1 Understand key contemporary labour market trends and their significance for workforce planning. 2 Be able to undertake talent pl

Guidance for Assessors for: – Resourcing and Talent Planning (5RST) – LOs 1, 2, 3 & 4

This guidance is for assessors only and should not be handed out to candidates.
Candidates should provide written answers to each of the six questions of approximately 3300 words in total (divided appropriately across the questions).

Candidates should relate academic concepts, theories and professional practice to the way organisations operate, in a critical and informed way, and with reference to key texts, articles and other publications and by using organisational examples for illustration.

All reference sources should be acknowledged correctly and a bibliography provided where appropriate (these should be excluded from the word count).

Question 1

AC 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

Candidates should briefly compare different labour market conditions in the UK and another country of their choice. For the comparison they could include some of the following:

• tight and loose labour market conditions and levels of employment/unemployment
• inequalities in wage levels
• public and private sector differences
• different types of employment contract

Question 2

AC 1.4

Candidates should outline briefly the role of government, employers and trade unions in ensuring future skills needs are met. They could include some of the following: government funding for more apprenticeships; development of employer-led professional standards e.g. ‘trailblazers’, contribution of union learning representatives.

Question 3

AC 2.1

Candidates should briefly describe the main principles of effective workforce planning. They could include some of the following: setting strategy, key stakeholder involvement, determining key skills and competencies required, gap analysis, building human capacity. They should give some examples of the tools that can be used in workforce planning e.g. they could briefly define some of the following: workforce strategy maps, scenario planning, span and gap analysis, organisational benchmarking, role fit etc.

Question 4

AC 2.2, 2.3,

2.4

Candidates should give a brief account of the role of HR in:

• developing basic succession planning process e.g. they could include from the following: identifying positions for which succession is required, identifying future job requirements, identifying possible successors; helping with building competencies; assessing progress
• advising on career development options e.g. job enrichment, coaching and mentoring, training assignment, rotation etc
• contributing to downsizing plans e.g. communicating, educating, providing leadership, ensuring equity and fairness, maintaining a managed approach
• contributing to the development of job descriptions, person specifications and competency frameworks. They could include advising and supporting managers, ensuring compliance with the law and good practice, providing appropriate frameworks and templates.

Question 5

AC 2.5, 2.6,

Candidates should give examples of some of the main pieces of relevant legislation and may cite: Equality Act (2010), Data Protection Act (1998). They should give examples of the relative merits of two different recruitment and selection methods e.g. advertising in the media v using a recruitment agency; individual interviewing v assessment centres.

Question 5

AC 3.1, 3.2

Candidates should give examples of why people leave or stay with organisations and summarise the costs associated with dysfunctional employee turnover e.g. increased costs in advertising for replacements, selection costs and costs to the business if productivity is affected. They should assess the relative merits of at least two different approaches to retaining talent e.g. financial benefits v other approaches e.g. flexible working, job enrichment.

Question 6

AC 4.1

Candidates should cover all of the three areas (dismissals, retirements and redundancies) and deal with both ‘good’ and legal practice and indicate that strict legal compliance may not equate to good practice.