Abstract for: Supporting Long-term Personnel Planning of a Service Provider

The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate, how a dynamic aging chain model can support strategic decisions in personnel planning. More specifically, we use a system dynamics model to improve the recruitment and training process in a large German service provider in the wider field of logistics. The key findings are that the aging chain of service operators within the company is affected by a variety of delays, for instance for training, promotion, and ordering of personnel, and that the structure of the planning process generates cyclic phases of personnel surplus and shortage. The discussion is based on an in-depth case study, which was conducted in the service company in 2008. Implications are that planning processes have to be fine-tuned to account for delays in the aging chain; the simulation model provides a tool for gaining insights into the problem and for improving the actual human resource planning process.