Educational demographics: a system dynamics model for human resource management

In this study, educational demographics has been studied in the banking sector within a developing economy context targeting job allocations. In a system view, among organizational demography; educational demographics of staff should be regarded at various educational levels where the number of employees must be determined concerning job leveling and organizational development. This study has been done in a retail bank in Iran and has analyzed the dynamics of educational demographics. Due to interactions between the chain components, the policies and decisions are investigated via system dynamics (SD) method to guarantee the appropriate and balanced growth of the bank. Various policies were simulated, and the consequences of applying them were assessed. Results revealed that a change in the system’s parameters, e.g., employment rate and training periods are not effective in reaching balanced educational demographics in the long-term. Rather, findings showed that achieving this balance would only be possible through structural changes in the promotion of training and higher education levels as well as personnel regulations development at each level within a 3-year timeframe. Presenting educational demographics in an SD framework as well as applying the simulation model would enable decision aiders to analyze the implications of contrasting decisions in the long run. Furthermore, it demonstrates the dynamics of staff’s educational demographics in financial institutions and banks in a developing economy. Results show that even though the optimal setting for each level of education, which was the number of jobs defined for each level, cannot be achieved in the long run, and in the most efficient case, a 27% deviation from the desired job levels can be achieved. This was due to the multiple time delays existing in the system.