universitas 21

Universitas 21’s HR Group commissioned a report on academic workforce planning ‘to stimulate and inform strategic thinking of U21 University Presidents over the next 10 to 20 years’. The report aims to provide a review of the issues affecting workforce planning in academia, a description of workforce planning and talent management and a consideration of workforce planning practice in U21 institutions.

The Institute for Employment Studies was asked to carry out the review. We undertook a literature review on the changing higher education context, used expert knowledge to provide an overview of workforce planning and talent management outside higher education and undertook a survey of and interviews with a sample of U21 institutions on current workforce planning practice.