Tech Workforce Planning

Planning for jobs, not skills. That’s a risk multiplier. McKinsey just surveyed 1,925 companies and 4,000 employees across Europe and the U.S. The verdict? A widening gap between what businesses and employees need, and what HR is delivering. This was shocking to me. ✅73% of organizations do operational workforce planning. ❌But only 12% of U.S. HR leaders look 3+ years out. That means most “planning” is really short-term staffing. Not future skills. Not AI-driven shifts. Not what the business will actually need when the ground moves under us. What’s at stake? Talent gaps that stall growth. Misalignment between business and people strategy. HR functions stuck reacting instead of leading. But there’s a path forward. Here are 5 moves organizations should make now: 1️⃣ Extend your planning horizon. Look 3–5 years out. Align people plans with long-term business goals and market shifts. 2️⃣ Shift from roles to skills. Jobs change, skills endure. Map future skill demand (AI literacy, data analysis, sustainability) and start investing early. 3️⃣ Stress-test scenarios. Don’t just build one plan. Model for disruptions such as automation, regulation, and supply shocks. Prepare pivot options. 4️⃣ Link workforce + financial planning. Talent is capital. Integrate headcount and skill development into the same forecasting the CFO uses. 5️⃣ Build adaptive capacity. Make reskilling and redeployment continuous. Equip people to shift as priorities do. Don't react with layoffs. HR can either keep filling today’s jobs, or become architects of tomorrow’s workforce. Are you planning for headcount or for the skills your business will need in 2028? ♻️ Repost if you agree HR should be future architects. Follow me, Sarah Bloom, Ph.D. for more useful HR tips.

Founding a Workforce Management (WFM) team from scratch? Here's a structured approach I’ve used to build high-impact WFM functions that scale. Phase 1: Foundation Executive Alignment • Clarify WFM’s purpose: SLA protection, cost control, service reliability • Define scope: forecasting, scheduling, intraday, reporting • Secure senior sponsorship Assessment • Map current gaps in data, tools, and processes • Identify pain points like adherence issues, shrinkage, or coverage volatility Charter • Define KPIs: forecast accuracy, SLA attainment, schedule efficiency • Clarify supported functions such as voice, chat, and back office Phase 2: Function Design Core Functions • Forecasting: volume prediction based on trends and drivers • Capacity Planning: converts workload into staffing needs • Scheduling: aligns staff supply to forecasted demand • Intraday: monitors queues and initiates recovery actions • Reporting: provides performance visibility • Governance: creates process standards and planning cadence Technology • Select a WFM platform (i.e. NiCE) • Plan for integrations: ACD, HRIS, CRM, BI • Fill any gaps with reporting tools, Excel, or automation Phase 3: Build the Team Team Roles • WFM Lead: owns strategy and alignment • Forecasters: build short- and long-term models • Schedulers: create and maintain shifts • RTAs: monitor queues and agent states • Reporting Analysts: track KPIs and trends • System Admins: configure and support tools Skills and Training • Prioritize analytical thinking, communication, and tool fluency • Train on concepts like occupancy, shrinkage, adherence, and intraday control Phase 4: Execution Cadence • Set up cycles: annual plans, monthly forecasts, weekly schedules, daily huddles • Deliver standardized outputs like forecast decks, staffing plans, and recovery updates Governance • Define SLAs, shrinkage categories, adherence logic • Document escalation paths and playbooks Stakeholder Engagement • Embed WFM in hiring, policy changes, and new programs • Partner closely with Ops, QA, Training, HR, and Finance Phase 5: Scale and Refine Enhance Efficiency • Automate tasks like shrinkage tracking and exception handling • Enable agent self-service for availability and shift bidding Mature the Function • Add scenario modeling, risk-based staffing, and budget alignment • Position WFM as a trusted planning partner across the org #workforcemanagement #contactcenterstrategy #wfm #forecasting #scheduling #realtimemanagement #cxleadership #operationalexcellence #teamdesign

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. 

Your Workforce Plan is a Balance Sheet Risk Workforce planning isn’t just an HR function anymore—it’s a financial and strategic imperative. Labor shortages, wage inflation, and geopolitical instability have turned talent management into a direct balance sheet risk. Leaders who fail to see this will find themselves outpaced by those who do. First, talent pipelines need to be managed like cash flow forecasts. Just as CFOs project revenue and expenses, leaders must anticipate skill shortages, hiring slowdowns, and turnover risks. A just-in-time hiring strategy is no longer viable—proactive workforce planning is now a competitive necessity. Second, wage inflation is creating hidden financial liabilities. Market-driven salary spikes, pay transparency laws, and employee retention pressures are pushing labor costs up. Smart leaders are reassessing compensation strategies, exploring fractional talent models, and redesigning job structures to mitigate cost escalations. Third, geopolitical risks are reshaping workforce strategy. Talent pools are shifting due to global conflicts, visa restrictions, and economic downturns. Companies that diversify their talent sources—leveraging remote work, nearshoring, and global hiring hubs—will be more resilient than those tethered to a single market. Most critically, workforce agility is now a hedge against volatility. The ability to scale up, redeploy talent, and reskill employees quickly is no longer a luxury—it’s a survival strategy. Leaders who treat workforce planning like an extension of financial risk management will build organizations that thrive in uncertainty. Those who don’t will struggle to keep pace. Learn more at https://buff.ly/4gZHQJf

"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: 🔎 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." 🔎 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." 🔎 Plan for multiple business scenarios. 👉 "By implementing a scenario-based approach, organizations create flexibility for rapidly changing industry conditions." 🔎 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." 🔎 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 June edition here: https://lnkd.in/exEqY-Hn - and the July edition will be published tomorrow 👈 #strategicworkforceplanning #humanresources #peopleanalytics #workforceplanning #futureofwork #chiefpeopleofficer #orgdesign #hrtech #employeeexperience #learning

I'll butcher the quote but it goes something like: "Coming up with new ideas is easy, it's letting go of the ones that used to work that's hard." While everyone knows about the transformative power of technology, some aren't so set on the transformative power of a modern workforce.   For the APS to remain competitive, we need to rethink how we attract and retain critical top talent. I think flexibility - as part of a robust tool set - is essential in building a workforce that can meet the demands of today, and the future.   All this to say: I’m excited about what's in the APS Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30. It looks to take an innovative approach, with a focus on adaptability, capability, and mobility. It recognises that to build a sustainable and successful workforce, we need to support geographically dispersed teams, ensure agencies have the right tools to compete for talent, and reduce our reliance on external consultants by strengthening in house expertise.   At its core, the Workforce Plan is tackling the challenge of attracting, recruiting, and retaining critical talent. This will take an innovative approach. Expanding our talent pool means embracing alternative ways of working. This includes offering more diverse working arrangements, improving support for geographically dispersed teams, and a real focus on reducing reliance on external consultants by growing our in-house expertise.   At the Digital Transformation Agency, we see firsthand how workforce challenges impact our mission to drive digital uplift across the Australian Government. The demand for specialist skills is growing, legacy systems transitions require unique skill sets, and agencies need the right capability to deliver digital services that benefit Australians. We play a leading role in the delivery of this plan by sponsoring major initiatives, like building technical capability across the government and modernising recruitment processes.   I look forward to seeing this put into action. Find out more about the plan here and follow along on DTA's LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/g9-wV_P7

Early in my career, I was that manager who wanted to approach every planning problem with a spreadsheet-shaped hammer. Engineering capacity planning through Excel is a special kind of pain, though (why do finance teams always use Excel?). I was always trying to guess what we'd need to build next year and how the roadmap may change that far out, estimating engineer costs at different seniority levels, mapping hiring plans, and trying to save room for promotions and technology investments ... It was educated guesswork at best. Now? We're piling AI on top of businesses that never figured out basic workforce planning. The engineering manager's dilemma just got exponentially harder: → What capacity will people actually have with AI tools?  → What seniority levels do you need when AI handles the junior work?  → How do you plan hiring when you don't know what roles will exist? This article from McKinsey outlines ‘The critical role of strategic workforce planning in the age of AI.’ - (https://lnkd.in/gucsXBFk) One stat jumped out at me: They found that S&P 500 companies using strategic workforce planning generate 300% more revenue per employee. But I'm not at an S&P 500 company. Like most SMBs, I'm still playing spreadsheet roulette. So, I’m trying to adapt it to the size of business I’m used to operating for the upcoming planning season: - What are your critical 5-7 roles that would shut you down tomorrow if they walked out? I don’t have the luxury of full role redundancy in a small but growing business. Planning is an opportunity to do risk modeling and plan for potential challenges. - Model 3 scenarios minimum, AI is making our decision horizon shorter, so more scenarios are required (and they aren’t all good). A few at the top of my list are things like:  → 50% growth scenario → Key customer segments are challenged due to AI so I have to change my investment mix → AI automation gets a lot better for some job roles - Upskill before you hire That junior engineer might be your future AI specialist with the right training. External hires take 6+ months to ramp and cost 3x more. How are you going to invest in your team before you need more from them? - Plan quarterly, not annually Review your workforce plan like your P&L. The world is moving too fast for annual planning, and I want to check my work in Q3 and Q4 before I commit to 2026. 🤔 But here's my real question → What tools are people actually using to untie this knot? The spreadsheet days are over. AI capacity planning needs real workforce analytics, not guesswork. I think leaders who get good at this won't just survive the AI transition → they'll compete with companies 10x their size. What's your biggest challenge: predicting AI impact on capacity, or just getting basic workforce planning in place? 👇 #workforce_planning

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? 

Industry 4.0 is Here—Is Your Hiring Strategy Keeping Up? The U.S. manufacturing sector is evolving rapidly. AI, IoT, and Digital Twins are turning traditional factories into intelligent, data-driven operations. But many companies are struggling to find the right talent to support this transformation. The challenge? A rigid, full-time hiring model can’t keep pace with evolving project demands. The solution? A flexible workforce strategy that blends contractors, fractional experts, and permanent hires to ensure access to specialized skills without long-term overhead. Contractors for short-term, high-impact projects like IoT deployments and AI-driven automation. Fractional Experts for strategic leadership in cloud, AI, and digital transformation. On-Demand Teams to scale up for automation, robotics, or cybersecurity initiatives. Industry 4.0 requires a smarter approach to hiring—one that adapts as quickly as technology itself. In my latest article (below), I dive deeper into how manufacturers can build agile, tech-driven teams to stay ahead in the Industry 4.0 era. At Focus Cloud USA, we specialize in connecting manufacturers with the Azure, IoT, and AI talent needed to drive innovation. Read the full article below and let’s discuss—how is your company adapting its workforce strategy?