Syllabus: SQA - Higher Course Spec Business Management
Module: Management of People
Lesson: Workforce Planning

Introduction

Workforce planning is a critical component of the SQA Higher Business Management course under the “Management of People” section. This topic encourages learners to explore how organisations ensure they have the right people in the right roles at the right time to meet business objectives. Aligned with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) course specification, it prepares students not only for assessment but also for understanding a key function of strategic human resource management.

For teachers, SLT, and careers leads, this lesson connects clearly to broader educational outcomes. It supports the development of analytical, evaluative and decision-making skills, and has real-world application that strengthens students’ preparation for employment and further study.

Key Concepts

Workforce planning, as defined in the SQA Higher course specification, involves:

• Analysing current workforce: Reviewing the existing staff profile including skills, age, and experience.

• Identifying future staffing needs: Forecasting the number and types of employees required in the future.

• Internal and external influences: Understanding how factors like retirements, resignations, changes in technology, or external labour market conditions affect planning.

• Strategies used: Examples include succession planning, redeployment, retraining, and recruitment.

• Benefits and consequences: Exploring what happens when workforce planning is done well — or poorly — such as cost savings, improved efficiency, or risks of understaffing.

These concepts are core to understanding how businesses maintain operational capability and remain agile in a changing environment.

Real-World Relevance

Workforce planning is a live issue in many sectors, particularly those facing skills shortages or adapting to remote and hybrid working models. For example:

• The NHS in Scotland has developed long-term workforce plans to address anticipated shortages in nursing and GP roles, focusing on recruitment and training pipelines.

• Retail giants like Tesco use sophisticated workforce planning tools to ensure the right staffing levels during peak times like Christmas, helping to maintain customer service without overstaffing.

• Law firms increasingly engage in workforce planning to retain talent in competitive markets, using data to predict which legal specialisms will be most in demand and adjusting hiring accordingly.

These examples can help students see that workforce planning is not abstract — it has real consequences for business success.

How It’s Assessed

In the SQA Higher Business Management course, workforce planning may appear in both the question paper and the assignment.

• Question paper (exam): Learners could be asked to describe, explain, or analyse workforce planning. Questions often use command words such as:

  • Describe: Give factual statements about a process or term.

  • Explain: Show understanding by giving a reason or justification.

  • Analyse: Break down into parts and show relationships or impacts.

  • Justify: Provide reasons for a decision or course of action.

Typical question:

“Explain the importance of workforce planning to a business.”

• Assignment: While the main focus is often broader, workforce planning can feature where learners investigate HR practices in a real organisation. Encouraging students to include HR as one of their functional areas offers scope for integration.

Marking guidelines emphasise clarity of explanation, relevant examples, and depth of evaluation — all of which should be modelled in class discussions and formative assessments.

Enterprise Skills Integration

Workforce planning lends itself well to developing key enterprise skills such as:

• Problem-solving: How should a business respond to high staff turnover or projected growth?

• Decision-making: Should a firm retrain existing staff or recruit new employees?

• Numeracy: Interpreting staffing data, retirement projections or labour turnover rates.

• Communication: Justifying decisions made in role-play or case study scenarios.

A simple classroom activity might involve a mock scenario where a business must plan for expansion, requiring students to assess workforce needs and present their strategy to the class.

Careers Links

This topic links directly to the Gatsby Benchmarks, particularly:

• Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information

• Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Benchmark 5: Encounters with employers and employees

Relevant careers include:

• HR Officer or Manager

• Recruitment Consultant

• Workforce Analyst

• Operations Manager

• Training and Development Coordinator

Teachers might invite a local HR professional to speak about how their organisation plans for staffing needs, or use video case studies available via My World of Work or Skills Development Scotland.

Teaching Notes

• Practical tip: Use real company org charts and staffing data (with names anonymised) to practise workforce analysis.

• Common pitfalls: Students often confuse workforce planning with recruitment alone. Reinforce that it’s a strategic, ongoing process, not just hiring.

• Suggested activity: Group students and assign each one a business case. Ask them to identify triggers for workforce planning (e.g., staff retirement, tech changes), then recommend actions.

• Assessment preparation: Teach the difference in depth required by command words. For example, an analyse question needs impacts and relationships, not just definitions.

• Stretch and challenge: Introduce ethical considerations — what happens when workforce planning leads to redundancies? Should businesses retrain staff rather than hire new ones?