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.
The role is responsible for delivering efficient utilisation of our workforce while ensuring coverage is consistent, breaks are protected, and staff roster retain maximal certainty.
The role also supports workforce optimisation across Content Experience & Distribution (CXD), contributing to potential shared resourcing initiatives.
The role partners with editorial and operations leadership to understand demand, and with Team Managers to align competency/sign-off coverage and training plans.
To increase elasticity, the role builds and leads a resilient freelancer network – expanding the community, streamlining onboarding and compliance, and ensuring transparent utilisation and cost reporting – so supply can flex for peaks without compromising policy or fairness.
Finally, the role assesses and improves the booking landscape by specifying, selecting and adopting booking systems and automation that simplify demand capture, roster build and confirmations while reducing manual effort and errors across end-to-end resource management.
What you’ll do
Key Responsibilities
* 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
Ways of Working
* Communicate workforce truth in plain English; explain drivers, options and impacts clearly and consistently
* Work collaboratively with Team Managers, the Head of Workforce Management and the Head of Playout Operations; recognise great practice and coach improvements
* Balance people wellbeing, service quality and cost; use evidence to drive fair decisions; maintain planning independence while being collaborative
* Model tidy documentation and disciplined change control for roster rules, booking processes and compliance artefacts
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 and 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
* Sky Q, for the TV you love all in one place
* The magic of Sky Glass at an exclusive rate
* A generous pension package
* Private healthcare
* Discounted mobile and broadband
* A wide range of Sky 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 a hybrid working approach with 3 days a week onsite in Osterley campus.
Your office space:
Osterley:
Our Osterley Campus is a 10‑minute walk from Syon Lane train station. Or you can hop on one of our free shuttle buses that run to and from Osterley, Gunnersbury, Ealing Broadway and South Ealing tube stations. There’s also plenty of bike shelters and showers.
On campus, you’ll find 13 subsidised restaurants, cafés, and a Waitrose. You can keep in shape at our subsidised gym, catch the latest shows and movies at our cinema, get your car washed and even get pampered at our beauty salon.
Just so you know: if your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a criminal record check. And depending on the role you have applied for and the nature of any convictions you may have, we might have to withdraw the offer.
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