Workforce Planning
Schools
The school strategic plan forms the keystone of the school's curriculum, budget, accountability and workforce plans. Principals have the delegated authority and responsibility within the context of a legislative framework to manage the personnel function in schools.
Key human resource decision-making is located at the school level and resources are provided through the Student Resource Package. This level of control over key resource allocation decisions means workforce planning is essential to ensure that resource allocation is effective and targeted to the educational needs of the school.
Each day a principal makes a variety of decisions relating to personnel administration such as the approval of leave, the filling of vacancies and the allocation of work. These day-to-day imperatives must be balanced by the consideration of longer term needs in the school.
Workforce management combines effective workforce planning and personnel administration. This makes workforce management a pre-requisite for the effective delivery of school strategic plans.
The principal should be implementing a three-year workforce plan to ensure that the school’s workforce can be managed within the projected Student Resource Package. In particular, every possible effort must be made by the principal to ensure that expenditure in the school does not exceed Student Resource Package allocations.
While the principal is primarily responsible for the school’s workforce management, the school council needs to be informed of staffing changes that will impact on the Student Resource Package.
Support for workforce planning will continue to be provided by central and regional staff, with planning tools available to assist in projecting Student Resource Package and staffing needs.
The Workforce Plan
Effective workforce planning produces a simple and meaningful tool to assist decision-making and to implement good staff management practices. The workforce plan, as one aspect of the school's planning for improvement, flows directly from the school strategic plan and should identify budget allocations and charge-outs for all categories of staff over at least a three-year period. The plan should also include known or projected student enrolment and staff movements to enable the school to move towards or maintain a preferred staffing profile.
In developing the workforce plan principals should ensure all staff that are attached to the school are included in the plan including those on various forms of leave (e.g. WorkSafe or family leave, temporary superannuated ill-health retirees) or those who have been temporarily transferred out of the school. Planning should accommodate the potential return of staff from any form of long-term leave and temporary ill health retirement. Planning for a reasonable incidence of leave being taken by staff should also be reflected in the school's workforce plan.
The Student Resource Package Planner is a modelling tool that enables principals to model the impact of enrolment variations and other changes on the SRP, and build an overall workforce plan that acknowledges current salary commitments for staff and considers the affordability of planned changes.
To assist principals with workforce and other planning processes an online Student Resource Package Planner can be accessed from the Student Resource Package webpage. The Student Resource Package Planner allows principals to model possible changes to budgets, such as increased or decreased enrolments.
The school's workforce plan can be reviewed at any time. The principal should review the plan as situations within the school change, as part of the annual reporting cycle or when reviewing the school strategic plan.
Workforce diversity, equity and family friendly arrangements
A key objective of a school’s workforce planning is to ensure the principles of diversity, fairness and equal opportunity are enshrined in building the school’s workforce and future capability.
Diversity policies are at the core of building a modernized school workforce, in keeping with and reflecting the increasing diversity of the community, better engaging our diverse student populations and competitively attracting and retaining the best talent in the labour market to meet current and future school skill requirements.
Schools should strive to reflect the diversity of the community in their workforce and ensure the workplace is free from discrimination and harassment. For further information, see Managing Diverse and Inclusive Workplaces below.
The Department is also committed to family friendly work practices and building better workplaces for better outcomes. The Department’s flexible work and leave policies are designed to assist staff to balance their work, family and other personal commitments and ensure staff with family and ‘carer’ responsibilities are not discriminated against or disadvantaged in employment. For further information, see Flexible Work for Work-Life Balance below
Schools | Non School Locations
Other resources
Procedures & Forms
Related Topics
- Managing Diverse and Inclusive Workplaces
- Flexible Work for Work-Life Balance
- Advertising Vacancies
- Job Descriptions
- Principal selection
- Recruitment in schools
- Salary Rates