From Reactive to Proactive:

How Strategic Workforce Planning

Can Transform Your Talent
Analytics Strategy

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 1
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
The Vital Importance of Strategic Workforce Planning 4
From Reactive to Proactive Talent Retention 5
Thrive No Matter What the Future Brings 7

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 2
Introduction
You’d be hard-pressed to find a business leader who
hasn’t heard the old adage: failure to plan is planning
to fail. Yet, 88% of Fortune 500 companies that existed
in 1955 are gone today. 52% of those disappeared in
the last 15 years alone. Has anyone thought to
ask why?
One of the most critical components of achieving
long-term success is strategic workforce planning. With
a constantly changing job market and economy, it is
vital for organizations to have not only a well-defined
strategy but also a plan to ensure that they have the
right people in the right roles to execute that strategy.

Due to the sheer nature of the rapidly evolving Empowering people and talent analytics teams by
business landscape, organizations need to be agile implementing strategic workforce planning with the
and resilient to stay ahead of the curve. Yet 40% of help of eQ8 has proven to be an effective approach for
current Fortune 500 companies are predicted to be organizations to achieve this goal.
out of business in the next ten years. The key problem
causing mass business failure is that many companies
In this guide, we will explore the importance of
view talent and workforce planning through reactive
strategic workforce planning, the drawbacks of reactive
measures alone, which destroy the company’s value,
approaches to retention and talent planning, and how
ruin culture, and are clearly unsustainable in the
eQ8 can help organizations make data-driven decisions
long term.
to future-proof their workforce.
What’s the alternative? To view workforce and talent
planning through a proactive lens instead.

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 3
The Vital Importance
of Strategic Workforce Strategic workforce planning is a process that aligns
Planning an organization’s workforce requirements with its
business goals and objectives. It enables organizations
to anticipate future workforce needs, considering both
internal and external hindrances, and proactively
Strategic workforce planning is a process that aligns
plan for them before they become detrimental. At its
an organization’s workforce requirements with its
core, strategic workforce planning helps organizations
business goals and objectives. It enables organizations
optimize their workforce by ensuring the right people
to anticipate future workforce needs, considering both
are in the right roles at the right time.
internal and external hindrances, and proactively
plan for them before they become detrimental. At its
In the short term, it also enables organizations to
core, strategic workforce planning helps organizations
identify critical gaps in their talent pool and develop
optimize their workforce by ensuring the right people
proactive strategies to fill those gaps. Strategic
are in the right roles at the right time.
workforce planning allows organizations to manage
workforce risks, such as attrition, succession planning,
In the short term, it also enables organizations to
and workforce demographics. This is particularly
identify critical gaps in their talent pool and develop
important in today’s business environment, where
proactive strategies to fill those gaps. Strategic
skills shortages are a significant challenge for many
workforce planning allows organizations to manage
industries.
workforce risks, such as attrition, succession planning,
and workforce demographics. This is particularly
important in today’s business environment, where
skills shortages are a significant challenge for
many industries.

Strategic Workforce Planning for People & Talent

Analytics
The role of people and talent analytics teams has
become increasingly important in today’s business
environment, and it’s encouraging to see so many
organizations implementing these teams. Talent
analysts are responsible for providing insights that
help make informed decisions about the workforce.
Strategic Workforce Planning helps these teams collect
and analyze data on workforce demographics, skill
sets, and performance, enabling them to better align
the workforce with overall objectives.

With SWP, people and talent analytics teams can

provide accurate and reliable information to senior
management to ensure that the workforce is aligned
with the organization’s goals. But why is this role
so important?

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 4
From Reactive to Proactive Talent Retention
Approximately 1,200 people lose their jobs to lay-offs every day in the tech space alone.

Is it any wonder that so many Fortune 500 companies
have gone obsolete when the vast majority are hiring
and firing on a massive scale in response to whichever
way the market winds blow?
To put it plainly, too many companies view talent
planning through reactive measures alone. Doing so
will undoubtedly destroy the company’s value, ruin its
culture, and be unsustainable in the long term. Many
companies are aware that large-scale layoffs aren’t the
proper response, but only after it’s too late.

The National BBC

Yahoo Finance
British Airways to rehire 3,000 cabin Cruise giant Carnival UK accused of plan to
Slack wants to rehire former staff crew laid off during pandemic fire and rehire 900 crew
to fuel its generative A.I. ambitions
less than six months after layoffs

Business Insider
People Matters India
Salesforce to hire over 3,000 people despite brutal
job cuts earlier this year Amazon's layoff: Woman fired and
rehired, now back with same team
Investor's Business Daily

Alphabet Job Cuts Eyed Despite

Hiring Spree HRD America

Meta rehiring staff after massive

job cuts: reports Fortune

Elon Musk says “babies got thrown out with the bathwater” when
Business Insider he was axing Twitter jobs and not everyone should've been fired
Big Tech wants to rehire Business Insider
you. Should you go back?
Salesforce leaning on “boomerang” execs
to rejoin company after layoffs
Fortune

SAP eliminated 3,000 jobs. It's now hiring 1,000 mission-

critical roles with a focus on reskilling: “We cannot afford
Daily Mail
to have people stand still”
Amazon HR exec hints laid off workers may be eligible for rehire

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 5
Too many organizations take a reactive approach
to talent retention and hiring, focusing on filling
vacancies and addressing attrition as they arise. While Companies that use a best-in-breed
this approach may work in the short term, it is not SWP technology are 135% better able
sustainable in the long run, and current headlines to forecast future skills, 121% more
reflect it. likely to reduce turnover, and 48%
better equipped to help business
Reactive talent management makes it nearly leaders forecast.
impossible to develop long-term workforce strategies
that align with business goals. The overall result
is missed opportunities and a lack of agility as
organizations struggle to respond to changing market
conditions. Furthermore, the cost of reactive hiring and
retention is substantial.

If organizations took a proactive approach to workforce

planning, it may look something like this:
• They align what they were trying to achieve with
their financial results, their customer outcomes,
their people, and their purpose.
• They use scenario planning to understand possible
trajectories and forecast the resulting workforce
size, shape, and skills that are required to deliver
on it.
• They apply this view to hiring responsibly and
sustainably.
• They have a line of sight into changing
requirements for workforce size, shape, and
skills over time so they could anticipate shifts and
bring their people on the journey with them
where possible.
• They understand the workforce composition and
skills so that they can identify and plan how to
re-deploy, re-skill and re-engage.
• They can see well in advance where there are no
opportunities and kindly and humanely work with
these people to transition them over time rather
than overnight.

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 6
Thrive No Matter What the Future Brings
Companies often ask interviewees, “Where will you
be in 5 years?” But what about you, the organization?
Where will you be in five years? And what steps are you
taking to plan that far in advance?
Only one thing is certain. Organizations will continue
to face constant change and new challenges. Whether
through AI transformation, legislative changes,
environmental factors, natural disasters, or otherwise,
companies will never comfortably acclimate to a “new
normal” before another shift comes down the pike.
Proactive organizations are doing things
differently:
They’re prioritizing a strategic view
of their organization, aligning via
scenario models to create coherence
in where they are going and how
they will get there.
They forecast the workforce size,
shape, and skills required to deliver
on their business objectives and
transformation agendas.
They have a clear strategy on exactly
how to close the gap between where
they are and where they need to go.
From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic
Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide
SWP provides organizations with the reassurance that
they can survive and thrive through outside factors.
With SWP, organizations can identify the critical roles
that are essential for their long-term success. By
identifying these roles, organizations can focus on
retaining and developing the skills and competencies
needed to ensure that they have the right workforce
to execute their strategy. This approach enables
organizations to be more proactive in addressing
changes in the job market and to respond more
quickly to changes in the environment.
But strategic workforce planning doesn’t only allow
planning for outside forces. It enables organizations to
forecast necessary modifications while they plan major
internal changes, such as implementing new AI tech
initiatives, launching a new product, or opening new
offices around the world. Strategic workforce planning
empowers organizations to adapt to the drivers of the
business, whatever they may be.
7
Harnessing the Power of eQ8: Guide Your Success and It’s time to eliminate knee-jerk reactions to the world we
Future Proof Your Organization know will never stop changing.
eQ8 is the only dedicated end-to-end platform for Strategic workforce planning is a critical component
strategic workforce planning so you can prepare your of organizational success. Talent analytics teams
workforce for any future. With a comprehensive view play a crucial role in the process of SWP, and
of the workforce, including demographic data, skills, their involvement is essential to ensure that the
and experience, the platform enables organizations to organization has accurate and reliable information to
identify skills gaps, anticipate future workforce needs, make informed decisions.
and develop targeted strategies to address
talent shortages.
By harnessing the power of eQ8, organizations
can make data-driven decisions, future-proof their
workforce, and stay ahead of the competition.
Empowering your people analytics teams and
implementing strategic workforce planning into your
With eQ8, you can:
organization with the help of eQ8 is a vital
1. Easily share SWP plans across teams step towards achieving long-term success
and additional platforms to and sustainability.
improve alignment.
2. Determine the headcount required to
realize top-line Sales and Revenue.
3. Pinpoint the skills forecasts needed to
address the greatest risks for a modern
organization. Utilize external data with
key future-of-work insights.
4. Establish the absolute greatest impact
with a true business case approach. Buy,
build, borrow, bounce, bind,
and boost your way to successful
talent management.
5. Evaluate different scenarios and align
leaders across the business over the
most likely future and understand
the changes necessary to ensure a
successful future.

By leveraging eQ8, organizations can develop multiple

potential scenarios to test the impact of different
workforce strategies. This enables organizations
to identify risks and opportunities and make
informed decisions about their workforce. eQ8 helps
organizations future-proof their teams by providing
insights into emerging skills and trends, enabling them
to stay ahead of the curve.

From Reactive to Proactive: How Strategic

Workforce Planning Can Transform Your
Talent Analytics Strategy eBook/Guide 8
Moving Forward with Confidence
Schedule your free demo or product tour now
and secure your future success.

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