People are not disposable: embracing strategic workforce planning

If given the opportunity to be better prepared for choices to be made in the future, wouldn't you seize it? With strategic workforce planning, this is within reach. And while a perfect prediction of the future of our work landscape is not possible, it's still better to be prepared than to be behind the times. At Proximus, we think it's worth the investment.

Strategic workforce planning is a bit of a buzzword these days, and in case you're still unfamiliar with the term, let me explain it in a nutshell. Essentially, it is an exercise in which we try to predict the evolution of our workforce in the next four years, looking at business needs and market trends for that timeframe. The goal? To determine whether the skills present in our workforce will still match up with business demands in four years – and if not, to create a mitigation strategy.

Peering into the crystal ball

Strategic workforce planning pays off, but it is not easy. After all, we are asking division managers to take a look into the unprecedented future and predict what they will need in the longer term. This is all the more difficult at a time of unexpected, impactful events such as pandemics and wars. But even though there are many uncertainties and things that cannot be predicted, we are convinced that reflecting on them is more beneficial than simply letting things run their course.

The most obvious argument for engaging in strategic workforce planning is to try to avoid future redundancies, layoffs and other unpleasant measures with an impact on people. In 2019, for example, Proximus experienced a massive restructuring that is still reverberating. Current management is determined to avoid such rounds by better preparing for what the future may bring.

A second argument from an HR perspective is that recruiting is becoming increasingly challenging in today's labour market. Especially for highly specialized profiles, the number of resumes we receive that match the job description remains limited. Finding and retraining internal talent is therefore becoming more attractive. This also means that company-specific knowledge stays within the company, allowing experience to thrive.

Using time to your advantage

Of course, you can't look into the crystal ball once and be done with it. The challenge is to create a process that can be repeated every year. This way, we can simultaneously focus on the future, assess the present and take into account what we have learned from the past. This applies not only to evaluating our workforce and future business needs, but also to assessing the measures we take to bridge the gap between the two.

Those measures can take different forms. And in strategic workforce planning, we can use time to our advantage. A fictional example to illustrate: if we think we will need more customer representatives and fewer salespeople in five years, we can give our current salespeople ample time to consider shifting their focus and acquiring the necessary skills. Those not interested in such a shift, have time to consider an alternative path.

The key to success is to be realistic about the gaps we are trying to fill. Reskilling a salesperson to a customer representative might be feasible and many salespeople will likely be willing to do it; retraining a salesperson to a technician is more difficult and the idea is likely to be received less enthusiastically. Whatever the issues we try to anticipate, having time on our side to solve them is a huge advantage.

Strategic workforce planning: good for the economy

Last but not least, another benefit of strategic workforce planning that is less talked about: it benefits the economy as a whole. Strategic workforce planning by companies means that fewer people are affected by lay-offs or redundancies and more people have the opportunity to upskill and grow. Ultimately, this leads to more people in our society having the skills needed to fill demand today and tomorrow in the job market.

In conclusion, strategic workforce planning acknowledges that people are not disposable. It's a consciously chosen strategy that bears fruit for the overall image (the 'employer branding') of your company while strengthening the economy: in short, it's good for all concerned. As we at Proximus strive to make strategic workforce planning a permanent part of our HR policy, we hope that other companies will follow suit. Is your organisation doing the exercise yet?