Workforce Assessment Calculator

Assess the role. Assess the person. Get a practical 8R workforce recommendation.

TalentChoice Workforce Assessment Calculator

Assess an employee and role against the TalentChoice 8R Workforce Planning Framework and generate practical workforce actions in minutes.

Employee Name

Employee Role

Department / Business Unit

Assess the Role

Answer 8 questions about how important the role is, how demand is changing and how the work could be delivered in future.

1 Business criticality

If this role was unavailable tomorrow, what would happen to the business?

Think about what would stop, fail or materially deteriorate across operations, customers, safety, compliance, revenue or service.

The business could continue with little or no material impact.

Some work would be delayed or redistributed, but the business could continue without major disruption.

Service, productivity or operational performance would be materially disrupted.

Losing this capability would create critical operational, customer, financial, safety or compliance consequences.

2 Strategic importance

How important will this role or capability be to where the business is going over the next 2–3 years?

Consider growth, transformation, customer strategy and whether this capability will matter more or less in the future.

The capability has limited relevance to the organisation’s future direction.

The capability will remain useful, but it is not central to future plans.

The capability will be important to achieving major business priorities.

The capability is fundamental to future growth, transformation or competitive advantage.

3 Future demand

What best describes the expected demand for this work over the next 2–3 years?

Focus on the future amount and pattern of work rather than only today’s headcount.

The amount of this work is expected to reduce materially.

Demand should remain broadly stable and predictable.

Demand is expected to increase and remain a sustained requirement.

Demand is likely to be seasonal, project-based, volatile or driven by short-term peaks.

4 Replacement difficulty

If someone left this role and it still needed to be filled, how difficult would it be to replace the capability?

Consider candidate availability, specialist skills, licences and how long a new person takes to become fully effective.

Suitable people are readily available and a replacement could become effective relatively quickly.

Candidates are available, but targeted recruitment and some role-specific learning would normally be required.

Suitable capability is limited and replacing it would require significant recruitment effort or time to competence.

The capability is highly scarce or specialised and would be extremely difficult or slow to replace.

5 Turnover and workforce stability

What best describes turnover and workforce stability in this role?

Consider whether the business is regularly replacing people in this role and whether turnover creates operational pressure.

People in this role rarely leave and the workforce is very stable.

Some normal turnover occurs, but vacancies and replacement activity are generally manageable.

Turnover regularly creates vacancies, replacement activity or operational pressure.

The role experiences persistent turnover and the business is frequently replacing capability.

6 AI and automation

How much could AI, automation or technology reduce the human effort currently required to perform this work?

Focus on actual tasks and labour hours. Technology can assist, release capacity or fundamentally change work without automatically removing the role.

Technology is unlikely to materially change the amount of human effort required.

Technology could assist with selected repetitive, administrative or analytical tasks, but overall workforce requirements would change little.

Technology could materially reduce the hours required or reshape a significant part of the work.

AI or automation could fundamentally change the delivery model or remove a large share of the current human effort.

7 Alternative delivery model

How realistically could this work be delivered through a different workforce or service model?

Consider contractors, labour hire, outsourcing, shared services, centralisation or other external/flexible delivery options.

The work needs to remain largely within the organisation and its current internal delivery model.

The core work should remain internal, but flexible or external capacity could support peaks or selected activities.

A significant portion of the work could be delivered through contractors, outsourcing, shared services or another operating model.

The work could be fundamentally restructured or delivered predominantly through a materially different model.

8 Backfill and role design

If this role became vacant tomorrow, what would be the most sensible response?

Challenge automatic replacement. Consider whether the work still needs the same role, could be redesigned, or should be absorbed differently.

The role would probably not need to be replaced because the work could be removed, absorbed or allowed to reduce through attrition.

The work would still be needed, but the role should be reviewed or redesigned before any replacement is approved.

The role would probably need to be replaced, although the capability or structure could be adjusted.

The role would need to be replaced in substantially its current form to protect business continuity or meet future demand.

Assess the Person

Answer 8 questions about the individual’s capability, retention risk, knowledge, development potential and future options.

1 Current capability

How effectively does this person currently perform the capability required from the role?

Use current job-relevant evidence. This assessment supports workforce planning and should not be used as an automatic adverse employment decision.

They are still developing against important requirements of the role.

They perform the core requirements of the role to the expected standard.

They consistently perform strongly and handle more complex requirements.

They demonstrate exceptional or specialist capability that materially strengthens delivery.

2 Market remuneration

How does this person’s remuneration appear to compare with the external market for comparable capability?

Use the best available benchmark for comparable work, capability and location. This is a workforce-planning signal, not an automatic pay decision.

Their remuneration appears materially below comparable market rates.

Their remuneration appears somewhat below comparable market rates.

Their remuneration appears broadly in line with the market.

Their remuneration appears above comparable market rates.

3 Individual retention risk

How likely is the organisation to lose this person if nothing changes over the next 12–24 months?

Consider market demand, pay, workload, career opportunity, manager feedback and other known retention pressures.

There are no material signs of elevated retention risk.

Some retention pressures exist, but they appear manageable.

Market demand, remuneration, workload, career factors or other evidence create meaningful retention exposure.

The person is at high risk of leaving or there is already clear evidence of a significant retention problem.

4 Knowledge, tenure and internal breadth

If this person left, how much valuable organisational knowledge and experience would leave with them?

Consider tenure, previous internal roles, business units, systems knowledge, customer relationships and how broadly they understand the organisation.

Their experience is mostly limited to the current role and the knowledge could be replaced relatively easily.

They hold useful organisational knowledge, but others could cover or rebuild most of it with manageable effort.

They have substantial tenure and/or experience across roles or areas of the business that would take significant time to replace.

They hold deep or unique organisational knowledge, relationships or cross-business experience that would be very difficult to replace.

5 Future capability fit

How well matched is this person’s current capability to how the role or business is expected to change?

Consider future skills, technology, operating-model change and whether their current capability will remain relevant.

The future requirement is likely to need substantially different capability from what they currently demonstrate.

Some important capability gaps will need to be addressed for them to remain well matched.

They are broadly well positioned for the future requirements, with only targeted development likely to be needed.

They already demonstrate much of the capability the future role or business will require.

6 Reskilling and cross-training

How realistically could this person be retrained, upskilled or cross-trained for capability the business will need?

Consider adjacent skills, learning agility, available training and whether the future requirement is realistically achievable.

The capability gap is too large or the future requirement is not a realistic fit for this person.

Development is possible, but it would require substantial time and investment.

They have adjacent skills and could transition with structured development or cross-training.

They are highly adaptable and could build the required capability relatively quickly.

7 Redeployment and mobility

How transferable is this person’s experience and capability to other roles or areas of the business?

Think beyond the current job title. Consider previous roles, transferable skills, organisational knowledge and realistic receiving roles.

Their capability is highly specific to the current role and there are few realistic internal alternatives.

Some skills could transfer to a limited number of adjacent roles.

Their skills and experience are relevant to several other roles, teams or business areas.

They have broad, portable capability and strong potential to move successfully across the organisation.

8 Succession and capability building

How valuable could this person be in building capability in others, succeeding into another role or supporting organisational continuity?

Consider succession potential, mentoring, backup coverage, leadership and their ability to transfer valuable knowledge to others.

There is limited evidence of succession, mentoring or broader capability value at present.

They could provide some backup or development support with guidance.

They could credibly mentor others, provide succession coverage or step into broader responsibility.

They are a strong succession, leadership or capability-building asset for the organisation.

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