The Economics of Manpower Pooling

Formal manpower planning has received increasing attention in recent years. This paper considers the problem of establishing a manpower policy for defined skill categories in the face of uncertain demands. At one extreme an organization might hire and fire personnel as the demand for their services varies over time. Alternatively, the work force might be held constant at a predetermined level and supplemented with overtime or subcontracting when manpower demand exceeds the supply. Models representing these two strategies are developed and compared. Examples are presented to illustrate their economic implications, and several simple rules of thumb are derived to guide manpower policy decisions.