Given today’s disruptive and rapidly evolving business landscape, staying ahead of the curve with strategic workforce planning is critical to long-term business growth, success, and relevance. While HR and talent teams have traditionally been seen as transactional and a cost center, HR leaders play an essential role in helping organizations adapt their workforces to meet shifting business priorities — including integrating artificial intelligence and other emerging technology.
Organizations that don’t prioritize talent as a key driver of business growth often end up in a pendulum swing of continually hiring and laying off recruitment and talent acquisition teams — and other employees — as market demands and economic conditions change. According to research from 365 Data Science, HR and talent sourcing roles were among the most impacted by the mass layoffs in 2022 and 2023. And in the absence of a proactive, strategic workforce planning strategy, businesses are often unprepared to effectively respond to disruption.
Learn actionable ways your organization can stay ahead of the curve on talent in today’s dynamic and tech-driven environment.
In large organizations, dedicated HR business partners (HRBPs) play a pivotal role in driving talent strategy. Some of an HRBP’s primary responsibilities often include gaining in-depth knowledge of business needs across the organizations, as well as understanding potential challenges and future priorities. This detailed knowledge enables HRBPs to proactively plan for the right talent for long-term business needs – meaning professionals with the skills and an adaptive mindset to drive the company forward in a technology-driven world.
Unfortunately, at many organizations, HR and talent strategy is more reactive than proactive, with talent teams reacting to immediate needs without considering long-term strategic implications. This reactive approach is no longer effective in a business landscape in which the skills needed tomorrow may be drastically different from those required today.
Amid rapid AI adoption, a survey from edX found that executives estimate nearly half (49%) of the skills that existed in their workforce in 2023 won’t be relevant in 2025. The executives surveyed also feel that 47% of their workforce is unprepared for the future of work. Because of this, proactively planning for future talent and skills needs is more important than ever before. This includes business and line leaders closely partnering with HRBPs early on to show they value HR leaders’ expertise and show they’re proactive, rather than reactive with their talent planning.
A top priority for an HRBP and other HR and talent leaders should be predictive workforce planning, which involves using data analytics and AI to anticipate future talent needs. This process goes beyond traditional workforce planning by using advanced algorithms to analyze historical data, industry trends, and internal company data to predict future skill requirements and potential talent gaps.
Some of the benefits of leveraging predictive workforce planning include: placing an emphasis on proactive — rather than reactive — hiring, reducing time to hire for leadership and other critical roles, and improving alignment between talent acquisition efforts and long-term strategic business goals.
Succession planning and talent pipelining are both critical components of any successful workforce planning strategy.
Through succession planning, you can identify and develop high-potential employees who can fill essential roles in the future. This can help enable your organization to decrease the risks of future leadership gaps, such as lapses in productivity. Another advantage of effective succession planning is that your business can support a culture of ongoing growth and development, which can drive increased employee engagement.
While succession planning often focuses on developing internal employees, talent pipelining involves building a talent pool or network of qualified external candidates to quickly fill positions when the opportunity arises. A survey from Symphony Talent found that while 48% of HR and talent leaders believe building a talent pipeline is a top priority in 2024, 68% find reaching the right target audience challenging.
Some ways your organization can build a talent pipeline include implementing an employee referral program or using a candidate relationship management (CRM) platform or other HR technology to proactively source and build relationships with prospective candidates.
Proactive talent planning only works when HR and talent acquisition leaders have buy-in and support from decision makers at the top of the organization, including senior leaders and executives. It’s crucial for boards and leadership teams to understand that talent strategy is not just an HR function – it’s a core business imperative.
Including HR and talent strategy outcomes as part of broader strategic business goals can help hold teams accountable to taking a forward-thinking approach to talent planning. The good news is that more organizations are adopting this mindset, with Gartner research showing that since the pandemic, 70% of HR leaders say they have more opportunities for impact and 58% report they have more authority to determine strategic priorities.
Some ways to support this include:
In today’s dynamic and tech-driven world, the businesses that grow and thrive will be those that view talent as a strategic asset and stay ahead of the curve in their talent strategies. It’s time for all business leaders to see HR professionals as true strategic partners in shaping their organizations’ futures. By embracing this mindset shift, HR leaders can help their organization navigate disruption in the evolving business landscape and build more agile workforces.
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