Passisto
HR & People

Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is the process of forecasting the people and skills an organisation will need in the future, comparing them with current staff, and deciding how to close the gaps through hiring, training or mobility.

Definition

Workforce planning looks at the people an organisation has today, the people it will need given its strategy, and the difference between the two. It considers both numbers and skills: how many people, in which roles, with which competencies, and by when. In France it is close to what is known as GPEC.

It follows a simple sequence: clarify business plans, estimate future demand for roles and skills, analyse the current workforce including expected departures and retirements, identify gaps, and choose actions among recruitment, training, internal mobility, reorganisation or outsourcing. The plan is reviewed regularly, since forecasts change.

It matters because hiring and training take time: waiting until a need appears means paying more or delaying projects. The pitfalls are plans that only count headcount without skills, long forecasts that nobody updates, and planning that stays in HR without input from managers. Scenarios are often more useful than a single forecast.

Key points

  • Compare future needs, in numbers and skills, with the current workforce.
  • Include expected departures and retirements in the forecast.
  • Close gaps with a mix of hiring, training, internal mobility and reorganisation.
  • Build it with managers and review regularly; forecasts change.
  • Scenarios help when the future is uncertain.

Example

A company of 300 employees plans to open a new service line next year. Workforce planning shows that it will need eight people with a skill that only two employees currently have. HR decides to train four existing employees, hire three people and review progress each quarter.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between workforce planning and recruitment planning?

Recruitment planning only lists the hires to make. Workforce planning looks at the whole workforce and considers training, mobility and organisation as well as hiring.

How far ahead should we plan?

It depends on the business. Many organisations plan one year in detail and look at two to three years in broader terms, updating the plan regularly.

What data do we need?

Headcount by team and role, skills, expected departures, business plans from managers, and past hiring and turnover data. Start with what you have and improve over time.

Related terms

Internal MobilityInternal mobility is the movement of employees to new roles, teams or locations within the same organisation, through promotion, lateral moves or projects, as an alternative to external hiring or departure.Employee TurnoverEmployee turnover is the rate at which employees leave an organisation over a given period and are replaced, usually expressed as a percentage of the average headcount.People AnalyticsPeople analytics is the use of HR and workforce data to answer business questions about hiring, retention, engagement and performance, so that decisions about people rest on evidence as well as experience.HR Business PartnerAn HR business partner, or HRBP, is an HR professional embedded alongside a business unit or leadership team, who advises managers on people matters and aligns HR practices with the unit's goals.

AI conversations, human decisions

Passisto holds structured voice conversations with candidates, employees, clients and students, and turns them into reports your team can act on.

Discover Passisto Talk to us
What is Workforce Planning? Definition and examples | Passisto