Tech Workforce Planning

Good strategic workforce planning is different from operational planning... ...because it looks much further ahead to determine what kind of workforce is needed to deliver the company’s long-term strategy. It can be a valuable and natural extension of the business strategy that yields a major competitive advantage, positioning a firm for sustained growth and innovation, no matter the changes to come. Key takeaways on the four principles to achieve that: 💡 It is future-back, not today-forward - the best leaders take a future-back approach—they envision the distant future and then build a plan to achieve it. They understand that good strategic workforce planning often enters an uncomfortable space where some aspects of the “how” are unknown. 💡It is uneven - Successful strategic workforce planning often involves focusing differentially on a few job families—groupings of roles with reasonable skill overlaps. The best plans focus exclusively on large or scarce workforce populations that expect to see change. 💡It is learning-based - leaders can guard against incorrect assumptions by making the plan easily adaptable and updating it each year based on what they’ve learned. They will watch carefully for the right signposts and distinguish between offsetting forces (e.g. leaders might make assumptions around increasing headcount due to business growth and decreasing headcount from automation productivity gains) 💡 It is simple enough to be repeatable - When leaders make the workforce plan too granular, it becomes a bureaucratic, wasted effort that the business resents. The best processes are tied to annual strategic planning. They feel like a light addition to thinking through the strategy’s people implications. Overall: A good strategic planning thoughtfully assesses both human and financial capital. HR teams can help the business define the future at the job family level in the same way that finance supports forecasting major P&L and capital lines. #workforceplanning #strategy

Most companies wait until they have an urgent problem before addressing workforce capability. But the ones building competitive advantage are investing in readiness before the gap becomes a crisis. Here are four areas where organizations need to focus: 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗼 Automation specialists, data scientists, and AI integration roles require new training pathways. Companies that build apprenticeship programs and internal development tracks get ahead of skills bottlenecks before they slow growth. 𝟮. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗔𝗜 It's not enough to deploy AI tools. Teams need to understand how to integrate AI into their workflows, manage AI-driven processes, and improve performance through human-AI collaboration. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Skills assessments show what people can actually do, not just what their job titles suggest. Companies that map capabilities across their workforce can redeploy talent strategically and keep people engaged in roles where they can grow. 𝟰. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱 Whether it's technical training, role-specific development, or management skills, companies need structured programs that prepare people for the work that's coming, not just the work that exists today. The retirement wave is gathering speed. Skills-based hiring is becoming the norm. Growth isn't waiting. What's your approach to workforce readiness right now?

Workforce planning has always been an incredibly complex and difficult task. Despite valiant efforts to improve these models, they have remained relatively static and simplistic, relying predominantly on small teams crunching data or on predictions from the hiring manager community. In an ideal world, we would shift from a static, once-a-year exercise to a dynamic, more proactive model. We would stop reacting to what's happening now and start anticipating what's likely to happen next. Last week, I had the pleasure of spending time with our enterprise data and analytics team, a group that services over 800 customers. The most exciting topic we discussed was three pilots we're running with customers right now that aim to make this a reality: using a digital twin for work planning. It works by connecting vast amounts of external market data with a company's many internal data sources, some they typically wouldn't consider, such as ERP, CRM (sales), LMS, and Time and Attendance systems. This allows us to run scenarios and model future talent needs. Here’s a concrete example: By analyzing Salesforce, HRIS, and ATS data, we can predict that when multiple prospect opportunities reach a specific stage in our customer’s sales cycle, there is a high likelihood of winning at least one of them. We can then analyze the consistent skill sets across all of those prospect opportunities, allowing us to confidently and proactively start a recruitment process for those skills. The goal being that we have candidates at the final stages of the process, before an official requisition has been raised, positively impacting time to hire. We’ve also been able to replicate a similar model based on website sales activity. The question to ask is: what data is generated in what system that allows you to get ahead of the hiring process today. 

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?    When I first started out in my career, the world of work looked very different.     Most people stayed in the same job – even the same company – for many years, sometimes decades. Roles were clearly defined, often with fixed hierarchies and long paper trails. Teams were almost always co-located, and workforce planning largely meant headcount forecasting based on fixed job descriptions.    Fast forward to today, and work looks nothing like that. AI advancements have reshaped entire industries. New skills are emerging in months, not years. Geopolitical shifts are affecting access to talent and cost in ways business leaders couldn’t have predicted five years ago.     But too often, workforce strategies are still rooted in that old approach, usually accompanied by long hiring cycles or rigid structures.     To truly tackle today’s challenges, strategies should be led by the outcomes the business needs to achieve – whether that’s accelerating digital transformation, expanding into new markets, or delivering complex, high-impact projects at pace.    David Barr, who leads the Robert Walters Outsourcing business, sums it up well:  "The future of workforce planning isn’t about the worker. It’s about the work that needs to be done."    This shift in mindset changes the questions leaders should be asking.     For instance, instead of asking: What roles do we need to fill?  Think about: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿?    And in place of: What qualifications or experience do we need?   Consider: 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀?  That’s where capability-led planning comes in. It can help organisations build on traditional hiring models beyond permanent and temporary by adding more flexible ways to access the skills they need – when and where they need them.      For example, say you’re looking to build a team with in-demand tech skills that are difficult to recruit for. Instead of trying to fill permanent positions, a hire-train-deploy (HTD) model can help you access early-career talent, trained specifically for your needs and ready to deliver from day one.     Or, if your team needs expert support for a critical project but adding to your headcount isn’t an option, a resource augmentation approach is a good solution. It gives you access to experienced, on-demand consultants with specialist skill sets – along with the flexibility to scale up or down as needed.      Yes, this kind of planning may take more thought upfront. But it creates a workforce strategy that can evolve as fast as the world around it.     How are you progressing your workforce strategy to meet what’s next? 

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

Technology Resource Pipeline Planning: The Strategic Advantage that Every Organization Needs In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, the difference between thriving and merely surviving often comes down to one critical factor: “strategic resource pipeline planning”. Too many times I have found organizations are in a reactive mode—frantically searching for talent when projects are already underway, or discovering skill gaps when deadlines are looming. This approach not only just impact delivery timelines; it compromises innovation potential and competitive positioning. So What’s an effective technology resource pipeline planning looks like: 🔍 Skills Forecasting: Analyzing upcoming projects and technology roadmaps to identify future talent needs 6-12 months in advance. This starts at the planning phase and keeping an inventory of your current talent pool helps. 📊 Capacity Modeling: Understanding current team capabilities and mapping them against projected workloads to identify potential bottlenecks. Keeping a buffer/talent bench helps but it’s a privilege few can afford recently. 🎯 Strategic Talent Acquisition: Building relationships with key talent before you need them, not when desperation sets in. Augment the FTE pool with contractors if necessary , but as leaders always have an eye for talent in every professional interaction. 🚀 Internal Development Pathways: Creating clear progression routes that align individual growth with organizational technology evolution. Identifying potential and invest in up-skilling your team. Also this will lead to my next point, cross skill. 💡 Cross-Training Initiatives: Developing T-shaped professionals who can bridge skill gaps and provide flexibility during transitions. Your next talent hire might come from the teams you interact regularly. Consciously practicing these approaches will build sustainable competitive advantages. This will prepare organizations to launch products on schedule, adapt quickly to market changes, and attract top talent. The bottom line: Resource pipeline planning isn't just a project management task. It's a strategic imperative that requires collaboration between technology leadership, talent acquisition, and business strategy teams. #TechLeadership #ResourcePlanning #TalentStrategy #TechnologyManagement #Innovation #TeamBuilding

"S&P 500 companies that excel at maximizing their return on talent generate an astonishing 300 percent more revenue per employee compared with the median firm" In many cases, these top performing firms are using strategic workforce planning to stay ahead of their competitors in the talent race, treating talent with the same rigour as managing their financial capital. In their article, Neel Gandhi, Sandra Durth, Vincent Bérubé, Charlotte Seiler, Kritvi Kedia and Randy Lim, highlight how the emergence of generative AI is making strategic workforce planning even more important (see page 3). The article highlights five best practices for building a holistic talent plan through SWP: 1️⃣ Prioritise talent investments as much as financial investments. 🔎 "Successful organizations recognize that their workforce is a strategic asset and investing in talent development and retention is essential for long-term health. Employees represent both an organization’s largest investment and its deepest source of value." 2️⃣ Consider both capacity and capabilities. 🔎 "To measure performance in critical roles, organizations can conduct an outside-in search to understand the skills in the highest demand." 3️⃣ Plan for multiple business scenarios. 🔎 "By implementing a scenario-based approach, organizations create flexibility for rapidly changing industry conditions." 4️⃣ Take an innovative approach to filling talent gaps – by refocusing from hiring to reskilling and upskilling. 🔎 "Hiring is cost intensive, since it takes time to onboard and ramp up an employee into a new role. While reskilling and upskilling also take time and resources, leaders can use these levers strategically, track their relative success, and shift gears as needed." 5️⃣ Embed SWP into business as usual: 🔎 "Strategic workforce planning should become a business-as-usual process, not just a one-off exercise in the face of a single threat to an organization’s talent pipeline or business goals." 👉 If you enjoy curated resources like these, please check out the Data Driven HR Monthly. Every month I select and curate some of the best HR, future of work and people analytics resources of the month. You can read the May edition here: https://lnkd.in/eQNX46qN 👈 #humanresources #workforceplanning #peopleanalytics #futureofwork #chiefpeopleofficer #orgdesign #hrtech #employeeexperience

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗘𝗿𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟲𝗕 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 🚀 At AD Ports Group, we are pioneering the 6B approach — an integrated way of planning for capability, capacity, agility, and AI-driven productivity. Every year, organisations ask the same questions: 🔹 “How do we recruit X number of people next year?” 🔹 “How do we know we actually need this many FTEs?” 🔹 “How do we balance growth with efficiency-without restructuring or layoffs?” Traditional workforce planning answered these with headcount and hiring plans. But today’s world demands something far more dynamic. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱. For decades we relied on the classic 3B model — Build, Buy, Borrow. But with AI reshaping work, the model has evolved. With 6B planning, we don’t start with “How many people do we need?” We start with: ✔ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨? ✔ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳? ✔ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥? ✔ 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦? ✔ 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? This is how workforce planning becomes a strategic differentiator—not an administrative exercise. At AD Ports Group, we are pioneering this 6B planning approach—combining org analytics, scenario modelling, AI insights, and capability forecasting to build a truly future-ready workforce. How the Talent Mix Is Evolving (Illustrative Example) When you apply 6B planning to a large organisation, something interesting happens:   1. Build: ~35% of next year’s workforce needs can be met by developing internal talent.   2. Buy: Only 20% requires hiring from the market.   3. Borrow: 10–12% can be filled via short-term, project-based or contingent workers.   4. Bind: 15% of roles need strategic retention or accelerated career pathways.   5. Bounce: ~8% of current roles shift, redesign, or redeploy due to changing demand.   6. Bot: 10–12% of activities can be automated or AI-augmented — reducing the need for additional FTEs. Together, this reshapes workforce strategy, cost, and capability 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀. But a dynamic, assumption-driven model that protects both people and performance.

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  

🚀 In 2025, the most strategic discipline in TA and HR isn’t just recruitment—it's turning workforce planning into a live, business-critical capability. According to Deloitte, silos are now the biggest barrier. 📌 What they found: Horizontal expansion → workforce planning must bring together HR, Finance, Technology, Operations and Business Strategy instead of being isolated in one function. Vertical expansion → give managers and employees access to data and insights (dashboards, “what-if” scenarios) so planning isn’t just top-down but inclusive and real time. Leaders like Network Rail and Roche are already slashing hiring & training time or giving employees direct visibility into talent needs. 🎯 Why this matters to TA leaders: If workforce planning remains a periodic HR project, you’ll keep reacting rather than anticipating. When you embed talent intelligence into business strategy, you accelerate speed, agility and alignment—and that’s where you deliver executive-level impact. Talent acquisition, employer branding, and TA tech all become stronger when planning is connected to strategy and data, not locked in isolation. 🔑 Take-away for your leadership agenda: Position your TA team as a strategic partner in workforce planning by: Networking outward—collaborate with finance, ops, IT and business units on same page headcount, skills and role models. Pushing for democratized data at manager level—so talent moves from core TA/HR team to being business-owned. Using “what-if” planning to tie talent actions to business outcomes (not just requisitions)—and brand this as part of your employer-brand story. Imperative: break the silo, build the bridge. When SWP (Strategic Workforce Planning) becomes business strategy + talent strategy + data strategy, TA doesn’t just support—it leads.