Minnesota Management and Budget (nd) define workforce planning as:

'Workforce planning is the strategic alignment of an organisation's human capital with its business direction. It is a methodical process of analysing the current workforce, determining future workforce needs, identifying the gap between the present and future, and implementing solutions so the organisation can accomplish its mission, goals, and objectives. As a process, workforce planning includes elements such as strategic planning, workload projections, legislative forecasts, turnover analyses, and budget projections. Workforce planning forecasts the numbers of people and types of skills needed to achieve success by comparing the available workforce with future needs to determine needs that may be unmet (gaps). Workforce planning is a management tool that affects the full life cycle and range of human resources activities including recruitment/ selection, classification and compensation, training and development, performance management, and retention.'

Identify and explain the important aspects of workforce planning. Make sure you explain how they contribute to the overall process of workforce planning and the success of an organisation. Discuss how workforce planning is affected by a range of internal and external factors and strategies for retaining and attracting skilled labour. Outline the need for contingency plans and the impact of industrial relations.

Where possible, make reference to real-life examples of workforce planning (for example an organisation's diversity policy, strategies used by an organisation who is recognised as an employer of choice, examples of industries experiencing labour shortages etc).

Your response should be approximately 3,500 words and be closely connected to the content in this unit of study and the definition provided by Minnesota Management and Budget, but you can group similar topics together. You will need to demonstrate that you understand and know how to apply the knowledge you have acquired from this unit. You will also need to provide evidence that you have completed your own research in relation to this project. Remember to properly cite and reference any material from other authors.