RBGE Strategic workforce review (plan, design and undertake)

In the future, RBGE will be operating in a vastly different landscape, and as a result we will need to adapt and learn how to:

successfully navigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in ensuring business recovery through to resilience operations;

adopt changes in working practices as we embed a permanent hybrid physical and digital (phygital) working model as the nature of our work becomes increasingly fluid and “work from anywhere” practices for knowledge-based workers increases in popularity;

drive forward our ambitions articulated in our new 5-year Corporate and 9-year Science and Biodiversity strategies to respond to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change;

shape the future of skills and expertise needed in plant research, education, and horticulture to remain at the forefront of Botanical Science and Learning, especially with the growth and disruption of digital learning models on conventional educational provision, and our plans to launch a virtual biodiversity skills centre;

deliver our GBP 70m Edinburgh Biomes 7-year capital project, the most significant project in the Garden’s 351 years history to protect RBGE’s unique and globally important plant collections for the future; and

increase financial resilience through income diversification and growth, effective cost management, and potentially become less reliant on public funds.

To be successful this will require identification of what workforce structure, skills, capabilities, and mindsets will be essential to RBGE in the future; we see this as being achieved through a strategic workforce review followed by a strategic workforce development plan and linked to our new people strategy.

The review will include a clear understanding of the purpose and direction of RBGE: how each division contributes to the organisation’s purpose; and the relationships between divisions. The review will assess strengths and opportunities unique to RBGE, and will determine how the organisation is currently designed to achieve its purpose and strategic aims through assessing the current workforce design against eight guiding principles; and provide specific outputs around future requirements to ensure the appropriate talent, skills, capacity and knowledge are available within our workforce over the next 5 – 10 years.