Strategic Failure Is Not an Option | Talent Quarterly

Well before the coronavirus, many organizations were increasingly recognizing the importance of strategic workforce planning (SW)) to business success. And now that we are in the midst of COVID-19 and feeling the impact it has on businesses and their people, the importance of SWP and planning, in general, has been thrust into the spotlight. As organizations continue to evaluate their SWP capabilities or think through how they can get their SWP efforts off the ground, this article provides suggestions for doing so. Figure 2 can be used by organizations to understand the level of SWP maturity at which they’re operating including 1) headcount planning /budgeting, 2) workforce analytics focused on supply, 3) SWP for a subset of the business, 4) fully integrated enterprise SWP. A good starting point is to evaluate where your organization is on the SWP continuum and then determine how you can evolve your SWP to the desired capability. One thing to reinforce is that SWP should incorporate scenario planning where multiple possible futures are envisioned and plans developed. Envisioning and planning for multiple scenarios will enable organizations to be prepared if those scenarios unfold.