A non-parametric competing risks model for manpower planning

One of the most important variables for manpower planners is duration until a specified event occurs. This is frequently the completed length of service until leaving a job, but may also include such variables as length of service in a grade until promotion, or length of a spell of withdrawal from the labour force. In this paper we develop non‐parametric maximum likelihood estimators for the survivor functions of length of stay in a grade until leaving for a number of different possible destinations. Since the data are statistically incomplete, including right censored and left truncated durations, as well as complete durations, we must modify the competing risks theory in the biostatistical literature to take such incompleteness into account. Right censored durations arise when the individual is still in the grade when data collection ceases and left truncated durations when the individual is already in service when data collection commences. The competing risks model is fitted to data for Northern Ireland nursing service and used to predict staff flows between grades. We may thus estimate future movements within the system and predict the future manpower stocks.