National Police
What was the problem?
The National Police carries out its work within a society in which changes are following one another rapidly, and to which the organisation needs to respond flexibly so as to continue to contribute to a safe society. Given the duration of police training (3 to 4 years) and the future labour market situation, it is crucial to look forward each year and to see what is going on. What developments will the police have to deal with? Is the job of the police officer changing? What knowledge and skills are required for effective policing? The answers to these questions determine the entry requirements, in other words: how many people with what background need to enter as starters or from a different job (“lateral entrants”). The police can’t afford for there to be too few officers out there on the beat, or for the expertise of its investigators to lag behind new kinds of crime.
So what was the solution?
The National Police chose PwC services in the field of strategic personnel planning. A digital tool uses past “snapshots” of the organisation to create a film that enables an understanding of what the inflow and outflow of personnel has been like, as regards both numbers and costs and revenue. The tool then examines – according to a careful privacy-assured protocol – the current supply of personnel and the future personnel requirement based on current and past data on employees.
What was the result?
One important insight that the National Police has gained is that strategic personnel planning is not only something for the HR department; it in fact integrates all the different columns within an organisation. It thus became clear how many employees will be needed in the future, what level of education they need to have, and how they can be deployed. The tool also showed the costs associated with a policy or an intervention.
Using this tool, the police can calculate and clarify the effects (in FTEs and costs) of the various policy alternatives and interventions, meaning that the final decisions can be taken based on facts and figures rather than just on intuition.
