4 Reasons Why Talent Professionals Should Play a Key Role in Workforce Planning

In the wake of the pandemic, companies are facing no shortage of problems attracting employees and ensuring that their workforces have the right skills to compete.

Employees who lost their jobs during the pandemic are reluctant to return to the workforce, or don’t have the skills necessary to fill open positions. Employees who held onto their jobs are demanding that they maintain the remote-work flexibility put in place during the pandemic — and are willing to quit if they don’t get their way. The war for talent, a term coined by former McKinsey partner Steven Hankin back in 1997, has taken on new meaning. 

As employers grapple with these challenges, the role of talent acquisition professionals is evolving. Recruiters are being called upon to consult broadly on workforce planning. Armed with a distinct set of data and insights, talent acquisition professionals are advising on such matters as where employees should be located and which individuals in an organization have the potential to acquire new skills.

“The head of talent position can give the CEO or the COO a lot of insights into where and how they can grow their company and attract the right people to make that happen,” says Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and dean of the Josh Bersin Academy. 

Josh and Rob Allen, VP of talent acquisition at GitLab and the former global head of talent experience and people operations at Atlassian, recently shared their thoughts on why talent acquisition leaders should play an increasingly important part in workforce planning. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Talent professionals are uniquely positioned to advise on remote-work planning

As companies decide which, if any, of their employees will be returning to work onsite — and to what degree — recruiters are poised to advise on the transition to a distributed workforce. 

Talent professionals come to the table with insights collected from job candidates and an understanding of the types of work-from-home options rival companies are offering their employees.

Many recruiters already see themselves as active participants in planning the future workplace. In a LinkedIn survey of recruiters, 69% said advising on workplace planning is becoming increasingly important for talent professionals.

“The recruiting function knows what the competition is offering,” Josh says. “They know the level of demand for flexible work by city, by state, and by work group. They know if policies are too rigid, or uncompetitive.”

2. Recruiters have access to data that can help companies make critical site selection decisions

With the economy recovering post-pandemic, capital spending is on the rebound. As companies start to invest again in opening and expanding facilities, the availability of talent will be a crucial consideration.  

Employers are seeing the benefit of engaging talent professionals early in the process of site selection, before committing resources to projects.  The reason: Thanks to advanced recruiting tools, recruiters can provide real-time data on talent pools globally. 

“Recruiting teams are at the forefront of understanding what the talent market looks like from a geographical standpoint,” Rob says. “If organizations apply a level of talent consideration before making their plans and they understand where the pockets of talent sit and where they could potentially build out teams, they will get to a solution quicker.”

During his tenure at Atlassian, Rob’s talent acquisition team advised the software company on where it would locate a major research and development center. Using data provided by the recruitment team, Atlassian was able to evaluate the pool of engineers in cities around the world. Ultimately, the company chose to build its R&D center in Bengaluru, India — a tech talent hub.

“By collaborating with recruiting,” Rob says, “the business was able to make the best decision using data and insights as to where there was talent at scale with the relevant skills.”

Josh recalls advising a manufacturing company that had decided to build a manufacturing facility in Germany, a plan that would require hiring 300 workers within a few months. The head of talent warned against moving ahead, citing the difficulties of attracting talent to a company with little name recognition in the area. In the end, the company made alternative plans.

“[Recruiters] tend to know the employment brand,” Josh says. “They know how well respected the company is in the market, which the internal people don’t always know.” 

3. Talent professionals help companies set realistic expectations on staffing

Often companies have a false sense of the time and effort it takes to recruit employees with the necessary skills. As a result, they endure extended vacancies that could hamper their ability to achieve their business objectives.  

“When companies have roles that stay open for three to four months,” Rob says, “that delays business objectives.”

By drawing on historical data, recruiters can give companies an estimate of how long it takes to fill spots in specific regions. That kind of information allows employers to make better decisions. If a hiring manager learns from the recruitment team that it typically takes months to fill certain roles, the company might decide to adjust its search criteria or move the search to a different place.

“Having the ability to look back is key,” Rob says. “I’ve got a new data point from my recruiting team that helps me in my decision-making.”

During a 2019 talk at LinkedIn Talent Connect, John Vlastelica, founder and managing director of Recruiting Toolbox, a training and consulting firm, recommended that recruiters study historical data and proactively make recommendations to hiring managers.

For instance, if recruiters see a role that has a 20% turnover rate year over year and a spike in departures every November, they can advise business leaders to post job openings for replacements months ahead of time. 

4. Talent leaders can help recruit from the outside — and the inside

The tight labor market, coupled with rapid advances in technology, has made it ever more imperative for companies to reskill or upskill their employees. Companies like Levi Strauss, Choice Market, and Verizon are retraining workers to take on new roles at their companies. As part of an effort to make European businesses more competitive, the European Commission is calling on companies across sectors to teach their workers digital skills.

With the economy reopening, “airlines, banks, restaurant chains, and hotel chains can't find enough employees,” Josh says. “Companies are saying, ‘Whatever our workforce plan is, internal mobility has to be a critical part of it.’”

But which employees within an organization have the ambition and the background necessary to learn new skills? Employers can learn a lot by speaking to their recruiters.

“The talent acquisition team,” Rob says, “has a wealth of data that they pick up during the assessment process. They receive feedback about every candidate, it’s logged into a recruiting tool, and they have a great snapshot on not just that individual’s ambition and where they want to go within the organization and their potential, but also what their development areas are.” 

Currently, companies are just starting to consult with their talent teams about upskilling workers at leadership levels, Rob says. But he sees significant advantages ahead for organizations that can leverage the information provided by their recruiting teams. 

“Imagine a world,” Rob says, “in which talent acquisition is plugged into the learning and development team and could create intentional learning paths for employees once they join so that we know where these employees can move to, function to function, department to department. There is that wealth of data that you pick up on the front end of hiring. If you use that throughout an individual’s career progression, you will have a much better understanding of your talent landscape.”

Final thoughts 

While talent professionals have much to offer beyond filling open positions, those who want to play a more strategic role at their companies will have to work at it.

To effectively insert themselves into workforce planning conversations, recruiters need a firm handle on the data. They need to think strategically and they need to communicate effectively.

“Leveraging data,” Rob says, “is going to be the No. 1 way in which we continue to have a seat at the table.” 

LinkedIn Learning courses can help recruiters improve their data analysis, communications, and strategic thinking skills and give them the confidence to advise hiring managers and business leaders.

“Recruiters who just want to put butts in seats are not going to be that successful in this market,” Josh says. “You want the recruiting team to be strong enough in terms of skills and self-confidence to interact with the hiring managers and go back to them and say, ‘The kind of person you’re looking for isn’t going to be easy to find, or maybe you’re not paying enough.’”

“They need to upskill themselves,” Josh adds. “They need to understand that they’re in a pivotal role. The head of talent acquisition, in many ways, knows more about the company than almost anybody else. The better ones become strategists and become very instrumental in workforce planning.”

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