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Introduction The topic of healthcare human resource planning for diagnostic radiographers has received limited research attention to date. This research is concerned with developing a framework that can be used to determine diagnostic radiographer staffing requirements at a unit- or department level (i.e. at the micro-level). Methods An inductive approach is applied to formulate requirement specifications that inform the development of the framework. A number of verification and validation activities are performed, including theoretical verification and a case study application. Results The diagnostic radiographer staffing framework consists of seven steps that comprise a workload-based approach to determining the number of full time equivalent diagnostic radiographers that are required for each modality, or group of modalities. Both clinical and non-clinical activities are considered, and guidance is provided on calculating staffing requirements to cover leave allowances. A number of potential approaches to determining activity times are also discussed. Conclusion The framework represents a holistic approach to determining the required number of diagnostic radiographers at a practice-level, that is designed to remain relevant as technological advances are made in the field of diagnostic radiography. Implications for practice By providing a practical guideline, with accompanying examples, the framework is expected to hold value for individuals involved in the management of diagnostic radiography practices. The framework proposes an approach to a topic that affects every radiography practice in operation yet has received limited attention in literature to date.

Aim and method The aim of this study was to gain insight into potential pitfalls in workforce planning for future consultant burns surgeons. An anonymous online survey was sent to current plastic surgery registrars in the UK to assess their subspecialty career choices, the perceived barriers to a career in burns surgery and possible solutions to these. Results The response rate was 33%. Of 44 respondents, burns surgery was the primary subspecialty of choice for 2% (n = 1) and the secondary choice for 9% (n = 4). Reasons given for not selecting burns surgery included a lack of exposure to the subspecialty, a perceived narrow scope of clinical practice and a concern about the potential negative impact on personal lifestyle. Discussion and conclusion Our results may be extrapolated to demonstrate a potential shortfall in the workforce for burns surgery in the future. To address the perceived barriers highlighted by trainees, a coordinated response at a national and international level is most likely to be successful through the cooperation of burns associations. Possible solutions include increasing burns subspecialty exposure during training, incorporating experience in intensive care into surgical training, and highlighting the numerous research opportunities in burns surgery.

Objectives Radiographers have been undertaking reporting tasks since the 1980's with a wealth of evidence published to support this practice. Radiographers have since developed skills in reporting all body systems, from all referral sources across a range of modalities. Radiographer reporting is now considered established and demand for radiographers in this role is rising to meet service demand. Reporting radiographers work as part of multi-professional image reporting teams, it is unclear how the radiographer role is perceived as part of this model. The aim was to review peer-reviewed literature to evaluate how the role of the reporting radiographer is portrayed and how the relationship between the two imaging professions has developed. Key findings Language used to discuss the role of the reporting radiographer has changed over time. There is progress demonstrated from the practice of radiographer reporting being considered contentious or opposed to accepted and established. Recent publications focus on the importance utilising the skills of all multi-disciplinary team members in workforce structure. This features prominently when discussing future workforce design, such as with the Cancer workforce strategy and the development of the national standards for musculoskeletal reporting. Conclusion Published literature has highlighted a move towards acceptance of the reporting radiographer role. Multi-disciplinary team working, utilising the skills of all imaging team members, is essential to the success and sustainability of the imaging workforce moving forwards. Implications for practice Reporting by radiographers is established and will be prominent in the reporting workforce as part of long-term workforce planning, considering skills mix to form effective and sustainable multidisciplinary reporting teams.

Introduction/Aims Mean retirement age for UK doctors is 59.6 years giving the average OMFS consultant approximately 20 years of practice. Current pension tax regulations, new consultant posts having 10 sessions (40 hours), increasing proportions of consultants working less than full time (LTFT) all combined with the backlog of elective care created by COVID-19 will create a significant gap between workforce capacity and clinical demand. Materials and Methods The age of current OMFS consultants was estimated using the date of their primary medical/dental qualification. Changes in job plans were estimated using data from the BAOMS Workforce Census and from recently advertised posts. Reports of unfilled posts were collated by OMFS Regional Specialty Professional Advisors (RSPAs). Results First degree dates were identified for 476 OMFS substantive consultant posts. Estimated current average age was 52.7 years (minimum 35.9, maximum 72.1), 75th centile age 59.0 with 23% of the current consultant workforce above the average retirement age for doctors. New consultant posts consisted of 10 sessions (40 hours), whereas existing consultants average 12.1 sessions (48.4 hours). Unfilled consultant posts in Great Britain are 13 % of total compared to 20% in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Conclusions Many (23%) of the OMFS consultant workforce are above average retirement age. Forty-hour contracts; new consultants working LTFT; and early loss of senior colleagues because of pension pressure will reduce NHS’ capacity to treat OMFS disorders and injuries. This paper suggests increasing consultant posts, increasing trainee numbers and actively retaining senior surgeons to maintain capacity.

Reductions in defense expenditure require holistic and coordinated planning of two critical and interconnected defense capabilities, namely a fleet of assets and the workforce required. In this paper, we model and solve a joint problem of strategic workforce planning and fleet renewal in a military context. The joint problem studied involves addressing a trade-off among several costs (e.g., workforce, maintenance, operating, etc.) and operational readiness (availability) of the fleet. To make such trade-offs, the decisions associated with workforce planning (i.e., the recruitment and the career progression of the workforce) and fleet renewal (i.e., the timing of asset replacements) strategies have to be simultaneously considered and optimized. We develop a simulation-optimization approach by coupling a system dynamics (SD) simulation model and a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the joint problem. In the developed approach, the GA generates candidate workforce planning and fleet renewal strategies to find the best joint strategy. Then, the candidate workforce planning and renewal strategies are passed to the SD model which simulates both the career progression of the workforce and the life-cycle of assets to evaluate the total cost. We illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the joint model on a realistic case study motivated by the recent modernization efforts of the Royal Australian Navy. The results obtained indicate that this approach leads to a considerable cost reduction and identifies the causes of inferior performance. We also test the robustness of the optimized strategies under uncertainty by sensitivity and scenario discovery analyses to infer further insights.

Background Conducting a systematic country-level workforce needs-assessment is a way to develop coherent strategic and justifiable workforce planning. Objective(s) This article describes a country-level needs-assessment process using a systematic approach (via the FIP Development Goals (FIP DGs) workforce element) as an analytical framework. The needs-assessment aimed to prioritise gaps toward transforming the pharmacy workforce as a prelude to practice and pharmaceutical services reform in Indonesia. Methods The needs assessment consisted of three stages: needs identification, needs analysis, and needs prioritisation. The needs (workforce development gaps) were defined as the discrepancies between the perceived workforce challenges and the existing national workforce development projects. Interviews or group discussions were conducted to gather the workforce challenges of individual pharmacists. A structured workshop was conducted to identify workforce challenges and existing organisations' projects, with main stakeholders contributing to pharmacists' development in Indonesia. Perceived challenges findings and identified national workforce projects were mapped to the FIP DGs workforce element. The needs prioritisation was conducted by comparing the proportional mapping to the FIP DGs workforce element. Results There were forty-three individual pharmacists and 7 principal stakeholder categories that provided information related to perceived workforce challenges; thirty national projects were identified from stakeholders. While this study identified perceived challenges with workforce “competency development” and “pharmacy workforce intelligence,” there were no active ongoing national projects mapped to those goals. The framework mapping analysis showed there are workforce development gaps centred on “competency development” initiatives, “advanced and specialist development” initiatives, and strategic pharmacy workforce intelligence data gathering. Additionally, there were policy gaps with initiatives for strengthening “working with others” and a lack of clarity on infrastructure for early-career training strategies and workforce impact. Conclusions This study prioritises the gaps in developing pharmacists in Indonesia. This process could be used in conducting needs assessment of pharmacy workforce development in other Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Highlights • Majority of respondent likely to adopt AI. • Innovation factors account for 51% of total variance. • Perceived Benefit is a facilitator to adoption of AI. • Organisational factors are a moderate factor to adoption of AI. • Low levels of expertise are a barrier to adoption of AI., Introduction Advances in computing capabilities and automated data collection have led to an increase in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in radiation therapy. This has implications to workflow and workforce planning in radiation oncology departments. A survey was conducted in New Zealand to determine the likelihood of departments adopting AI into their practice. Survey responses were used to determine barriers and facilitators to the adoption of AI. Materials and Methods An online electronic survey was sent to all ten radiation therapy centres in New Zealand. The survey was sent to radiation oncologists, medical physicists and senior radiation therapists involved in treatment planning. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis, analysis of variance and hierarchical multiple regression were used to analyse the data. Results AI usage was low across the country and there was middling expertise. Most respondents found AI had a lot of perceived benefits. On the whole, respondents reported a high likelihood to adopt AI. There were significant differences on the Expertise factor between the staff groupsp=0.016 with radiation therapists reporting more expertise than oncologists. Innovation factors (Perceived Benefit) on their own accounted for over 51% of total variance and was the biggest predictor of likelihood to adopt AI(p

In human-centered assembly systems, workers adapt to new and changing tasks based on learning processes. Human factors are crucial for the entire system capability in such kind of systems. Current methodologies of assembly scheduling often take only limited account of human factors and the interaction between assembly scheduling and workforce planning. Although extensive research indicates that a careful introduction of human factors implies many benefits, examples are reduction of errors, increasing flexibility and performance of the system as well as increasing human wellbeing. The developed methodology addresses the research gap in modeling the impact of human factors on assembly scheduling. In the paper at hand, human factors are systematically integrated into assembly scheduling. This is done by adapting the learn-forget curve model of Jaber and Bonney. In addition to experience, learning and forgetting, the age and the accordance of assembly operations are considered. Within the scheduling model of worker assignment, two coordination approaches are followed. On the one hand, skill-based assembly planning with a long-term perspective and on the other hand, time-based assembly planning with a short-term perspective is proposed. The developed mathematical model assists planners in the assignment of workers to workplaces in a manual assembly line by predicting performance based on human factors.

Problem There is a dearth of evidence on applied methodologies to workforce planning in nursing. Research and commentary to date reflects ad hoc, operational planning rather than strategic approaches. Strategic planning is particularly important in primary health care settings because investment in the early years lays the foundation for lifelong health representing a long-term return on investment. Aim The aim of this project was to ascertain the applicability of a comprehensive four-step workforce planning methodology to develop a three-to-five-year nursing workforce plan in a child and youth community health service. A secondary aim was to identify what elements of the methodology were important to engage nurses in the process. Methods Over a six-month period, a comprehensive methodology was applied. A survey was conducted with participants to elicit perspectives of the planning process. Free text responses were subject to thematic analysis. Findings Gaps in current processes and available data posed obstacles during workforce analysis. Three key themes generated from the survey data were: Engaging with the planning process, Creating change and Making a difference. This reflected an optimism toward the plan and an urgency to move ahead. Discussion A systematic approach that uses a variety of information sources is important to develop a comprehensive nursing workforce plan. Key processes that engaged nurses were scenario building and future forecasting. Conclusion This work demonstrates that a systematic workforce planning methodology is acceptable and effective. Engagement of nursing staff is a key factor in planning and important to create readiness for change.

Innovative leaders in health care are especially poised to impact patient safety, use of resources, and workforce planning through networked partnerships. Opportunities exist for nurse leaders to address internal needs through collaboration with external partners. In particular, partnerships with regulatory agencies can result in increased value for both partners. This article presents 2 exemplars in which nurse leaders worked with nurse regulators to improve nursing workforce data and student clinical placements for obstetric learning. 1

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the models and tools used for the obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs) workforce planning and to determine the factors affecting their supply and demand. Methods This systematic review was conducted by searching the relevant papers published in reputable electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus and gray literature from 1980 to 2019. PRISMA model was employed to select the papers. The data were extracted by an author-made form and analyzed using framework content analysis method. Results Considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 45 papers were selected. A variety of factors and models were employed in the reviewed papers for the OB-GYNs workforce planning. The extracted data were classified under three categories: models, supply factors, and demand factors. Conclusion The reviewed papers had made more accurate estimates through various variables, scenarios and different mathematical and simulation models. Therefore, the human resources for health (HRH) planners are recommended to consider all effective factors in order to improve the quality of future workforce estimations.

Nurse leaders in today’s health care settings bear the onerous responsibility of driving care outcomes despite evolving consumer demands, economic influences, scarce resources, and workforce challenges. Understanding registered nurses’ perspectives serves to inform nurse leaders’ decision-making and actions in rapidly evolving health care environments. Results from the AMN 2019 Survey of registered nurses provide insights from almost 20,000 nurses that provide care to patients every day. Knowledge from this survey can frame leaders’ strategic thinking and decision-making around workforce planning, recruitment, and retention, and sustaining healthy work environments. The report provides evidence that growing pressures on registered nurses will increase in the next decade and could impact quality of patient care, quality of life, retention, and the health and well-being of nurses. The survey also suggests sustainable solutions in the form of greater support for nurses in professional development, diverse workplace environments, and flexibility in work-life balance.

Background Double degrees in nursing and midwifery have evolved in Australia as a proposed solution to possible impending shortages of qualified midwives in the healthcare workforce. The double degree is seen as a more acceptable option in non-metropolitan areas in particular. Concern has been expressed however, about dilution of midwifery philosophy and graduates’ opportunities in respect of future clinical practice. Aim This study aimed to provide a better understanding of motivations and intentions of students who undertake the Bachelor of Nursing Science/Bachelor of Midwifery double degree. Methods A cross-sectional survey design was employed at four universities that offered double degrees in nursing and midwifery in three states of Australia. Students enrolled in first and fourth year of a double degree and graduates of a double degree were invited to complete an online survey comprised of Likert scales and items requiring free text responses. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Findings Participants indicated a clear preference for midwifery as a career with this preference increasing for each cohort at each stage of study. Discussion Primary reasons for selecting a double degree were perceived increased opportunity for employment and use of nursing skills to enhance midwifery practice in a population with growing co-morbidities. A strong identification with midwifery philosophy and identity was also demonstrated. Conclusion An understanding of motivations and career intentions of students undertaking double degree studies can inform future program development and workforce planning.

The majority of Canadian Provinces have regulated and publicly funded midwifery. No comprehensive review has summarized and compared the various types of employment models, practice organizations, and compensation for midwives across Canada. The aim of this scoping review was to gain an understanding of evidence related to funding models, organization of practice models, and compensation for midwives. The Arksey and O'Malley five-stage framework for conducting scoping reviews guided our methodology. The constructs of interest for inquiry related to Canadian midwifery were the following: (1) employment models, (2) organization of practice, and (3) compensation. The study selection was an iterative search process. After duplicates were removed from both database and grey literature sources, a total of 1540 records were initially screened. After final screening was complete, a total of 111 records were included that contained content related to constructs of interest. Currently, midwifery services are publicly funded in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan. The four types of employment models in which midwives work are private practice, private fee for service (deemed as course of care), course of care, and salaried. Compensation varies by province depending on the model of employment. This review of publicly available literature illustrates the range of employment, practice models, and compensation of regulated midwifery across Canada, as well as the evolution of the profession in the past 27 years. This type of information is relevant to inform health workforce planning for midwifery services across the country (Canadian Task Force Classification III).

Big data analytics have transformed research in many fields, including the business areas of marketing, accounting and finance, and supply chain management. Yet, the discussion surrounding big data analytics in human resource management has primarily focused on job candidate screenings. In this article, we consider how significant strategic human capital questions can be addressed with big data analytics, enabling HR to enhance overall firm performance. We also examine how new data sources that help assess workforce performance in real time can assist in the identification and development of the knowledge stars that contribute to firm performance disproportionately as well as help reinforce firm capabilities. But in order for big data analytics to be successful in the HR field, regulatory and ethical challenges must also be addressed; these include privacy concerns and, in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We conclude by discussing how big data analytics can facilitate strategic change within HR and the organization as a whole.

Unbalanced resource distribution of resources in offsite construction can cause lot of production environment problems s as insufficient productivity, overruns of deadlines and quality pitfalls, resulting in overruns of cost and time. Efficient management particular importance of specific tools, crosstraining and multiskilling of off-site construction work to understand the different advantages over conventional construction. Though extensive research in the manufacturing industry has been conducted to tackle unbalanced allocation of resources. The current study hypothesized to bridge gap that multi-skilling and cross-training of building resources could offer a cost efficient solution to the problem. The goal of this research was to investigate the degree to which operational benefits can be achieved in off-site construction by using different labour skills structures to solve production problems. To compare performance measures associated with different sets of labour skills, a hybrid research method that adopts optimization and decision-making techniques with multicriteria was employed. To this end, multiskilling policies have been ranked and situations have been discussed in which ranking results can be changed. The findings of this study show the efficiency and sensitivity of various multiskilling approaches related to various parameters. This study assists industry practitioners in workforce planning and offsite construction management. It also contributes to the body of knowledge by quantifying the interaction between performance measures and labour skill sets. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have developed to accommodate different types of applications. Dozens of methods have been developed, with even minor variations to existing methods leading to the creation of new branches of research. This paper conducts study on common Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the listed methods, and describes how their specific implementations are linked to their relative strengths and weaknesses. Multi-Criteria decision making processes are taken into account and in particular circumstances which approach should be used.

In France, publicly funded mental care services are mostly hospital-based and focused on treating severe illnesses. Mild to moderate mental disorders are typically managed by general practitioners (GP) who often lack specific training to treat these conditions. Antidepressant prescribing levels for mild to moderate conditions are inadequately high. Public reimbursement for psychotherapies provided by psychologists is generally not available. This paper presents a local experiment with a stepped-care approach for the treatment of mild to moderate mental disorders in four French departements launched in 2018. The experiment includes the introduction of a standardized assessment protocol for GPs, clear referral guidelines, and full reimbursement of visits to psychologists upon GP referral. Seemingly simple, the policy raises several issues related to the regulation, training and reimbursement of psychologists, and illustrates the need for careful preparation and workforce planning to ensure success and stakeholder support. An independent evaluation of the local experiments is planned, which provides the opportunity to fine-tune the policy before any broader rollout. The issues raised in France and the on-going debate is relevant for other countries preparing similar policies for improving mental care.

Truck scheduling coordinates the loading and unloading processes of trucks competing for the timely processing at some terminal, e.g., a cross-docking terminal or distribution center. Existing research almost invariably assumes that the (un-)loading times of trucks are fixed. In the real-world, however, terminal managers have the additional flexibility of adapting the workforce for processing critical trucks. For instance, two instead of one worker can be assigned to jointly unload the parcels of a trailer reaching a terminal of the postal service industry onto a conveyor, or an additional forklift can support the removal of pallets from a truck in a distribution center. Thus, workforce management influences the processing times of trucks and a simultaneous planning of both tasks seems advisable. For two representative truck scheduling settings, mixed-integer models integrating workforce planning and truck scheduling are presented. Furthermore, we re-formulate the problems as interval scheduling problems and develop heuristics based on these formulations. Finally, the holistic planning models are compared with alternative models assuming a fixed workforce. Our findings reveal that integrated planning can considerably increase the performance of truck scheduling in terms of total flow time and punctuality.

The Workforce Problem (WP) can be classified in three categories: strategic planning, tactical planning and operational planning. The WP can be applied to any type of company, for example, in Operation and Maintenance (O&M) management. In recent years, O&M's WP has been thoroughly analysed in the electricity sector by electricity distributors such as Copel, Celpe, Cemig, AES Sul and Elektro, aiming to optimize the attendance of events. The main goal of this work is to present the state of the art of WP focused on power utilities, as well as some topics related to power distribution planning at strategic, tactical and operational levels. The survey reveals that most studies of WP in electrical distribution utilities analyses operational planning.

Objective Clinical Imaging contributes to screening, diagnosis, planning and monitoring of treatment and surveillance in cancer care. This literature review summarises evidence about radiographer reporting to help imaging service providers respond to Health Education England's 2017 Cancer Workforce Plan project to expand radiographer reporting in clinical service provision. Key findings Papers published between 1992 and 2018 were reviewed (n = 148). Evidence related to dynamic examinations (fluoroscopy, ultrasound) and mammography was excluded. Content was analysed and summarised using the following headings: clinical scope of practice, responsibilities, training, assessment, impact in practice and barriers to expansion. Radiographer reporting is well established in the United Kingdom. Scope of practice varies individually and geographically. Deployment of appropriately trained reporting radiographers is helping the NHS maintain high quality clinical imaging service provision and deliver a cost-effective increase in diagnostic capacity. Conclusion Working within multiprofessional clinical imaging teams, within a defined scope of practice and with access to medical input when required, reporting radiographers augment capacity in diagnostic pathways and release radiologist time for other complex clinical imaging responsibilities.

Background: Despite the increasing number of pharmacy schools and their graduates, the healthcare workforce shortage has increased in Saudi Arabia’s pharmacy sector, especially with the opening of new retail pharmacies, industries and pharmaceutical companies, which means that more pharmacist positions have been created with expanded working hours. However, very limited data are available regarding the views and preferences of pharmacy students regarding their future job choices in Saudi Arabia, which may create concerns for licensing organizations, employers and institutions and also gaps between what students want and the vacancies for pharmacists. Therefore, this study aims to identify pharmacy students’ career choices and examine the factors that influence their choices across different pharmacy schools in Saudi via a cross-sectional survey. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out of undergraduates at all education levels at different colleges of pharmacy across Saudi Arabia from October 2017 to March 2018. The questionnaire gathered students’ characteristics and covered the importance of general job considerations for students, their choices and the factors influencing their future career choices and finally the students’ opinions regarding different work settings. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: Hospital pharmacies were the preferred area of practice (n = 212: 51.6%), followed by academia and research centres (n = 102: 24.8%), while the pharmaceutical industry and community pharmacies were the least preferred, at 7% and 2%, respectively. Based on the respondents’ characteristics and preferred future career, a multivariate logistic regression revealed that the pharmD students were 4 times more likely to prefer hospital pharmacy posts (odds ratio (OR) = 4.554, p = 0.033) compared with the B-pharm students. Among the factors that influenced the students’ choices were personal interest, in addition to training experience and organizational reputation. The most important job considerations, according to the students, was moving up the job ladder (n = 346; 84.2%), and job openings in a certain field (n = 341; 83%). The Kruskal-Wallis test for nonparametric ordinal data declared detected several significant differences among different pharmacy settings for each item measuring the pharmD and B-pharm students' attitudes and opinions. Conclusion: By identifying these gaps and pharmacy students' goals and needs, we aim to draw the government’s attention to these to ensure a future balance between supply and demand and effective pharmacy workforce planning, which is mandatory. Keywords: Pharmacy undergraduates, Education, Career choice, Saudi Arabia

Despite global support for immunization as a core component of the human right to health and the maturity of immunization programs in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world, there is no comprehensive description of the standardized competencies needed for immunization programs at the national, multiple sub-national, and community levels. The lack of defined and standardized competencies means countries have few guidelines to help them address immunization workforce planning, program management, and performance monitoring. Potential consequences resulting from the lack of defined competencies include inadequate or inefficient distribution of resources to support the required functions and difficulties in adequately managing the health workforce. In 2015, an international multi-agency working group convened to define standardized competencies that national immunization programs could adapt for their own workforce planning needs. The working group used a stepwise approach to ensure that the competencies would align with immunization programs’ objectives. The first step defined the attributes of a successful immunization program. The group then defined the work functions needed to achieve those attributes. Based on the work functions, the working group defined specific competencies. This process resulted in three products: (1) Attributes of an immunization program described within eight technical domains at four levels within a health system: National, Provincial, District/Local, and Community; (2) 229 distinct functions within those eight domains at each of the four levels; and (3) 242 competencies, representing eight technical domains and two foundational domains (Management and Leadership and Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Program). Currently available as a working draft and being tested with immunization projects in several countries, the final document will be published by WHO as normative guidelines. Vertical immunization programs as well as integrated systems can customize the framework to suit their needs. Standardized competencies can support immunization program improvements and help strengthen effective health systems.

Objective To identify core practices for workforce management of communication and swallowing functions in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positive patients within the intensive care unit (ICU). Design A modified Delphi methodology was used, with 3 electronic voting rounds. AGREE II and an adapted COVID-19 survey framework from physiotherapy were used to develop survey statements. Sixty-six statements pertaining to workforce planning and management of communication and swallowing function in the ICU were included. Setting Electronic modified Delphi process. Participants Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) (N=35) from 6 continents representing 12 countries. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures The main outcome was consensus agreement, defined a priori as ≥70% of participants with a mean Likert score ≥7.0 (11-point scale: 0=strongly disagree, 10=strongly agree). Prioritization rank order of statements in a fourth round was also conducted. Results SLPs with a median of 15 years of ICU experience, working primarily in clinical (54%), academic (29%), or managerial positions (17%), completed all voting rounds. After the third round, 64 statements (97%) met criteria. Rank ordering identified issues of high importance. Conclusions A set of global consensus statements to facilitate planning and delivery of rehabilitative care for patients admitted to the ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic were agreed by an international expert SLP group. Statements focused on considerations for workforce preparation, resourcing and training, and the management of communication and swallowing functions. These statements support and provide direction for all members of the rehabilitation team to use for patients admitted to the ICU during a global pandemic.

Significant investment in planning and training has occurred across the Australian healthcare sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a primary focus on the medical and nursing workforce. We provide a short summary of a recently published article titled "Surge capacity of Australian intensive care units associated with COVID-19 admissions" in the Medical Journal of Australia and, importantly, highlight a knowledge gap regarding critical care specialised allied health professional (AHP) workforce planning in Australia. The unique skill set provided by critical care specialised AHPs contributes to patient recovery long after the patient leaves the intensive care unit, with management targeted at reducing disability and improving function, activities of daily living, and quality of life. Allied health workforce planning and preparation during COVID-19 must be considered when planning comprehensive and evidence-based patient care. The work by Litton et al. has highlighted the significant lack of available data in relation to staffing of critical care specialised AHPs in Australia, and this needs to be urgently addressed.

In the literature on inventory models, it is common to assume fixed production rates. However, in some cases, such as flexible production systems, this assumption is not realistic. In contrast, variable production rate models rarely define the mechanism through which the production rate is varied, and usually, a per-unit production cost function is assumed. In economics and econometrics, productivity is usually defined by means of the production function, a model that relates productivity to available resources, such as capital and labour. In this paper, we propose an integrated stochastic dynamic lot-sizing and workforce planning model. The novelty here is in modelling the variable production rates explicitly through workforce planning using the production function concept. The proposed model is demonstrated by an example, which shows that the integrated approach leads to an optimal production lot-sizing policy that is different from that obtained without considering workforce planning. This indicates the potential savings that can be obtained via the proposed integrated approach.

This document outlines recommendations for physiotherapy management for COVID-19 in the acute hospital setting. It includes: recommendations for physiotherapy workforce planning and preparation; a screening tool for determining requirement for physiotherapy; and recommendations for the selection of physiotherapy treatments and personal protective equipment. It is intended for use by physiotherapists and other relevant stakeholders in the acute care setting caring for adult patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. ispartof: JOURNAL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY vol:66 issue:2 pages:73-82 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

This paper proposes a Simulation-Optimization framework, where a maintenance system of high-value assets is modeled via a novel large-scale Discrete Event Simulation model. In contrast to the existing simulation models in the maintenance domain, the developed simulation model provides an integrated view of the different aspects of the maintenance system including asset acquisitions, maintenance workforce planning, and scheduling of preventive maintenance activities. Further, the workforce planning studies the technicians’ progression based on their allocated maintenance activities, and the trade-off between their progression and the recruitment of additional technicians, which is infrequently studied in this domain. The developed simulation model is coupled with a Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, that is further enhanced with a K-means clustering machine learning method. By using this coupling (i.e., simulation-based optimization), we jointly optimize the scheduling frequency of preventive maintenance activities and workforce planning decisions (e.g., recruitment and career progression). The proposed framework proved its superiority in terms of representing the dynamics of the overall system, and providing optimal decisions about the workforce and maintenance schedules. A comprehensive study is proposed and showed the ability of the proposed framework to reduce the total maintenance cost on average of 5.6%, that is around three million currency units.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the replacement cost of patient care provided by surgical residents and build a Graduate Medical Education (GME) value analysis model. DESIGN Our Graduate Medical Education Executive Steering Committee designed a resident replacement cost model, based on patient care hours (adjusted for educational activities and a clinical efficiency factor, differential cost of faculty supervision for residents vs. APPs, and current program financials (revenue minus expenses). Strategic value planning included: academic productivity (local and national conference presentations, book chapters and publications and Senior Staff recruitment and retention. SETTING Department of Surgery at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center, a tertiary institution located in Temple, TX. PARTICIPANTS Our replacement model was applied to a sample 30-position residency program. RESULTS Modeling a 30-position residency program, replacement cost approaches 4.5 million dollars, based on a 1:3 Senior Staff-to-APP replacement ratio. A complete APP replacement complement has a projected cost of 3.1 million dollars, while replacement with Senior Staff approaches 9 million dollars. CONCLUSIONS We present a novel model for residency value analysis allowing for reproducible and standardized results across multiple residency programs. Challenges inherent to GME, such as clinical efficiency and the cost of faculty supervision, are accounted for. Quantifying resident replacement cost and financial value is a powerful tool when discussing institutional workforce planning within the current financial climate of healthcare.

Workforce management has long been an integral part of operational efforts aimed at maximizing revenues. The recent literature in this area has recognized the positive impact of social ties on workforce productivity, motivating new re-formulations of conventional operations research problems to more explicitly consider team building. This paper inspects a different – negative – aspect of social tie formation. Indeed, such ties may enable the spread of negligent or corrupt behavior, presenting a hindrance to the productivity of larger businesses with limited capacity for workforce monitoring. Through model-based analyses, this paper quantitatively establishes the benefits of workforce rotation as a means to curb corruption, and presents rigorous investigations into rotation policy-making. To this end, the Link Based Corruption (LBC) model is introduced. The modeled agents are assumed to be embedded into a directed peer-to-peer monitoring network; e.g., employees working on the same task or in the same room can be viewed as being supervisors of each other. Corruption is taken to be a threat whenever an agent and their supervisor(s) are all corruption-prone (ready to go corrupt); once they identify each other as such, which takes time, a productivity loss takes place. Under the LBC model, this paper addresses the policy-maker’s problem of fixing the agent monitoring structure and timing the workforce rotation so as to minimize the expected long-time loss. The impact of the LBC model parameters – the fraction of corruption-prone agents in the workforce, productivity rate, costs, rate of corrupt link formation, etc. – on the choice of an optimal policy is quantitatively assessed. It is also shown that the problem of inferring the LBC model parameters in real-world settings can be addressed by “feeling the system”, i.e., observing what financial outputs a given business generates when operating under different policy settings.

The behavioral health workforce, which encompasses a broad range of professions providing prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation services for mental health conditions and substance use disorders, is in the midst of what is considered by many to be a workforce crisis. The workforce shortage can be attributed to both insufficient numbers and maldistribution of workers, leaving some communities with no behavioral health providers. In addition, demand for behavioral health services has increased more rapidly as a result of federal legislation over the past decade supporting mental health and substance use parity and by healthcare reform. In order to address workforce capacity issues that impact access to care, the field must engage in extensive planning; however, these efforts are limited by the lack of timely and useable data on the behavioral health workforce. One method for standardizing data collection efforts is the adoption of a Minimum Data Set. This article describes workforce data limitations, the need for standardizing data collection, and the development of a behavioral health workforce Minimum Data Set intended to address these gaps. The Minimum Data Set includes five categorical data themes to describe worker characteristics: demographics, licensure and certification, education and training, occupation and area of practice, and practice characteristics and settings. Some data sources align with Minimum Data Set themes, although deficiencies in the breadth and quality of data exist. Development of a Minimum Data Set is a foundational step for standardizing the collection of behavioral health workforce data. Key challenges for dissemination and implementation of the Minimum Data Set are also addressed. Supplement information This article is part of a supplement entitled The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Background Research detailing the practice patterns and services provided by nurse practitioners within a large health care facility is currently lacking in the literature. This study fills a gap in the literature by reporting on the practices of nurse practitioners in a variety of clinical specialty areas within the one health care setting. Aim To identify the practices of nurse practitioners in different contexts across one health service. BackgroundAn expanding cohort of nurse practitioners within an Australian health service increasingly delivers services to more complex patients. Understanding this phenomenon assists future workforce planning. Methods An exploratory survey of nurse practitioner practice patterns in a metropolitan health service was conducted. Nurse practitioners electronically entered data from patient encounters for two weeks. Descriptive analysis of the quantitative data was conducted. Results Nine nurse practitioner specialties were identified and 341 encounters were analysed. All specialty groups included counselling and education in patient management. The use of nurse practitioner extensions to practice was dependent on the specialty area including prescribing medicines. Conclusions Nurse practitioner scope of practice differs across specialties and is determined by patient cohorts and associated diagnoses. The results highlighted the diversity and depth of services provided by nurse practitioners. Understanding the scope of practice assist with future nurse practitioner role development andimplementation.

Future health systems will be required to accommodate changing social and treatment environments along with new and not-before-contemplated health care roles. Thus, health workforce planning is likely to benefit from improved problem identification, response formulation and data and methods that provide deeper understandings of socially influenced systems. Actor analysis is able to facilitate this through its examination of actor goals, interactions, and influences. We explore the use of this infrequently reported method in the context of health workforce planning. Through an embedded mixed methods design, we draw on data from inductive document analysis, deductively coded semi-structured interview responses from two separate but interconnected health sub sectors and numerically transform these to comply with the selected actor analysis software’s input requirements. Our findings underline the importance of actor analysis as an investigative resource for delineating actor positions on a range of strategic issues pertinent to health workforce futures to reveal a different perspective of the system’s evolution than that derived from conventional health workforce forecasting methods. A hierarchy of critical issues and the influential actors that hold sway over the workforce discourse are found, providing some insight into why conventional workforce plans can provide less than expected results.

Aim To describe and quantify the range of non-interpretive tasks engaged in by consultant radiologists in Ireland today. Materials and methods A multiple-choice electronic survey was circulated to over 200 Irish consultant radiologists and results were analysed. Results Responses were received from approximately 40% of the 267 full-time equivalent consultants in Ireland at the time of the survey. There was a wide sub-specialty mix, and responses from both clinical directors and those without designated administrative responsibility. Overall, the three most time-consuming activities were reported to be multidisciplinary meetings, vetting, and informal consultations. Non-interpretive tasks were estimated to account for 35% of the working week, with higher figures (up to 60%) for clinical directors. Conclusion Consultant radiologists in Ireland spend a significant proportion of their time engaged in non-interpretive radiology; acknowledgement and scheduling of non-interpretive tasks will need to be supported by appropriate workforce planning. Non-interpretive skills will also need to be addressed during training to adequately prepare trainees for the reality of the workplace.

Workforce analytics is a major emerging trend in human resource management. Yet, despite the enthusiasm, there exists a misunderstanding of how organizations can successfully use workforce analytics to achieve important organizational outcomes. This article proposes ways to overcome this execution dilemma and achieve organizational success with workforce analytics through the integration of agile development with scientific research. We use a number of company examples to outline five key parts of an agile workforce analytics process: (1) prioritizing issues, (2) integrating deductive and inductive approaches, (3) preparing and validating data, (4) applying multiple methods in concert to support decisions, and (5) transforming insight into action to improve business outcomes.

In this paper, the development and capabilities of the 2020 World Gas Model (WGM) are presented and exemplified through the analysis of two important case studies currently facing the natural gas market, a key component of the global energy sector. The goal of the United States - China Trade War case study is to analyze the potential short- and long-term effects of a prolonged trade war under several different, possible scenarios. Results from the study indicate that while increased tariffs on LNG trade from the U.S. to China greatly reduce the amount of trade volume between the two countries; however, the overall economic effect is negligible. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) LNG inspection workforce planning case study utilizes the WGM to provide future workforce demand for USCG personnel based on the growth of the U.S. LNG industry. The results from the study indicate that in order to avoid restriction on the U.S. LNG industry, the USCG must increase its LNG inspection workforce at a rate between 10% to 15% per annum. The U.S. - China Trade War effects on the USCG LNG inspection workforce were found to negligible as U.S. trade levels remain heightened and ever-growing despite increasing tariffs or Chinese domestic gas production.

The availability of assets crucially depends on the interplay between the facility locations, workforce planning, and capacity allocation. Therefore, in this paper, we model and solve a novel multi-objective optimization problem for strategic facility location, workforce planning, and capacity allocation in the context of the military. The developed model deviates from more common approaches and adapts a dynamic capacity scheme for both the workforce and facilities to capture the dynamic nature of future demand, such as maintenance requirements for assets. The capacity allocation and workforce planning problem focus on mainly strategic decisions involving from workforce and facilities. A system dynamics (SD) simulation model enables a decision-maker to analyze the effects of decision variables by modeling the system complexities, uncertainties, and interactions between facilities, workforce, and assets. However, the simulation model neither suggests nor seeks the best solution strategy or strategies. To overcome this shortcoming, we propose a simulation–optimization approach that uses a Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II). NSGA-II generates feasible solution strategies (candidate solutions) such as time and amount of capacity expansion and downsizing for both the workforce and facilities as well as the amount of crew recruitment. These solution strategies are fed to the simulation model where it evaluates the fitness of candidate solutions. We test the applicability of the proposed method on a realistic case study from the Royal Australian Navy. Finally, we present scenario-based sensitivity analysis arising from the decision variables to support decision-makers.

Staffing shortages, workload increases, and balancing experienced versus non-experienced nurses are top of list workforce planning issues for nursing leaders. The complexity of care being provided continues to increase; nurses are returning to school for their BSN and more advanced degrees. RN residency programs are being created to assist with the transition of new nurses into practice settings. Additionally, new roles are being created, which only further increases the challenge of providing adequate staffing in a cost effective manner.

In this paper, we study how an organization can recognize that individuals learn when assigning employees to tasks. By doing so, an organization can meet current demands and position the capabilities of their workforce for the yet unknown demands in future days. Specifically, we study a variant of the technician and task scheduling problem in which the tasks to be performed in the current day are known, but there is uncertainty regarding the tasks to be performed in subsequent days. To solve this problem, we present an Approximate Dynamic Programming-based approach that incorporates into daily assignment decisions estimates of the long-term benefits associated with experience accumulation. We benchmark this approach against an approach that only considers the impact of experience accumulation on just the next day's productivity and show that the ADP approach outperforms this one-step lookahead approach. Finally, based on the results from an extensive computational study we derive insights into how an organization can schedule their employees in a manner that enables meeting both near and long-term demands.

Background There is ample evidence that modern nurses are under strain and that interventions to support the nursing workforce have not recognised the complexity inherent in nursing work. Creating a modern model of nursing work may assist nurses in developing workable solutions to professional problems. A new model may also foster cohesion among broad and diverse nursing roles. Aim The aim of this meta-narrative review was to investigate how researchers, using different methods and theoretical approaches, have contributed to the understanding of nursing work. Methods A meta-narrative review was done to evaluate the trajectory of nursing work research, from 1953 to present. This review progressed through the stages of planning, searching, mapping, appraisal, and synthesis. Findings A total of 121 articles were included in this meta-narrative review. These articles revealed five narratives of nursing work, where work is conceptualised as labour. These narratives were physical labour (n = 14), emotional (n = 53), cognitive (n = 24), and organisational (n = 1), and combinations of more than one type of labour (n = 29 articles). The paradigms identified in the meta-narrative were the positivist, interpretive, critical, and evidence-based paradigms. Each article in the review corresponded with a paradigm and a labour narrative, creating a comprehensive model. Conclusions Nursing work can be understood as a model of physical, emotional, cognitive, and organisational labour. These different types of labour may be hidden and taken for granted. Nurses can use this model to articulate what they do and how it supports patient safety. Nurses can also advocate for staffing allocations that consider all types of nursing labour. Tweetable abstract: Nursing work is complex and includes physical, emotional, cognitive, and organisational labour. Staffing needs to take all nursing labour into account.

This purpose of this article is to describe an innovative onboarding program implemented to overcome language barriers and smooth enculturation to the practice setting in this country for foreign-born nurses. The program promotes cross-cultural understanding for patient safety and is offered as a celebration of a rich diverse workforce within Medical City Healthcare, a large health care system located in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

Introduction In Australia, many small birthing units have closed in recent years, correlating with adverse outcomes including a rise in the number of babies born before arrival to hospital. Concurrently, a raft of national policy and planning documents promote continued provision of rural and remote maternity services, articulating a strategic intent for services to provide responsive, woman-centred care as close as possible to a woman’s home. The aims of this paper are to contribute to an explanation of why this strategic intent is not realised, and to investigate the utility of an evidence based planning tool (the Toolkit) to assist with planning services to realise this intent. Methods Interviews, focus groups and a group information session were conducted involving 141 participants in four Australian jurisdictions. Field notes and reports were thematically analysed. Results We identified barriers that helped explain the gap between strategic intent and services on the ground. These were absence of informed leadership; lack of knowledge of contemporary models of care and inadequate clinical governance; poor workforce planning and use of resources; fallacious perceptions of risk; and a dearth of community consultation. In this context, the implementation of policy is problematic without tools or guidance. Conclusions Barriers to operationalising strategic intent in planning maternity services may be alleviated by using evidence based planning tools such as the Toolkit.

The directive to develop more nursing leaders was clear in the 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.1 The IOM had 4 messages for nurses: one, practice to the full extent of your education and training; two, achieve higher levels of education and training through a system that promotes unified academic progression; three, partner with physicians and other health care professionals to achieve care reform; and four, commence improved data collection and information structure to realize effective workforce planning and policy making. Research continues to show the influence of nursing leadership on patient satisfaction, patient mortality, medication errors, restraint use, and hospital-associated infections (HAIs).

Background A spatially unequal distribution of dentists or dental care professionals (D/DCPs), such as therapists or hygienists, could reduce the quality of health services and increase health inequities. This review describes the interventions available to enhance this spatial distribution and systematically assesses their effectiveness. Methods Electronic databases (Cochrane CENTRAL, Medline, Embase, CINAHL) were searched and cross-referencing was performed using a standardised searching algorithm. Randomised and non-randomised controlled trials, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series were included. Studies investigating a minimum of one of four interventions (educational, financial, regulatory and supportive) were included. The primary outcome was the spatial distribution of D/DCPs. Secondary outcomes were access, quality of services and equity or adverse effects. This review was registered (CRD42015026265). Results Of 4,885 articles identified, the full text of 201 was assessed and three (all investigating national policy interventions originally not aiming to change the distribution of D/DCPs) were included. In one Japanese study spanning 1980 to 2000, the unequal spatial distribution of dentists decreased alongside a general increase in the number of dentists. It remained unclear if these findings were associated. In a second Japanese study, an increase in the number of dentists was found in combination with a postgraduate training programme implemented in 2006, and this occurred alongside an increasingly unequal distribution of dentists, again without proof of cause and consequence. A third study from Taiwan found the introduction of a national universal-coverage health insurance to equalise the distribution of dentists, with statistical association between this equalisation and the introduction of the insurance. Conclusions The effectiveness of interventions to enhance the spatial distribution of D/DCPs remains unclear.

To describe the infrastructural differences in training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ObGyn) across Europe.Descriptive web-based survey of 31 national ObGyn trainee societies representing the 30 member countries of the European Network of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Answers were verified in a telephone interview and only countries which had completed the telephone interview were included in the final analysis.The final analysis included 28 of 31 societies representing 27 countries (response rate 90%). The median formal duration of training was 5 years (range 4-7). There were mandatory requirements in addition to medical school graduation before specialisation could be started in 20 (71%) countries. The job opportunities after completion of training varied and included academic fellowships (n=21 [75%]), clinical fellowships/junior consultancy (n=21 [75%]), consultancy (n=11 [40%]), and private practice (n=23 [82%)]. Training and working as a specialist abroad was uncommon (≤20% in 21 [78%] and 26 [96%] countries respectively). Exams during ObGyn training were offered in 24 (85%) countries. Unemployment after completion of training was rare (5% in 26 [93%] countries). Assessment of ObGyn specialists took place in 20 (71%) countries.The study illustrates that there are organisational variations in ObGyn training in Europe; A) The requirements to obtain a training post vary causing differences in the qualifications of trainees starting training. B) The duration of training varies. And C) newly trained specialists carry varying levels of responsibility. The results suggest that the content, organisation, and outcome of training differ across Europe. Differences due to political, social and cultural reasons are expected. However, further harmonisation of training across Europe still seems desirable in order to improve women's healthcare and facilitate the mobility of ObGyn trainees and specialists across Europe. There are currently several European initiatives, however, national and local measures are essential for training to improve.

This paper reports the uptake of graduate transition programmes, postgraduate study, travel intentions, and employment for 318 Australian and New Zealand graduate nurse respondents in the years 2010–2013. Nurses graduating from The University of Queensland, Massey University and University of Auckland were recruited into the survey. They completed the questionnaire electronically early in their first year of practice through the graduate e-cohort platform at www.graduates.e-cohort.net. New Zealand respondents had considerably better initial nursing employment prospects with 87.7% (n = 179) employed as nurses at the time of completing first survey compared to 57.9% (n = 66) Australians. Most employed nurses remained in their home country (Australian 98.5%, n = 65; New Zealand 96.1%, n = 172). Proportionally more New Zealanders were completing a graduate transition programme (95%, n = 170) compared to 77% (n = 51) of Australian respondents. A greater proportion of New Zealand respondents were also undertaking postgraduate education (59.8%, n = 122) compared to 10.3% (n = 12) Australian respondents. The majority of respondents worked in acute care hospitals (Australian 84.8%, n = 56; New Zealand 66.5%, n = 119), half had full-time permanent contracts (52.5%, n = 128). The primary health care sector employed greater numbers of New Zealand graduates (New Zealand 13.4%, n = 24; Australia 4.5%, n = 3). These results highlight differences in the availability of new graduate programmes, employment positions and postgraduate education opportunities between the countries. Workforce policy creating dedicated graduate positions along with supported post-graduate education influences graduate employment opportunities.

In pre-hospital health care the call center plays an important role in the coordination of emergency medical services (EMS). An EMS call center handles inbound requests for EMS and dispatches an ambulance if necessary. The time needed for triage and dispatch is part of the total response time to the request, which, in turn, is a key performance indicator for the quality of EMS. Call center agents should perform the triage efficiently, so that entering calls have short waiting times, and the dispatch of ambulances must be adequate and swift to get a fast EMS response. This paper presents and compares three discrete event simulation models for EMS call centers: the first has two different call center agent classes between whom communication tasks are split, while the second has one class of call center agents that share all tasks. The third model is a combination of both. The models provide new insight into the EMS call center processes and can be used to address strategic issues, such as capacity and workforce planning. The analysis and simulations of urgent communication and decision processes in this paper are valuable to other emergency call centers. 1

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a return on investment (ROI) based review of human resources based organizational data mining (HRODM). The objectives of this chapter are twofold: First, to offer an integrative analysis of the literature on the topic of HRODM to provide scholars and practitioners a comprehensive yet practical ROI-based view on the topic. Second, to provide practical implementation tools in order to assist decision makers concerning questions of whether and in which format to implement HRODM by highlighting specific directions as to where the expected ROI may be found. This chapter includes a four-step review and analysis methodology. The chapter provides theoretical and practical information for scholars and professionals aiming to study and adopt HRODM. The ROI-based approach to HRODM presented in this chapter provides a robust tool to compare and contrast different dilemma and associated value that can be derived from conducting the various types of HRODM projects. A framework is presented that aggregates the findings and clarifies how various HRODM tools influence ROI and how these relationships can be explained. Two examples are presented to demonstrate HRODM implementation.

Hazards from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, should be addressed in line with the EU Biological Agents Directive and by means of a strengthened centralised capacity of the European Union for the monitoring of and response to health emergencies. Mitigating and preventing the impact of the illness, COVID-19, should be done by classifying it as an occupational disease, ensuring the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing for health workers, and engaging workers in all aspects of ‘work organisation’. The coronavirus crisis, which is the result of the impact of the nexus of austerity/virus/illness on society at large, should trigger a transformative change in the care economy, leading to the valuing of care work, pay transparency, full acknowledgement of psychosocial risks such as violence and harassment in the world of work, measures to promote occupational health equity, sustainable health workforce planning and the inclusion of the currently absent gender aspect in EU legislation on occupational safety and health.

Professional service firms (PSFs) such as management consulting, law, accounting, investment banking, architecture, advertising and home-repair companies provide services for turnkey complicated projects. The operational tasks of such firms consists of first bidding for the project and, if successful in the bid, assigning employee resources to the project. In this paper we model this as a revenue management problem and develop a stochastic dynamic programming framework to aid the firm in their bidding and assignment process. We study this primarily under a quality-revelation model where the employees that would be assigned to the project are committed ex ante, as part of the bid. The win probability depends on the quoted price as well as the quality of the employees who would work on the project. We also consider a quality-reputation model where the bid’s win probability depends on past performance, say an average of the quality of past jobs. The problem is computationally challenging and we provide a series of bounds and solution methods to approximate the stochastic dynamic program. Based on our computational techniques we are able to address a number of interesting questions on utilization and the value of each employee type for a PSF. Our methodology provides management a toolkit for bidding on projects as well as to perform workforce analytics to determine optimal utilization levels and staffing decisions.