Strategic workforce planning allows you to identify the talent your organization requires to achieve future goals. This also gives you the information you need to develop a strategy that delivers the right balance of skills, technologies, and employment models to support the company’s long-term success.
This article discusses how you can use a workforce planning template to make the process more efficient and effective.
Contents
What is workforce planning?
Why should HR conduct workforce planning?
Why use a workforce planning template?
3 sample workforce planning templates
How to use workforce planning templates
5 company workforce planning examples
What is workforce planning?
Workforce planning is the strategic process of analyzing an organization’s current and future workforce needs to ensure it has the right people, skills, and roles to achieve its business objectives.
The process includes forecasting labor demand, assessing current workforce capabilities, and identifying skills gaps. It also entails developing strategies to address those gaps through recruitment, training, succession planning, and other talent management initiatives.
The 5 Rs of workforce planning
The 5 Rs of workforce planning are key considerations to factor into your workforce planning process to ensure successful implementation. They are:
- Right size: Balance team size with budget constraints and skill coverage.
- Right shape: Optimize your organizational structure for efficient decision-making and execution.
- Right skills: Identify and prioritize critical skills essential for achieving business goals.
- Right site: Place employees in roles where they can maximize their potential and impact.
- Right spend: Balance budget constraints with the need for qualified personnel.
Why should HR conduct workforce planning?
Good workforce planning is critical to building a sustainable talent strategy. It defines the talent needed in the medium to long term to deliver on business strategy and supports scenario planning to ensure an agile and responsive approach to changes.
Data is also an indispensable part of workforce planning. Dr Dieter Veldsman, Chief Scientist (HR and OD) at AIHR, says: “A data-driven workforce planning approach allows you to balance your business’ talent demand and supply, ensuring you are proactive in skills development, acquisition, and retention.”
There are multiple benefits to workforce planning, including:
Aligning human capital with business goals
By analyzing current and future workforce needs, you can ensure the company has the right talent to help execute its long-term strategy. This proactive approach lets companies anticipate market, technology, and industry changes. This allows them to prepare their workforce accordingly rather than scrambling to react to changes only after they occur.
Optimizing resource allocation
Through careful analysis and forecasting, you can identify where the organization may be overstaffed or understaffed. This allows for more efficient distribution of human resources, potentially reducing labor costs while improving productivity. It also minimizes the chance of critical skills gaps hindering business operations or growth opportunities.
Supporting talent development and succession planning
By identifying future skills requirements, you can implement targeted training and development programs to upskill existing employees. This not only improves the organization’s ability to meet future challenges but also enhances employee engagement and retention by providing clear career paths and growth opportunities. You can also leverage specific workforce planning templates to identify and prepare potential successors for key positions, ensuring leadership continuity.
Aiding in risk management
Properly aligned workforce planning helps organizations anticipate and mitigate potential workforce-related risks, such as retirements, turnover in critical roles, or labor market shifts. By having strategies in place to address these risks, companies can maintain operational stability and competitive advantage.
Supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives
One of HR’s critical roles is developing and improving Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) strategies. This can lead to improved innovation, better decision-making, and enhanced ability to serve diverse customer bases.
“Workforce planning is non-negotiable for organizations that want to be successful. Without a strategic WFP (workforce plan), you are always reactive and having to fight fires. You cannot manage your talent and skills strategically.”
Dr Dieter Veldsman, Chief Scientist (HR and OD) at AIHR
Why use a workforce planning template?
There are several benefits of using a structured workforce planning template. These include:
Strategic alignment and planning
A workforce planning template can help the organization to:
- Determine and document business objectives and future growth plans
- Evaluate current workforce capabilities
- Consider future workforce needs based on projected business changes
- More accurately project labor costs and forecast a budget
- Compare different workforce scenarios for better organizational agility
- Align workforce investments with financial planning.
Operational efficiency
Another advantage is operational efficiency, which the company can achieve in the following ways:
- Determine precise resource allocation needs for every department and project
- Identify areas of over- or under-staffing for more efficient human capital distribution
- Streamline the planning process to save time and resources
- Remove redundant efforts and inconsistencies via a standardized approach
- Establish clear responsibilities within the planning process
- Help all participants understand their roles and contributions
- Follow clear metrics for evaluating the success of workforce planning efforts.
Data-driven insights and risk management
Data is a crucial part of workforce planning, and using a structured template can aid in more efficient data analysis and application. You can use it to:
- Make informed decisions and manage potential risks
- Identify key metrics to track for accurate forecasting
- Better allocate resources
- Pinpoint potential workforce-related risks (e.g., skills gaps, succession issues)
- Develop proactive strategies to address risks
- Follow a structured approach to identifying current and future skills needs
- Develop targeted training and recruitment strategies
- Ensure regulatory compliance
- Record documentation for potential audits or to meet legal requirements.
Organizational development and adaptability
Finally, a workforce planning template can help your company:
- Foster organizational growth, communication, and flexibility
- Identify potential successors for critical roles
- Create targeted development plans for high-potential employees
- Incorporate DEIB into workforce planning
- Follow a consistent framework adaptable to different departments or business units
- Communicate plans across all levels of the organization
- Get stakeholder buy-in through transparent, well-structured planning
- Easily integrate workforce planning with HR information systems (HRIS)
- Use analytics and AI in workforce planning.
3 sample workforce planning templates
1. Headcount planning workforce planning template
Use this template when: You need to make detailed decisions about staffing levels across different departments. It’s particularly useful during budgeting cycles or when planning for business growth or contraction.
This template helps you forecast hiring needs, plan for headcount changes, and assess the financial impact of workforce decisions on a more granular — often quarterly — basis.
In module 1 of AIHR’s Talent Management Certificate Program, you will learn practical ways to match your talent supply with organizational demand. The lesson also provides a Talent Profile Toolbox template to use in your headcount planning. Below is a sample of the template available in the certificate program:
Sample talent planning template
2. Strategic workforce planning template (free to download)
Use this template when: You need to align your workforce strategy with long-term business goals. It’s ideal for high-level planning, which is typically done annually or during major organizational shifts.
This template helps you forecast future talent needs, identify skills gaps, and develop strategies to build the workforce required to achieve your company’s long-term vision.
3. Workforce capacity planning template
Use this template when: You need to optimize your existing workforce’s productivity and ensure you have the right number of people with the right skills at the right time. It’s particularly handy for project-based organizations or those with fluctuating workloads.
Module 1 of the Talent Management Certificate Program also teaches you how to approach talent reporting and provides a ready-to-use Workforce Profile Dashboard template. Here is a snapshot of the resource you will get in the certificate program:
Sample workforce profile dashboard resource
How to use workforce planning templates
Strategic workforce planning template
Uses for a strategic workforce planning template include:
- Current and future workforce analysis: Begin with an overview of the company’s current workforce, then list its existing roles and descriptions for each one. After doing this, you can proceed to detail the organization’s future workforce needs based on ongoing and anticipated challenges.
- Succession planning: Start by determining the specific job title, current position holder, and timeline for succession planning. The list of key competencies required for the role, as well as identifying potential succession candidates and rating their readiness. Finally, outline a development plan for candidates, set performance metrics and KPIs, and establish a monitoring process.
- Workforce planning action plan: First, determine the organization’s main strategy, key elements, and the goals set to support it. Next, use your workforce analysis to help you determine future workforce needs and gaps in the workforce (unfilled positions, new positions, skills gaps, etc.). Now, you can detail the actions the organization must take to achieve its goals, meet future workforce needs, and fill workforce gaps.
Skills gap analysis template
You can use a skills gap analysis template in the following ways:
- Skills and competencies analysis: You can assess the key skills and competencies of each team in your organization using this template. First, make a list of the team’s required skills and briefly describe each one. Then, rate each skill’s importance on a scale of 1 to 5.
- Team skills gap analysis: The next step is to conduct a skills gap analysis. Start by listing the names and roles of each team member alongside the relevant skills you determined in your skills and competencies analysis. You can then rate employees’ skill levels on a scale of 1 to 5, calculate the average and total scores, evaluate the skills gaps, and recommend the next steps.
- Training needs analysis: Based on the skills and skills gaps you’ve determined from the previous two analyses, determine organizational and team goals, as well as the job behaviors that will contribute to these goals. Next, list the skills and knowledge components needed to drive these behaviors and rank the level of each one (on a scale of 1 to 5).
This will help you decide what the required level of training (none, low, medium or high) for each skill and knowledge component, and make training recommendations based on these needs.
5 company workforce planning examples
1. ProRail Traffic Control
ProRail focuses on strategic, data-driven decision-making to address the challenge of increasing rail capacity by 30% over the next decade. It aims to automate and digitize traffic control processes rather than expand physical infrastructure, significantly impacting the roles of train traffic controllers and operational planners.
To make this transition as smooth as possible, ProRail has developed several strategic solutions. These include establishing a core HR team and engaging external consultants to develop a quantitative data model.
This model covers factors such as retirement projections, the impact of new technologies, and changes in operational requirements. The company also engages closely with management and subject matter experts to refine its understanding and projections.
ProRail’s approach to workforce planning also emphasizes the importance of change management and stakeholder communication. The leadership team provides transparency about future workforce needs and involves employees in the process of redesigning workstations.
Key takeaways
- Develop a data-driven approach, leveraging personnel data and quantitative modeling for actionable insights.
- Work closely with management, technical staff, and external consultants for cross-functional collaboration.
- Create flexible, adaptable planning tools that support ongoing refinement and scenario testing.
- Prioritize change management and stakeholder communication to manage the human aspects of technological and organizational change.
- Consider natural attrition as a way to manage workforce reductions when aligned with technological advancements.
- Gradually implement changes to balance operational continuity with evolving workforce requirements.
2. Google
Google uses advanced technologies and statistical models to anticipate and address people management challenges and opportunities.
The company has developed several technological solutions and practices, including predictive modeling tools to forecast people management issues, ‘What If’ analysis for scenario planning, and data-driven hiring processes that involve computer-generated interview questions.
The tech giant has also implemented HR predictive analysis to estimate employee retention risks and track advanced metrics, such as time to productivity and the cost of achieving optimum productivity.
Key takeaways
- Embrace data and analytics in HR decision-making processes.
- Develop predictive models to anticipate future workforce needs and challenges.
- Implement ‘What If’ scenario planning to prepare for various possible futures.
- Focus on retention by identifying factors contributing to employee turnover.
- Automate and optimize hiring processes.
- Track advanced metrics beyond basic hiring statistics to gain deeper insights.
- Continuously refine workforce planning models based on new data and outcomes.
3. AT&T
AT&T has developed a concept called Workplace 4.0: The Collaboratory to represent a balanced, collaborative, and interactive environment. It aims to create a future-ready workplace that embraces technological innovation, flexibility, and employee-centric practices.
Since the shift towards hybrid work and the increasing demand for flexibility among employees, AT&T decided to give employees more autonomy over their work locations and environments. The company’s leadership also understands that the future workplace includes not just human-to-human interactions but also machine-to-machine and human-to-machine relationships.
To prepare for this, AT&T has developed several technological solutions. These include unified communications and collaboration tools like AT&T Office@Hand, which enables seamless work from anywhere, and AT&T Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams. It also offers VoIP solutions and remote access tools to support distributed workforces.
AT&T also emphasizes continuous learning and development. It recognizes the need for technical skills and ‘enduring capabilities’ such as adaptability, problem-solving, and creativity. The company also sees potential in using advanced technologies like Extended Reality (XR) for training and collaboration.
Key takeaways
- Develop a clear hybrid work model that offers employees flexibility and choice of work location.
- Invest in unified communication and collaboration tools that support seamless work from anywhere.
- Consider implementing VoIP and cloud-based solutions to reduce complexity and improve connectivity.
- Build a strong digital vision and provide the necessary tools to drive innovation and collaboration.
4. IBM
IBM’s AI-Based People Strategy represents a shift from traditional head-counting to a skills-based approach using actionable, predictive insights from AI and advanced analytics.
The strategy acknowledges that skills gaps must close at speed and that millions of workers globally will need to switch jobs and learn new skills due to digitization, automation, and advances in AI.
To support this, IBM has developed several technological solutions. These include a state-of-the-art AI system that determines employee skills and proficiency levels based on individual digital footprints, a cognitive career coach to help employees navigate job opportunities and career paths, and a machine-learning model to inform salary decisions.
The company also emphasizes cultural transformation and new ways of working. It has trained its HR department in agile practices and design thinking, promoting a culture that values self-disruption, co-creation, and continuous learning. As a result, IBM’s HR toolkit benefits from advanced technologies like AI, automation, and analytics.
Key takeaways
- Develop a skills-based people strategy that leverages AI and advanced analytics for workforce planning.
- Invest in AI systems that can determine and track employee skills and proficiency levels.
- Implement cognitive tools for career coaching and personalized learning recommendations.
- Consider using machine learning models to inform HR decisions, such as salary ranges and changes.
- Promote a culture of agile practices, design thinking, and continuous learning.
- Continuously adapt workforce planning strategies to keep pace with technological advancements and changing business landscapes.
5. Unilever
Unilever’s shift from a traditional job-based model to a skills-based approach has led to a more agile, adaptable work environment that balances stability for workers with organizational flexibility.
Unilever has also developed several innovative solutions, such as the ‘U-Worker’ concept, which offers employees a guaranteed minimum retainer and core benefits while allowing them to contract for short-term projects. The U-Day initiative introduced a restructured 2+2+1 work week, allocating specific time for collaboration, deep work, and self-directed learning.
Additionally, Unilever emphasizes output-based performance and experimentation with new work models. The company has shifted its focus from time spent working to results, leading to initiatives like ‘Deep Work Fridays’ and trials of a four-day workweek in New Zealand.
Key takeaways
- Shift focus from job titles to skills when defining roles and making workforce decisions.
- Create systems that allow skills to move fluidly within the organization, matching talent to tasks and projects.
- Consider introducing more flexible work arrangements that balance stability with agility.
- Allocate specific time for employees to focus on skills development and learning.
- Encourage and support employees to develop skills outside their current roles to increase versatility.
- Shift from time-based to results-based performance evaluation.
- Be willing to trial new work models, such as shorter workweeks or meeting-free periods.
- Take into account individuals’ unique combinations of skills, interests, and motivations.
- Focus on developing skills to prepare for the future, not just those required for current roles.
To sum up
Strategic workforce planning lets organizations align their human capital with long-term business goals. By analyzing current workforce capabilities, forecasting future needs, and identifying gaps, you can implement effective workforce planning. This also enables your company to optimize resource allocation, support talent development, manage risks, and drive organizational success.
Workforce planning templates can significantly streamline this process, providing structure and consistency. These templates offer a framework for systematically approaching different aspects of workforce management. They also help document current workforce status, project future needs, identify skill gaps, and create actionable plans for recruitment, training, and resource optimization.
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Nadine von Moltke was the Managing Editor of Entrepreneur magazine South Africa for over ten years. She has interviewed over 400 business owners and professionals across different sectors and industries and writes thought leadership content and how-to advice for businesses across the globe.
