CMI 512 Assignment Example

Every organisation needs skilled people with the right behaviours to help them reach their goals. In competitive settings, finding the right people for the right roles at the right time remains challenging.

Ashgrove Insurance Limited is a United Kingdom general insurer providing motor, home and small commercial cover, employing 3,400 people. Around 2,100 work in customer service, claims handling and underwriting support across three sites, with the remainder in pricing, actuarial, technology, finance and other specialist functions. The business has committed to reducing operating expenses by 12 per cent over three years while raising customer satisfaction, and is deploying automation and machine learning across claims triage and first-line service. The author is Head of Resource and Workforce Planning. Organisational detail is illustrative and anonymised.

Introduction

Ashgrove faces the workforce planning problem now common across financial services: demand for its highest-volume roles is falling as automation absorbs routine work, demand for scarce technical and analytical roles is rising, and the two populations are not interchangeable. Planning in this environment is less about forecasting headcount than about managing a transition between two different workforces while continuing to answer the telephone. This report examines the rationale for planning, the obstacles to it, the models and data that support it, the relationship between objectives and flexible working, and presents a workforce plan.

Task 1: Report on the rationale for workforce planning

AC 1.1 Analyse the rationale for workforce planning within organisations

Aligning capability with strategic intent. The primary rationale is that strategy is delivered by people, and a strategy requiring capability the organisation does not hold is an aspiration. Analysing Ashgrove’s position, the expense reduction commitment assumes automation will absorb volume, and that assumption fails unless the workforce is reshaped in parallel rather than reduced indiscriminately.

Managing transition rather than headcount. Analysing what distinguishes this case, the organisation does not simply need fewer people; it needs a different distribution. Roughly 380 first-line service roles are expected to disappear while approximately 140 data, technology and complex-claims roles are created. Planning determines whether those are two separate events, one costly redundancy and one difficult recruitment, or a single managed redeployment.

Cost management. Analysing the financial rationale, workforce cost is the largest controllable expense in a service business, and unplanned reduction is expensive: redundancy payments, lost knowledge and subsequent re-recruitment frequently exceed the savings claimed.

Service continuity and customer outcomes. Analysing the operational rationale, understaffing in claims and service produces queues, complaints and regulatory attention, and in an environment where the firm must evidence good customer outcomes, capacity is a compliance matter as well as a service one.

Regulatory expectation of resourcing adequacy. Analysing a rationale distinctive to regulated financial services, the firm is expected to demonstrate that it is adequately resourced to deliver the outcomes it promises customers. Capacity shortfalls that produce claims delays are not simply a service failure; they attract regulatory attention and require explanation. Workforce planning therefore forms part of the evidence base the firm relies on to show its commitments are deliverable rather than aspirational.

Retaining scarce capability. Analysing the supply-side rationale, actuarial, pricing and data science skills are scarce and expensive, and the organisation competes for them with technology firms and banks rather than with other insurers. Losing one such specialist has a disproportionate effect.

Employee experience and trust during change. Analysing a rationale easily overlooked, an announced automation programme without a visible workforce plan generates insecurity across the whole workforce rather than only among those affected. Evidence links supportive, capable people management to commitment and reduced absence (Barends, Rousseau and Janssen, 2023), and uncertainty is corrosive to both.

AC 1.2 Assess challenges which influence workforce planning

Uncertainty about the pace and reach of automation. Assessing the central difficulty, the organisation can forecast which tasks are automatable more confidently than when the technology will perform reliably at scale. Planning on an optimistic timeline leaves the business short of people; planning on a pessimistic one carries costs the expense commitment does not permit.

Non-interchangeability of the two populations. Assessing a challenge specific to this transition, a claims handler whose role is automated is not readily a data engineer. Some will retrain into complex claims or quality assurance roles; few will move into technical functions. Treating the two movements as a net figure conceals this and produces a plan that cannot be executed.

Data fragmentation and definition. Assessing a practical obstacle, headcount, full-time equivalent and contracted hours are recorded differently across systems, and the workforce planning number does not reconcile to the finance number. Planning conversations then become arguments about which figure is correct.

Forecasting demand in a volatile environment. Assessing this challenge, claims volumes respond to weather events, economic conditions and pricing decisions, so demand carries genuine variance. A single-point forecast will be wrong; the useful question is how wrong it can be and what capacity buffer that implies.

Skills scarcity in the growth roles. Assessing external supply, the technical roles the organisation needs are scarce nationally, and recruiting them at pace competes directly with the expense reduction the plan is meant to deliver.

Short planning horizons and internal capability. Assessing an organisational obstacle, business planning runs on an annual cycle while the workforce transition runs over three years, so the plan must survive annual budget rounds that will each be tempted to defer investment in retraining. Analytical capability is also limited: national data indicates most managers reach their roles without formal preparation of this kind (Chartered Management Institute, 2023).

Assessing which challenge binds. Taken together, these obstacles are not equally severe. Data definition problems are irritating and solvable within months. Automation timing uncertainty is genuine and cannot be resolved by better analysis, only accommodated through reversible decisions. The binding constraint is retraining uptake, because the entire redeployment case rests on a behavioural assumption the organisation has never tested, and if uptake falls materially below expectation the plan converts from managed transition into compulsory redundancy.

Employee and representative response. Assessing this challenge, a plan involving role reduction requires consultation, and a plan perceived as concealing redundancy behind the language of transformation will be resisted and will lose the redeployment participation it depends on.

Task 2: Report on the principles and practices of workforce planning

AC 2.1 Evaluate the use of theoretical models in workforce planning

Lepak and Snell’s human resource architecture. This model classifies employment according to two dimensions, the strategic value of the human capital involved and its uniqueness to the organisation, producing four employment modes: internal development for capability that is both valuable and unique; acquisition for capability that is valuable but widely available; contracting for capability that is neither; and alliance or partnership for capability that is unique but of limited direct strategic value.

Evaluating its use at Ashgrove, the model’s strength is that it converts a single question about headcount into a more useful question about how each type of capability should be sourced. Applied to the transition, complex claims judgement is valuable and firm-specific, so internal development is the appropriate mode and redeployment is therefore the right response to automation. Data engineering is valuable but not firm-specific, so acquisition from the external market is appropriate. Routine first-line handling is neither, which is precisely why it is being automated. The model explains the transition rather than merely counting it.

Its limitations are that the categories are cleaner in theory than in practice, that placement depends on judgements about strategic value that reasonable people contest, and that it offers no guidance on timing, which is the organisation’s central difficulty.

Talent segmentation and pivotal roles. Associated with Boudreau and Ramstad, this approach argues that workforce investment should be concentrated where variation in performance has the greatest effect on organisational outcomes, rather than distributed evenly. A pivotal role is one where the difference between adequate and excellent performance produces disproportionate value.

Evaluating its application, the approach is analytically useful because it resists the assumption that all roles warrant equal planning attention. At Ashgrove, pricing analysts are pivotal in this sense: variation in pricing quality moves the loss ratio materially, whereas variation among first-line handlers, within acceptable bounds, does not. This justifies concentrating retention and development investment on a small population.

Its weaknesses require honest statements. The approach can be read as licensing neglect of non-pivotal staff, which is both ethically questionable and operationally unwise given that those staff deliver the customer experience the organisation has committed to improving. Identifying pivotal roles also requires performance variation data that few organisations hold reliably.

Comparative evaluation. The two operate at different points. Lepak and Snell answers how each capability should be sourced; talent segmentation answers where investment should be concentrated. Used together they produce a plan that is differentiated rather than uniform. Neither addresses the sequencing problem that automation timing creates, which remains a matter of scenario planning rather than model application.

AC 2.2 Examine the use of data and information to determine human resource need

Demand-side operational data. Contact and claim volumes by type, handling times, service level targets and shrinkage covering absence, training and breaks convert directly into a resource requirement through established volume-based staffing calculations. Examining the sensitivity of this, the requirement is highly responsive to average handling time, and automation raises rather than lowers it, because the simple contacts are absorbed first and what remains is more complex.

Automation impact data. Task-level analysis of which activities are automatable, deployment timelines and observed containment rates from live deployment. Examining what matters most, the observed rate from a running pilot is worth considerably more than a vendor projection, and the plan should be built on the former.

Supply-side internal data. Headcount and full-time equivalent by role and site, tenure and age profile, skills and qualification records, internal mobility history, and turnover rates by role and tenure band. Examining the diagnostic value of turnover data, attrition concentrated in the first year indicates selection or induction problems, while attrition among experienced technical staff indicates reward or market pressure.

Capability and potential data. Assessment of which current staff could realistically retrain into which growth roles. Examining why this is the most important and least available dataset, the entire redeployment case rests on it, and most organisations discover only when the programme begins that they do not know who could move where.

External data. Labour market conditions for technical roles, salary benchmarking, and sector workforce trends. Examining the limitation, external benchmarks describe the market but cannot determine the organisation’s response, which depends on its own cost position.

Qualitative information. Manager judgement about capability and intention, employee expressions of interest in retraining, and representative feedback on how proposals are being received. Examining why this is necessary, retraining participation is a choice, and a plan assuming uptake without testing it will overstate redeployment.

Governance and lawfulness. Examining the requirement, planning data includes personal information processed under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, and where automated analysis contributes to decisions affecting individuals, the basis and safeguards require particular care.

AC 2.3 Examine the impact of organisational objectives on flexible employment practices

The objectives in question. Ashgrove has committed to reducing operating expense by 12 per cent, raising customer satisfaction, and deploying automation across service and claims. Examining the interaction, the first pushes towards a smaller and more contingent workforce, the second requires experienced staff who resolve matters at first contact, and the third makes demand less predictable during transition.

Handy’s shamrock organisation. The model describes an organisation composed of three parts: a professional core of essential, firm-specific staff; a contractual fringe of specialists and suppliers engaged for defined work; and a flexible labour force engaged to meet variable demand.

Examining its application, Ashgrove maps onto this readily. Underwriting, pricing, complex claims and technology form the core and should be employed and developed. Specialist programme and data capability required for the transition itself is finite in duration and suits contractual engagement. Seasonal and event-driven claims surges suit a flexible pool. Examining the strategic implication, the objectives push different populations in different directions, which is precisely what the model predicts and what a single uniform employment policy cannot accommodate.

The impact of objectives on specific practices. Examining each, the expense objective favours a smaller permanent establishment supplemented by contingent capacity, which reduces fixed cost. The satisfaction objective works against this, because contingent staff take longer to reach competence and resolve fewer matters at first contact, so over-reliance on them defeats the second objective while achieving the first. The automation objective favours retaining flexibility during a period when demand is genuinely uncertain.

Examining the resolution, the honest position is that the objectives conflict and the balance must be stated rather than assumed. The plan below holds the permanent establishment for complex work while using annualised hours and a trained flexible pool to absorb variability, accepting a slightly higher cost than pure contingency in exchange for protecting the satisfaction commitment.

The psychological contract. Examining a constraint that flexibility models understate, changes to employment security alter the unwritten expectations between employer and employee. Introducing contingent arrangements alongside a redundancy programme signals to remaining staff that their own security has changed, and the discretionary effort the satisfaction objective depends on is given by people who feel secure enough to give it.

Other practices. Hybrid and remote working has widened the recruitment radius for technical roles materially and is now a competitive necessity rather than a benefit. Part-time and annualised arrangements support both cost management and retention among staff with caring responsibilities. Each requires consultation where terms change.

AC 2.4 Develop a workforce plan to meet organisational objectives

Aim. To deliver a 12 per cent reduction in workforce operating expense over three years while raising first-contact resolution, by managing a transition from routine handling capacity towards complex-claims and technical capability, with redeployment as the primary mechanism.

Baseline. Total headcount 3,400; first-line service and routine claims 1,240; complex claims 410; technical and analytical 290; projected automation impact 380 routine roles over three years; projected new requirement 140 technical and complex roles; voluntary turnover 16 per cent in routine roles and 9 per cent in technical roles.

Assumptions. Automation containment reaches 34 per cent of routine contacts by year three based on observed pilot performance; natural turnover continues at current rates; retraining uptake of 45 per cent among eligible staff.

Objective	Action	Measure	Timescale	Owner
Reduce routine capacity without compulsory redundancy	Recruitment freeze in routine roles, allowing 16 per cent annual turnover to reduce headcount	Routine headcount against trajectory	Years 1 to 3	Resourcing
Build complex-claims capability from within	Retraining pathway for 180 staff into complex claims and quality assurance	Completions; competence sign-off	Years 1 to 3	Claims Director
Acquire scarce technical capability	External recruitment of 90 data, pricing and technology roles, supported by hybrid working	Time to fill; offer acceptance rate	Years 1 to 3	Resourcing
Retain pivotal staff	Targeted reward review and development for pricing and actuarial roles	Turnover in pivotal roles, target 9 to 6 per cent	Year 1	Head of Reward
Protect service during transition	Trained flexible pool and annualised hours to absorb claims surges	First-contact resolution; service level attainment	Years 1 to 3	Operations
Maintain trust and voice	Structured consultation, published transition timeline, expression-of-interest process	Consultation completed; retraining uptake	Continuous	People Director
Keep the plan current	Quarterly reforecast against observed automation performance	Plan reissued; variance to forecast	Quarterly	Workforce Planning

Risks. Automation may underperform the pilot, leaving the business short of capacity after headcount has reduced, which the recruitment freeze mechanism partly mitigates by being reversible. Retraining uptake may fall below 45 per cent, increasing compulsory redundancy exposure. Technical recruitment may prove slower than assumed, delaying benefits.

Monitoring. Monthly reporting on headcount trajectory, service levels and retraining progress; quarterly reforecast; annual review of the underlying assumptions with the executive.

Conclusion

The analysis established that Ashgrove’s requirement is not a reduction in headcount but a managed transition between two workforces that are not interchangeable, and that treating the two movements as a single net figure produces a plan that cannot be executed. The assessment of challenges identified uncertainty about automation timing as the central difficulty, compounded by fragmented data definitions and by an annual planning cycle that will repeatedly be tempted to defer the retraining investment on which the plan depends.

Lepak and Snell’s architecture and talent segmentation were evaluated as complementary, the first determining how each capability should be sourced and the second where investment should concentrate, with the honest caveat that segmentation can license neglect of the staff who deliver the customer experience the organisation has committed to improving. The examination of data identified capability and retraining potential as the most consequential and least available dataset.

The examination of flexible practice found the stated objectives to be in genuine conflict, with cost pushing towards contingency and customer satisfaction pushing against it, and the plan resolves this explicitly rather than pretending both can be maximised. Redeployment through natural turnover is adopted as the primary mechanism because it is reversible, which is the appropriate response to a forecast the organisation knows to be uncertain.

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2023) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. 16th edn. London: Kogan Page.

Barends, E., Rousseau, D. and Janssen, B. (2023) People managers: an evidence review. Scientific summary. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2022) Strategy and human resource management. 5th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Buchanan, D.A. and Huczynski, A.A. (2023) Organizational behaviour. 11th edn. Harlow: Pearson.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2025) CIPD Good Work Index 2025: survey report. London: CIPD.

Chartered Management Institute (2023) Taking responsibility: why UK plc needs better managers. London: CMI.

Chartered Management Institute (2026) Highlights: 13 May. CMI Knowledge and Insights. Available at: https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/article/highlights-13-may/ (Accessed: 15 August 2026).

Data Protection Act 2018, c. 12. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12 (Accessed: 15 August 2026).

Mullins, L.J. (2022) Management and organisational behaviour. 12th edn. Harlow: Pearson.

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