Toward Predictive Workforce Planning

Abstract

The workplace for operators engaged at the heart of traffic management centers (TMCs) has changed dramatically during the past 30 years. Current research indicates that today's requirements justify theoretically sound selection and training processes for these personnel. Through discussion of a three-stage study, this paper addresses how this workplace is changing. The first stage was to interview, by scenario analysis, 20 experts with industrial, administrative, research-centered, and operational backgrounds, about the factors that influence the workplace and the tasks of operators employed there. In the second stage, the experts were asked to rate the consistency and probability of the top 10 influencing factors. In the third stage, the most consistent probable scenario was presented to 17 personnel working in TMCs. The operators were asked to rate the perceived requirements of the scenario with an enhanced version of the Fleishman Job Analysis Survey. These results, then compared with earlier research, indicated a general increase of requirements and a change in the character of the job; operators will be asked to judge and make decisions instead of monitoring traffic flow. This change will lead to an increase of all decision-related requirements, most notably, cognitive, interactive, and social requirements will increase.