Strategic Resource Planning

One of the cornerstones of successful organisations has been the optimal use of their workforce. Two types of resources characterise service organisations: front and back office resources. These resources are defined by their capability (i. e., skills), location and availability. Front office resources handle incoming demand whilst the back office resources execute the services related to the demand. Planning of such resources can be carried out at one of three levels: strategic, tactical and operational; referring to long-, medium-, and short-, term planning respectively. The three levels for planning may overlap or may be distinct. Either way there is a flow of information from strategic to tactical and from tactical to operational. The loop is then closed by flow of information from operational back to strategic (see Fig. 3.1). In this context, strategic planning provides information on the overall balance of customer demand with available resource capacity. Tactical planning suggests a coarsegrain allocation of resources to tasks with no consideration given to when those tasks must be executed. And operational planning represents the allocation of specific resources to specific tasks; detailing the specific times of execution. The level of detail required for planning increases as one moves in time from strategic to operational. For strategic planning it is sufficient to analyse resource requirements based on the number of resources and their levels of productivity. On the other hand, for operational planning it is imperative that details such as starting location, preferred working location, scheduled hours, and availability for overtime are identified for accurate deployment to be realised.