Workload assignment with training, hiring and firing

Abstract

This article discusses a workload allocation model in which tasks are matched to employees on the basis of a multi-dimensional skill measure. The main idea is to match positions and tasks to available and potential positions so as to minimize the differences in individuals’ abilities and skill requirements. In addition to allocating existing personnel to positions, it is also possible to fire employees and hire new employees. The objectives of the mixed-integer optimization model include different types of costs and the proximity of an individual's capabilities to a task's ability requirements. A number of policies are formulated that allow different combinations of retraining of employees, as well as hiring and firing. These policies are applied to a real-life example that is solved by means of the constraint method. A variety of sensitivity analyses demonstrate the usefulness of the approach as a decision aid.

Keywords:

• staff assignment
• workload allocation
• ability space
• job satisfaction
• multi-objective optimization

Acknowledgements

This article was in part supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under grant #9160. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The second author thanks DICTUC S.A. for permission to use data in computational experiments, as well as grant FONDECYT 1070741.