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Workforce Planning

From strategy to work, skills, and organization

While the strategy and long-term plan are often well-grounded in finance and marketing, a chapter dealing with the people in the organization, the human capital, is missing. In fact, every strategy and multi-year plan should contain a chapter on ‘people’. Ideally, there should be a strategic workforce plan, outlining the number of people (headcount), their characteristics (competencies) and the funding (remuneration) needed at which place (location), in which form (employment relationship) and at which point in time (time).  

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) is the appropriate method to create a strategic workforce plan.  

Highberg helps organizations set up their strategic workforce planning (SWP). We can do this in four ways, ranging from furnishing a strategic workforce planning model for you to work with to taking the entire process out of your hands. 

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"Every organization has a strategy, and every organization makes a multi-year plan. It is important to be aware of the people who make up the organization"

Strategic Workforce Planning

What is Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP)? 

Ask ten people the question “What is Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP)”, and you will get ten different answers. Here is an attempt to come to a definition:  

In the world of workforce planning, a distinction is made between operational, tactical and strategic workforce planning (SWP); sometimes talent management is also still included. 

We will first explain the distinction between operational, tactical and strategic workforce planning.

Operational, Tactical and Strategic Workforce Planning

  • Operational Workforce Planning refers to the deployment of staff in the short term. It is also called rostering. The time horizon for Operational Workforce Planning is usually 0-6 months. 

  • Tactical workforce planning concerns the deployment of staff in the medium term. The time horizon is usually 6-18 months. Tactical workforce planning usually coincides with thecalculation of next year’s budgets. As such, it is sometimes called ‘budgetting’. Another term that is sometimes used is ‘capacity planning’. 

  • Finally, there is Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP). Here, the planning horizon is 18+ months. Besides a longer time horizon, there are several other key differences with the previouslymentioned forms of HR workforce planning.  

    Strategic workforce planning (SWP) explicitly looks at trends/scenarios that could influence the need for staff. This includes matters such as legislation and regulation, ageing, digitisation, the launching of new products, etc. Since the planning horizon lies further into the future, a strategic workforce plan is exposed to greater uncertainty than an operational or tactical plan.  

    After all, a lot can happen between today and, say, 3 years from now. Since the uncertainty is greater in Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), a plan that points in the right direction is usually good enough, whereas an operational plan must be 100% correct. 

The relationship between SWP and talent management

Now that the difference between operational, tactical and strategic planning is clear, we can explain the relationship between strategic workforce planning (SWP) and talent management. People who want to get started with strategic workforce planning (SWP) sometimes associate it with issues like succession management or personal development.  

We at Highberg believe that these issues are part of talent management, however, making them the results of Strategic workforce planning (SWP). Once it has become clear how manypeople of a certain type are needed at a certain time and place, it is possible to determine how to meet this need. Internal talent development is a route that is often used to achievethis.  

Another route is that of external talent acquisition through recruitment, partnerships or takeovers. 

How we do it

  • SWP Model 

    Firstly, Highberg can furnish a Strategic Workforce Planning model which your organization can use after a short user training course. 

    SWP Outsourcing 

    Secondly, Highberg can handle all aspects of Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) in the organisation, including software, project management, data processing, reporting and workshops to uncover assumptions and trends. The final product of such a collaboration is a ready-to-use strategic workforce plan and an SWP process that has been both proven andrecorded, so that the organization can periodically repeat it. 

  • SWP Roles 

    We can fulfill a specific role in your Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) process, for example that of a Data Scientist, who collects, compiles and structures data, carries out statisticalanalyses and produces reports.  

    Or the role of a project manager, who guides the organization through the Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) process in a structured manner and ensures that all deliverables are furnished on time, within budget and at the right quality. 

  • SWP Training 

    We offer Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) training courses for organizations and individuals who wish to educate themselves about the SWP process. This includes questions such as which functions play a role in Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), which steps are to be taken to arrive at a strategic workforce plan, which data are needed, how to determine relevant trends and scenarios, how to translate these trends and scenarios into workforce impact, etc. 

Benefits of Strategic Workforce Planning

  • Firstly, it is a way to implement the strategy properly and in a timely manner, leading to a competitive advantage and thus turnover and/or margin growth. “Get the right people on the bus in the right seats”- Jim Collins – Author of Good to Great.
  • Secondly, workforce planning is a way to keep costs under control. Organizations with an early awareness of which people and competencies they need to achieve their strategy are able to anticipate.
  • Thirdly, it provides the organization with tools to flesh out follow-up plans based on the strategic workforce plan. For example, Recruitment can determine the level of future demand forthe organization’s services and thus the number of people they will need to recruit, while the Learning department knows which subjects require training and how many people will needto acquire certain skills.
  • Fourthly, a strategic workforce plan brings peace of mind. If there is timely certainty about the organization’s course and its effects on the demand for staff, both can be communicatedat an early stage.

Want to know more about SWP?

Reach out to Kelly Stay in touch
Kelly Hauwert is Senior Consultant at Highberg and achieved a MSC in Policy, Communication and Organization at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam. Kelly advises organizations on workforce strategy and HR transformation. She helps leadership teams translate business strategy into workforce decisions around skills, work design, and organization structure. Her work combines strategic workforce planning, people analytics, and organization design to enable evidence-based decisions and build future-ready organizations. Her strength lies in translating complex workforce questions into clear choices for leaders. She combines analytical thinking with a pragmatic approach, helping organizations move from strategy to concrete action. By connecting people, data, and business goals, she creates clarity and momentum for sustainable change. Want to know more? Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn.
  • kelly.hauwert@highberg.com
Get to know Kelly
Kelly Hauwert
Senior Consultant

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