Effective workforce lifecycle management via system dynamics modeling and simulation

TLDR

Efficiently planning and managing is a challenge for many companies, especially in the service industry, where the goal is to recruit, develop, and deploy the right people at the right places and times to meet organizational and individual objectives. This paper proposes a novel workforce supply concept that addresses management issues by integrating project management (demand side) and human resource management (supply side). The authors employ System Dynamics modeling to capture causal relationships and feedback loops in the workforce supply chain, leveraging system thinking. Simulation results reveal dynamic behavior of the management system and demonstrate how adaptive control can be applied to improve workforce lifecycle management.

Abstract

Efficiently planning and managing is a challenge imposed on many companies, especially for those in the service industry. The target of an effective management is to recruit, develop and deploy the right people at the right places at the right times to fulfill both organizational and individual objectives. In this paper, we propose a novel concept of workforce supply to address the management issue by considering both the demand side issue, i. e., project management, and the supply side issue, i. e., the human resource management. We then use System Dynamics modeling technique to capture the causality relationships and feedback loops in the supply chain with the merit of system thinking. The evaluation of System Dynamics-based simulation exposes dynamic behavior and management system and shows how adaptive control can be applied to such system.