Integrated Workforce Planning: Key to Your People Strategy

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the need for agile, dynamic, and integrated workforce planning has never been more critical. As industries converge and technology continues to disrupt traditional business models, companies are grappling with coordinating their hiring needs, re-skilling requirements, retention priorities, redesign opportunities, and long-term headcount requirements against financial plans in real-time.

The Case for Integrated Workforce Planning

Integrated Workforce Planning orchestrates workforce planning across the organization, connecting business lines with HR, IT, Finance, and operations using an all-in planning platform.

It's about creating an ecosystem where the output from your financial, operational, and sales plans acts as input for your workforce plans which in turn provide input to your HR strategies and actions. Changes made upstream are then reflected downstream in your workforce requirements, allowing for a continuous balance between workforce supply and business demand. This process must evolve frequently with more agility instead of once every few months or annually.

Systemic HR?: Solving Business Problems

This approach is a part of Systemic HR , a holistic approach to managing human resources that considers the interrelationships and interdependencies among HR practices, policies, and strategies and the connections across the broader organization. It's about creating a system where all parts work together to achieve the organization's goals. Integrated Workforce Planning, as a part of Systemic HR, ensures that the organization's people and HR strategy is aligned with its business strategy, creating a more resilient and dynamic organization .

Strategy to Action: The Four R Framework

Our Systemic HR study revealed that the highest performing companies are very good at workforce planning.

Organizations that have a business-integrated, real-time workforce plan are...

• 1.8x more likely to be financially high performing
• 3x more likely to adapt well to change
• 4.5x more likely to have high levels of workforce productivity

But what are they planning for, and how do they find success? Today, in a world shaped by new technologies, industry convergence, climate change, and hybrid work models, the role of workforce planning has evolved. Rather than focusing solely on headcount growth and open positions, organizations must identify missing capabilities, determine skills trends, and then differentially recruit for the right capabilities, retain them, reskill people into new areas, and redesign the work itself for more productivity and business performance. We call this the Four R Framework.

The Four R Framework

Integrated Workforce Planning in Action

Forward-thinking companies are using Integrated Workforce Planning to inform their HR and people strategy.

Telecommunication company Ciena broke down its preexisting headcount planning to create full-fledged, continuous workforce planning conversations. They implemented an integrated planning platform that allowed finance, HR, and managers to have a continuous, connected conversation. As sales or operations data fluctuated, Ciena’s finance and HR functions now discuss how the plan should change.

A Global Energy Company expanded its plant asset management module, a system that connects scheduled maintenance to supply chain planning. When the company schedules a maintenance project, the workforce planning on the same platform can predict labor hours, roles needed, and labor costs of the repairs. It also connected this planning platform to its crew scheduling system so the maintenance project could be planned, scheduled, and managed.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) partnered with Anaplan , a connected planning vendor, to configure a custom workforce planning platform tailored to the organization’s unique operating model. They implemented a people analytics and workforce planning team of three and trained more than 150 HR professionals serving regions across the globe to achieve the agility required to successfully navigate the unpredictability of world events.

Aligning Business and People/HR Strategy

Integrated Workforce Planning can transform an organization's people strategy, making it more aligned with the business strategy and more responsive to changes in the business environment. It's not just about filling positions; it's about ensuring that the right people with the right skills are in the right roles at the right time, and that the organization is prepared to adapt as those needs change.

Integrated Workforce Planning is a powerful tool for aligning your people strategy with your business strategy. It enables organizations to be more dynamic, resilient, and prepared for the future. It's not just a nice-to-have; in today's fast-paced, ever-changing business environment, it's a must-have. The role of technology and analytics in this process is pivotal, providing the necessary tools to make informed, strategic decisions about the workforce.

Where To Go Next

• Join Josh Bersin and me, together with Kouros Behzad in a webinar on Integrated Workforce Planning
• Read our report on Integrated Workforce Planning (available to members of The Josh Bersin Company in concert with our Systemic HR Initiative )
• Join the Josh Bersin Academy to develop skills and capabilities in Systemic HR, integrated workforce planning, and much more