Securing The Future

Preparing the workforce for the uncertainties of the future is the optimum way to create a competitive advantage.

- Anurag Chourasia

Workforce planning is a key component of talent management that makes optimum utilisation of human resources in an organisation, and is ideally expected to help gain sustainable competitive advantage. An organisation can generate the capability to achieve success even in dynamic business scenarios by leveraging human resources. Strategic workforce planning (SWP) helps forecast requirements—both quantitative and qualitative in the medium- to longterm—such as skills, qualification, technical competencies, and behavioural xyz). Integrating workforce supply and demand analysis into the strategic planning cycle ensures organisations have the ‘five rights’— right number of people, right skills, [in the] right place, [at the] right time, and [at the] right cost.

Before the constantly changing business landscape of the digital era, organisations could get away with underestimating the importance of planning as part of their workforce strategy. However, this is changing. Lower entry barriers and integrated value chains are eroding organisational boundaries and propelling industry convergence. Shifts in business, operating models, technology, and workforce are creating an atmosphere conducive to changing the workforce planning approach. Disruptive digital advances such as Industry 4.0, automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning will have a significant impact on workforce. An aging workforce, demographic shifts, gig economy, and globalisation are creating turbulence in workforce supply and demand. We are at an inflection point with respect to the workforce planning approach.

We must understand the maturity journey of workforce planning approaches from traditional workforce planning to strategic workforce planning. These two differ from each other on account of the data taken as input, the analysis involved, and the outcomes.