Method

Purpose

Interviews

We conducted 34 semi-structured interviews with staff in the Department and other stakeholders.

To understand the Department's approach to planning and implementing headcount reductions, and to understand how workforce change fits into wider Departmental change.

Document review

We reviewed a variety of papers from the Department covering key issues regarding the headcount reduction and associated financial savings, and transformation documents related to the workforce. These included Board minutes and papers, monitoring reports and planning briefings.

To understand the current position of the Department's plans for reducing headcount and associated savings.

Case study of submariners

Developed using semi-structured interviews with relevant personnel and document review.

To highlight the complexity in workforce planning, and exemplify issues that need considering during workforce planning.

Financial and quantitative data analysis

To understand the Department's plans for reducing headcount and associated financial savings by considering costs and savings of plans, timings of personnel releases and impact of timings on savings, and assumptions underpinning the plans.

We also used staff surveys to understand the impact the Department's transformation was having on staff satisfaction.