Workforce Planning Manager

Job Description

The Workforce Planning Manager provides a single, trusted view of demand, capacity, skills and readiness sign-off for Playout and converts it into fair, predictable rosters that keep colleagues healthy and services ready. The role makes the workforce picture simple and reliable for leaders and operators, turning data into clear plans and timely action.

What you'll do

• Own the demand-supply picture for Playout; forecast demand; map capacity, skills and readiness sign-off; surface risks, constraints and options
• Design and govern roster rules and patterns for fairness, predictability and coverage; protect breaks and rostering certainty
• Build and publish rotas to agreed timelines; manage day-of-change and backfill according to rules
• Partner with Team Managers to plan training and assessments; maintain competency coverage
• Model scenarios for peaks, events and change; agree contingency plans and cost/coverage trade-offs with stakeholders and the Head of Workforce Management
• Run a concise KPI set and a simple dashboard (e.g., utilisation efficiency, roster stability, time-to-backfill, competency coverage, overtime & freelance usage)
• Grow and curate a freelancer community for Playout; maintain accurate profiles (skills, sign-off, rates, availability) and satisfaction signals
• Own freelancer onboarding and compliance with HR/Legal/Procurement
• Establish clear timesheeting and approvals; ensure accurate cost allocation and budget tracking
• Own the requirements for booking systems across demand, supply and confirmations; lead vendor assessment with other departments; run small pilots and plan adoption (training, quick references, policy updates)
• Keep patterns, rules and references current; capture lessons with Playout Capability Management, Operational Analysis and Operational Insight so skills plans and rosters improve continuously

What you'll bring

Essential

• Hands-on roster ownership in broadcast or comparable high-reliability environment
• Proven management of a large freelance community (sourcing, relationships, communications and issue resolution)
• Experience onboarding freelancers at pace with robust compliance
• Ownership of timesheeting and approval processes with accurate cost allocation budget tracking
• Experience specifying, selecting and adopting booking systems and streamlining resource-management workflows (requirements, testing and adoption)
• Strong scheduling tool proficiency; able to produce and present utilisation and financial reporting to stakeholders
• Familiarity with rate-card governance, vendor frameworks and contract hygiene
• Calm, fair communicator who can collaborate effectively across operational, content and support departments

Desirable

• Working knowledge of skills/competency frameworks and training scheduling and their impact on go-live readiness

The rewards

• [Employer hidden — view at passion-project.co.uk] Q, for the TV you love all in one place
• The magic of [Employer hidden] Glass at an exclusive rate
• A generous pension package
• Private healthcare
• Discounted mobile and broadband
• A wide range of [Employer hidden] VIP rewards and experiences

Inclusion & how you'll work

We are a Disability Confident Employer, and welcome and encourage applications from all candidates. We will look to ensure a fair and consistent experience for all, and will make reasonable adjustments to support you where appropriate. Please flag any adjustments you need to your recruiter as early as you can.

We’ve embraced hybrid working and split our time between unique office spaces and the convenience of working from home. For this role we offer the hybrid working approach with 3 days a week onsite in Osterley campus.