Evaluation of the impact of strategic staff planning in a university using a MILP model

A mathematical model for optimising the strategic staff planning in universities is used to analyse the impact of different personnel and academic policies on the strategic staff plan, considering a preferable staff composition. The personnel policies are evaluated allowing or not the dismissals of permanent workers; the ratio of internal promotion for workers and the personnel budget. The academic policies are tested through the impact of different demand trends. Addressing the specificities of the university, the optimisation model considers not only economic criteria, i.e., personnel costs, but also other factors related to the fulfilment of the required service level and the achievement of a preferable workforce composition. Several computational scenarios are used, based on real data from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain). The results show the adjustment to the preferable workforce composition through the available mechanisms (dismissals, hiring and internal promotions). [Received 12 June 2015; Revised 24 November 2015; Revised 24 July 2016; Accepted 7 December 2016]