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In times of digitalization, automation, and AI, coupled with skilled labor shortages and demographic changes, efficiency and future-readiness are more crucial than ever — especially in the public sector, where cost structures and resource use are regularly under public scrutiny. Precise personnel decisions are essential to maintain performance in this complex environment. IMAP supports you in accurately assessing staffing needs, planning strategically, and implementing effectively — enabling a public administration that not only meets today’s demands but also confidently tackles the challenges of the future.

 Marita Gasteiger

Marita Gasteiger

Senior Consultant

gasteiger@imap-institut.de

+49 (0) 211 513 69 73 0

Projects

Addressing the complexity of workforce planning.

For us, it is important not to treat workforce planning merely as a quantitative tool for balancing current and future resource availability. Sound workforce planning also covers the following questions:

  • How many resources do we need? (quantitative dimension)
  • What kind of resources (skills and competencies) do we need? (qualitative dimension)
  • When do we need these resources? (temporal dimension)
  • Where do we need these resources? (geographical dimension)

At the core of our calculations are the needs of both employees and leaders. We see workforce planning as a tool to improve working conditions and to create long-term, sustainable employment structures. IMAP evaluates scenario-based options and supports clients in their decision-making process.

What possibilities does workforce planning offer?

Depending on our clients’ questions, we consider the required and desired timeframes and differentiate between three types of workforce planning:

Operational workforce planning

manages short-term staffing by ensuring the right number of employees with the appropriate qualifications are available at the right place and time.

Tactical workforce planning

focuses on optimizing the structure of teams and departments to efficiently translate strategic goals into operational processes.

 

Strategic workforce planning

ensures, over the long term, that personnel structures, skills, and capacities meet future societal and organizational demands.

Benefits of effective workforce planning

Increased transparency and clarity regarding current and future staffing needs

Significant optimization of workload through balanced distribution of tasks

Simplified adaptation to external requirements (legal or political regulations)

Greater efficiency through proactive, strategic workforce planning

Early identification of bottlenecks, both quantitative and qualitative (e.g., skill gaps)

In line with our systemic consulting approach, IMAP has developed a participatory and open-ended format to conduct workforce planning collaboratively and with sustainable impact.

How we work:

Clarification of objectives and kick-off meeting

Clarification of framework conditions and existing issues/questions

Preliminary analysis

Defining the scope of investigation and identifying the available data sources

Main analysis

if applicable, additional data collection (tasks, processes, time expenditures), conducting necessary calculations, including identifying optimization potentials

Implementation

Implementation of identified optimization potentials within the organization

Evaluation and follow-up

Documenting the project’s lessons learned and establishing a process for ongoing updates to workforce planning within the organization