IT Workforce Planning Strategies

2026 planning starts now. If I were leading talent for a company heading into next year with a goal to grow 25–30%, here’s how I’d approach workforce planning and hiring strategy: 1. Stress-test the plan against reality Start with the basics: how did headcount actually translate into outcomes this year? If revenue grew 20% but we grew headcount by 40%, something’s off. Check the ratios that matter: - Revenue per employee - Time to productivity for new hires - Retention and internal mobility rates Not chasing headcount , chasing capability. 2. Map what we actually need Don’t start with “how many people.” Start with “what problems need solving.” For each function, define the real goal: faster pipeline conversion, lower churn, better enablement. From there, decide: - What skills and roles drive that? - What’s core vs. what’s experimental? - What’s better solved with tech, process, or training instead of a new hire? 3. Rebuild the hiring engine Recruiting velocity has to match the plan. If your average time-to-hire is 60–90 days, you’re already hiring for Q2 by January. Set up: - Clear ownership of the top 20 critical roles - Real candidate pipeline coverage (3–5x for high-impact hires) - Early alignment with finance and function leads so budgets and headcount match 4. Invest in retention as a growth lever The cheapest headcount is the one you don’t lose. Track People Efficiency = the combination of retention, internal promotion, and time-to-impact. Raising that number is often more valuable than another round of hiring. 5. Reward impact, not activity Your best recruiters and hiring managers will always deliver disproportionate results. Give them the tools, data, and recognition to focus on quality and value, not just speed. Measure success by: - Hiring plan attainment - New-hire performance and retention - Reduction in regretted attrition 6. Align, communicate, simplify TA has to sit inside the commercial conversation, not outside it. Know how hiring connects to the board plan, to ARR, and to margin. How are you gearing up for 2026?

People ask me regularly: "Is your job impacted by AI?" My answer is always the same. As long as there are people in organisations, we need People Strategy. But the more interesting question is this: Are companies integrating AI the right way? What I see most often is AI being treated as a productivity fix. A cost-cutting lever. A way to do more with fewer people. And we have already seen where that leads. Companies that let people go to "leverage AI" only to quietly rehire six months later because the work still needed doing, still by humans. That is not a strategy. That is a reaction. The real question AI forces us to ask is a capability question. And capability planning is not an HR exercise. It starts at the top, with the CEO, and it follows a sequence most companies skip entirely. It starts with where the company is going. What does the business look like in 12 months? What does it deliver, how does it operate, what does success look like? You cannot plan your people or your technology without answering this first. From there you define your capability needs. In order to operate at that level and deliver those results, what does the organisation need to be able to do? This is where the conversation with heads of department becomes essential. They know where the gaps are. Then comes the sourcing strategy. For each capability gap, what is the best way to resource it? Internal or external. Full-time or part-time. Project-based or long-term. Human, tech, or AI. This is the step where AI belongs in the conversation. Not as the default answer, but as one option among several, evaluated against the actual need. Only after all of that do you get to manpower planning (how many people do you actually need to hire). And alongside it, a tech and AI plan for everything else. My advise: get a talent review built in: who is at risk of leaving, who would put the business at risk if they did, and what is the contingency plan for those. People Strategy and AI Strategy are not separate conversations. They are the same conversation, and they need to happen together, in sequence, starting with the business. That is what strategic workforce planning looks like. Everything else is just reacting to the cost line. #PeopleStrategy #AI #OrganisationDesign #FounderTips #FromZeroTo1000

Workforce Planning (WP). Here's my cheat sheet for using aspects of scenario planning for WP. Many WP efforts still operate as static, once-a-year exercises often built around a single business scenario. But what if that scenario doesn't happen? My cheat sheet has examples to help you think through: 👉 BUSINESS CONTEXT 1/ Business Scenarios ↳ What plausible business scenarios might we face over the next 24 months? 2/ Scenario Assumptions ↳ What evidence, assumptions, data, or trends suggest these scenarios are likely and worth planning for? 3/ Scenario Triggers ↳ What leading indicators would suggest a scenario is more likely to occur? 4/ Scenario Business Impact ↳ How would each scenario affect business goals (e.g., growth, sales)? 5/ Base Scenario (Most Likely) ↳ Which scenario do we believe is most likely to happen? What are we basing this on? 👉 TALENT IMPLICATIONS 6/ Plan for Base Scenario ↳ For our base business scenario (what we expect), what are the key aspects of the workforce plan? 7/ Directional Plan for Alternate Scenarios ↳ For each alternate scenario, what directional adjustments would be required in our base plan? 8/ Common Talent Themes ↳ Are there shared or common talent-related needs or risks that appear across multiple scenarios? 9/ Common Talent Actions ↳ What talent actions will be required across all of our possible scenarios? (Helps prioritize shared actions.) 👉 EXECUTION FACTORS 10/ Decision Triggers ↳ Based on the scenario triggers, what thresholds would indicate we should begin shifting from the base plan to an alternate one? (Helps get a head start). 11/ Risk Mitigation ↳ What talent-related risks are introduced by each scenario, and how can we mitigate them proactively? 12/ Communications Needs ↳ What communications guidance would different stakeholders need under each scenario? 13/ Key Stakeholders ↳ Who needs to be involved in scenario-based workforce planning and execution? How do we align? 👉 A few more thoughts: ↳ This isn’t about creating multiple workforce plans ↳ It’s about planning for the base scenario while... ↳ gaining directional insights into how plans might flex ↳ This helps us respond effectively if scenarios shift ↳ Even high-level insights are better than none at all ↳ Whether you use these questions or not, start today ↳ Doing so will prepare you for what the future brings ❓Did anything here resonate with you? What would you add or change? Let me know. ♻️ Repost to help others strengthen workforce planning 🔔 Follow Brian Heger for daily HR insights #hr #humanresources #workforceplanning

Jobs Apocalypse ? Why? What?  "This isn't a time for fear but for strategic action" 41% of employers plan to use AI to replace roles. That’s a worrisome figure reported by the World Economic Forum in the recent future of jobs report. We're at a pivotal moment in the evolution of work. The headlines are buzzing about AI, and they are not merely a hype! AI IS reshaping the world of work, and it's happening fast. While some see a threat  — a job apocalypse —  I see this as a massive wave of #workforcetransformation. Here’s why: The study also points to two important findings: 📊 77% of employers are focusing on upskilling their workforce to work alongside AI 🔄 47% are transitioning employees from declining roles to other positions. Let’s first understand the core issue here. AI excels at tasks that are repetitive, data-heavy, or rule-based. Several sources confirm that data entry clerks, telemarketers, bookkeepers, receptionists, retail cashiers, and manufacturing workers are at higher risk. Some white-collar jobs are also at risk, including paralegals and copywriters. Here’s what you can do: Employers - Build a collaborative workplace 📌 Reskill, Don’t Replace       Your current workforce has invaluable institutional knowledge. Equip them for the AI-powered future. Invest heavily in upskilling and reskilling programs. 📌 Create a dialog:        Openly communicate your AI strategy with your employees. Address anxieties head-on and emphasize the new opportunities that will emerge 📌 Plan before you implement      Don't implement AI in isolation. Integrate it thoughtfully into your overall workforce strategy, identifying skills gaps and creating clear pathways for employees to adapt 📌 Embed learning into your culture      Provide your employees with resources and encourage continuous professional development. Employees - Start owning your future 👉 Never stop learning       The single most important skill now is the ability to learn and do that consistently. Don't get complacent. Seek out opportunities to upskill, especially in areas that complement AI. 👉 Master What Matters Most       Develop those uniquely human skills: emotional intelligence, collaboration, communication, adaptability, and critical thinking. These will be your differentiators. 👉 Get AI-Fluent       You don't need to be a programmer. But make an effort to understand the basics of AI and how it applies to your industry. This will make you still relevant. 👉 Build your Brand       Make the right connections, contribute to the industry, and build a reputation for your expertise and adaptability. Remember, your digital footprints still matter. So, let me reiterate. It’s not that we will not have jobs for humans anymore. But jobs may start to look totally different.   Let's discuss: What specific steps are you taking (or planning to take) to prepare for the AI-powered workplace? #AI #FutureOfWork #AIAgents #AIWorkforcetransformation  

Commercial goals without workforce strategy is strategy theater. Too many executives set revenue targets in isolation. Then they wonder why execution fails. If your people strategy is not part of the planning room, you are not building a business. You are making a wish. First, every commercial goal has a people cost. New markets require talent footprint. Growth targets demand leadership capacity. If headcount, capability, and capacity aren’t scoped alongside ambition, your goal is fiction. Second, planning in silos creates waste. Marketing builds campaigns. Sales hires reps. Finance allocates spend. But no one checks if the talent engine can support the plan. This leads to hiring freezes in growth periods and burnout in scale-up moments. Third, talent is time-sensitive. Pipelines for critical roles often take months. Training takes longer. If you align people needs after the strategy is locked, you are already behind. Strategy without timeline-sensitive workforce planning is misalignment in disguise. Fourth, workforce constraints are strategic data. Leaders fear sharing talent gaps because they don’t want to appear resistant. But when you ignore those signals, you hide risk. Better to adjust now than fail quietly later. Fifth, cross-functional input sharpens goals. When HR, finance, ops, and sales align on what’s possible with the current talent, the plan becomes real. Trade-offs become visible. Assumptions get pressure-tested. Strategy must include talent from day one. Anything less is a performance you’ll regret. If your workforce strategy isn’t in the room, your plan isn’t real. Learn more by reading the Talent Sherpa substack at https://buff.ly/BhSC0Wa

AI Is Not an IT Project. It’s a Workforce Strategy. Every boardroom in America is talking about AI. Most of them are asking the wrong department to lead it. AI is not just a technology rollout. It’s a workforce transformation. If you treat it like software implementation, you will miss the real impact. Here’s what leaders need to understand: 1️⃣ AI changes roles before it changes systems. • Org charts will shift • Tasks will consolidate • Decision-making layers will flatten • Workforce planning must evolve now If HR isn’t modeling this, you’re already behind. 2️⃣ Skills are about to matter more than titles. • Job descriptions are already outdated • Capability will outweigh tenure • Reskilling becomes a competitive advantage • Hiring profiles must adjust immediately The companies that win will redesign roles around skill, not seniority. 3️⃣ Trust will determine adoption. • Employees don’t fear AI • They fear what leadership won’t say about AI • Silence creates anxiety • Transparency builds momentum Communication is a strategy, not a memo. 4️⃣ Performance metrics must evolve. • AI will increase output • Individual contribution will look different • Productivity benchmarks will shift • Compensation models may need redesign If one person with AI can do the work of three, what does “high performance” mean now? 5️⃣ Ethics and governance are not optional. • Bias must be addressed • Data security must be protected • Accountability must be defined • Policy must be proactive, not reactive This is why AI cannot sit solely in IT. It touches hiring. It touches compensation. It touches training. It touches culture. It touches workforce planning. That’s people strategy. And people strategy is business strategy. The companies that treat AI as a workforce conversation — not just a tech upgrade — will lead the next decade. The ones that don’t will spend the next five years reacting. AI isn’t replacing leadership. It will expose those that failed to plan. -Matt

Rethinking Workforce Planning: Beyond Build, Buy & Borrow For decades, the Build–Buy–Borrow model has been the cornerstone of workforce planning—and for many organizations, it’s still a solid starting point: ·      Build: Grow your own talent through training and development ·      Buy: Hire employees with ready-made skills ·      Borrow: Leverage contractors or outsourcing partners But the world of work has transformed. AI is reshaping tasks, new partnership models are emerging, and the talent ecosystem is broader than ever. Relying on only the traditional three B’s means you may be missing strategic opportunities. It’s not about discarding what works—it’s about expanding our thinking to match the reality of how work gets done today. Introducing the New 4 B’s of Modern Capability Planning 1. Bridge Instead of filling every skills gap immediately, use temporary solutions—like job rotations, project-based assignments, or extended contractor engagements—to buy time and make more informed long-term decisions. 2. Bot Up to 41% of the average worker’s time goes to low-value tasks. Before posting a new role, ask: Should we automate this instead? Sometimes the smartest “hire” is no hire at all. 3. Blend Design roles that combine human expertise with digital enablement. Think AI-supported customer service reps, analysts using intelligent dashboards, or HR teams leveraging automation to focus on high-value, human-centric work. 4. Boost Instead of adding headcount, increase capacity by tapping into underutilized talent pools. This includes: ·      Adjacent or transferable skills already in your workforce ·      Hidden or underrepresented talent: caregivers, veterans, the formerly incarcerated, people without degrees, people with disabilities, and more The future of workforce planning isn’t about choosing between Build, Buy, or Borrow—it’s about asking better questions and leveraging a broader spectrum of possibilities. Action Step During your next workforce planning discussion, challenge yourself (and your team) to identify at least one opportunity to Bridge, Bot, Blend, or Boost before defaulting to a new “Buy.” You can dive deeper into these ideas in our blog: https://lnkd.in/ea5vMQ5v Here’s an insightful new article from Deloitte that dives deeper into this shift: https://lnkd.in/etsdz3hw #WorkforcePlanning #FutureofWork #TalentAcquisition #HRStrategy #DEI  

Recruiters! I once saved a company €2.5M per year in one week and it had nothing to do with filling roles. Here's how 👇 A few years ago, I worked with a FinTech just after COVID. Their hiring plan for the year? 135 people. I’d worked with the CTO in the past, so I asked him a simple question: How is this hiring plan being derived? Is there any process for workforce planning? His answer? “It’s a startup. I trust the domain heads with their budgets.” That's genuinely fair enough. That’s a good approach in fast-moving companies. But when you start aggregating individual requests into a broader hiring plan, you need a process. Without it, money and time can be wasted on roles that don’t directly contribute to the company’s goals. I asked the CTO if I could speak to the domain heads and ask a few questions. He agreed, so I got to work. Here’s what I asked each of them: 1️⃣ How does this role contribute to the goals you’ve promised the business this year? 2️⃣ Is there anyone in your team who could be promoted into this role within the next 12 months? After those conversations, the hiring plan went from 135 roles to 95 roles. We eliminated 40 roles that weren’t tied to immediate business objectives. And, even better, we potentiated 9 internal promotions, which boosted team morale and retention. The result? A €2.5M annual salary cost saving, all from a handful of strategic conversations about workforce planning. So what’s the moral of my wee story? Workforce planning can be a “no man’s land” between leadership, finance, and talent acquisition. But it’s an enormous opportunity for TA to step up and add value. By embedding TA into the workforce planning process, you can: 1️⃣ Make sure hiring plans are tied directly to business objectives. 2️⃣ Identify opportunities for internal promotions. 3️⃣ Save significant time and money by reducing unnecessary hires. 4️⃣ Show auditors, and potential investors that you can govern the biggest cost centre of your business. One other things to mention. Proper workforce planning is an enormous amount of work aggregating data and reporting across those stakeholder groups. done manually, it could end up a full time job. That's why TeamOhana blew my mind when I saw it in action. It gives you real time headcount and financial reporting. It felt like having superpowers and can help you save, literally millions on burn rate for almost no time cost. I put a link in the comments, check it out! Have you seen workforce planning done well (or not so well)? Let’s talk in the comments! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi 👋 I’m Luke. I empower recruiters with data. Want to get data-driven for free? Link in the bio for my free weekly newsletter. #recruitment #recruiters #talentacquisition #recruiting

Billions spent. Top talent poached. And suddenly… hiring frozen. Here’s the story behind the freeze… Meta didn’t just pause on a whim. Lavish AI spending turned from power move to investor red flag. Now the freeze isn’t just about slowing down, it’s about regaining control. Meta split its AI empire into four groups,  and any new hire or transfer now needs sign-off from its Chief AI officer. A sharp turn for a company that was leading the AI talent war just weeks ago. Here’s how leaders should rethink AI hiring strategy 👇 ✅ AI Workforce Planning Checklist for Leaders: ☐ 1. Balance speed with sustainability ↳ Scaling AI teams too fast inflates costs w/out clear ROI ↳ Workforce planning keeps hiring aligned with demand ☐ 2. Retain and grow your AI-capable workforce ↳ Recruiting is wasted if internal skills go undeveloped ↳ Upskilling & career pathways reduce dependence on external hires ☐ 3. Forecast future AI skill demand ↳ Identify the emerging skills your business will need to compete ↳ Use workforce analytics to map roles to long-term strategy ☐ 4. Anticipate AI talent supply gaps ↳ Recognize that external talent pools will remain tight for years ↳ Build internal pipelines to reduce reliance on scarce hires ☐ 5. Strengthen governance in AI hiring ↳ Approvals ensure scarce resources go to priority roles ↳ Guardrails protect against reactive, hype-driven hiring ☐ 6. Build workforce flexibility ↳ Hiring freezes are signals to shift into reskilling and redeployment ↳ Scenario planning helps balance external hires with internal growth ☐ 7. Communicate your AI workforce strategy ↳ Show teams how hiring, reskilling, and redeployment fit together ↳ Transparency builds trust when plans pivot or pause The hiring freeze is a headline.  Workforce planning is the lesson. ♻️ Repost if you’re investing in people, not just tech. Follow Janet Perez for Real Talk on AI + Future of Work --- Sources: WSJ, The Telegraph

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is not an HR project. It is how you prevent your org chart from becoming your business risk. This graphic lays out the parts that matter: size, shape, cost, and agility. Miss one, and you usually feel it somewhere else. Right headcount, wrong skills. “Efficient” labor cost, weak bench strength. Great plan on paper, no flexibility when priorities shift. The move is to treat SWP as a cadence, not a deck. Start with three questions, answered in collaboration with senior leaders and functional leaders: 1. What work will matter most in the next 12 to 18 months? 2. Which roles and skills make that work possible? 3. Where will we build, buy, or redesign capacity? Then keep it simple: * Track a short list of critical roles. * Maintain a skills inventory that is usable, not perfect. * Run scenario planning quarterly. * Tie decisions back to finance and operating leaders early. A good SWP model does one thing. It keeps leadership in choice, instead of reaction. #WorkforcePlanning #PeopleAnalytics #TalentStrategy Image Credit: AIHR