Staff Forecasting Study Services

The Vendor is required to provide this study is to evaluate current and future staffing needs to ensure city light is optimally resourced to achieve its operational, strategic, and service delivery goals over the next ten (10) years.
- This includes benchmarking against industry standards and comparable electric utilities to identify where current practices and staffing levels align with or deviate from established norms.
- Industry norms around methodology and staffing forecasting tools.
- Requirements:
•    Conduct a comprehensive current-state organizational and staffing assessment.
•    Perform benchmarking with comparable electric utilities.
•    Conduct future-state modeling, forecasting, and scenario planning.
•    Deliver concise, data-driven reports and executive-level presentations.
•    Provide scalable methodologies and tools suitable for a public utility.
•    Demonstrate ability to conduct stakeholder engagement (interviews, focus groups, surveys).
- Current State Assessment
•    Evaluate the current organizational structure, staffing levels, and span of control
•    Analyze existing roles, responsibilities, and workload distribution
•    Identify skill gaps and critical positions
•    Identify functional overlaps and misalignments across teams to reveal where similar tasks are fragmented throughout the organization.
•    Review vacancy trends, turnover rates, and projected retirements
•    Conduct a high-level assessment of operational workflows to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and redundancies, and evaluate how these processes affect staffing
•    Identify opportunities for process improvement and automation to better align with staffing needs.
•    Assess alignment with organizational priorities.
- Future Needs Forecasting
o    Anticipated retirements and attrition
o    Planned capital projects and strategic initiatives
o    Regulatory or policy changes
o    Advancements in technology, process efficiencies, and modern workforce practices
- Industry Benchmarking and Comparative Analysis
•    Identify and engage with comparable electric utilities (based on size, function, service territory, and governance)
•    Collect and analyze benchmarking data related to:
o    Organizational structure and staffing ratios
o    Job classifications and role types
o    Span of control, management layers, and workforce distribution
o    Workforce productivity and performance metrics
o    Vacancy rates, turnover, and time-to-fill benchmarks
•    Assess how Seattle City Light compares to industry peers in terms of:
o    Staffing levels by function (e.g., generation, transmission, distribution, customer service, engineering, environmental/clean energy, and administrative functions)
o    Use of contract or contingent labor
o    Strategic workforce practices (e.g., succession planning, training, automation)
•    Use insights to inform target staffing levels, role design, and long-term workforce planning
- Gap Analysis
•    Compare the current workforce state with future projected needs, considering expected retirements, attrition, planned capital projects, strategic initiatives, regulatory or policy changes, and technological or process advancements that may impact labor demand.
•    Identify gaps in staffing levels, skills, and role capacity
•    Assess risk areas related to understaffing, overstaffing, or misaligned resources
- Role Alignment and Optimization
•    Recommend adjustments to role definitions, classifications, or spans of control
•    Identify opportunities to streamline, consolidate, or sunset roles
•    Evaluate potential for automation, partnerships, or workforce re-skilling
- Stakeholder Engagement and Validation
•    Conduct interviews, focus groups, and/or surveys with leaders
•    Validate key findings and recommendations through cross-functional review
•    Ensure alignment with People and Culture, Finance, and Strategic Planning functions

- Questions/Inquires Deadline: February 12, 2026