Workforce planning can be a frustrating exercise when performed without the availability of adequate data. It requires bringing together different types of information from specific departments, markets, and global talent trends that suit the situation.
Information such as historical performance data, the current state of the talent ecosystem, and the company’s workforce together make up the foundation of workforce planning.
The global talent landscape is shifting faster than ever. Digital transformation, the pandemic, cultural developments, and the need for D&I have strongly contributed to this shift.
HR leaders of 2021 are stuck in a situation where having an unplanned workforce can push their organizations back by years, and they do not have enough data to do it on their own.
Some HR leaders have attempted to implement workforce planning independently, with limited data and insights, resulting in a poorly planned workforce. However, since AI has entered workforce management, things seem to be changing for the good.
With the help of AI, Modern HR leaders have started to utilize global talent data, organizational workforce metrics, and predicted trends that facilitate workforce planning the right way.
Here is why you should let AI guide your workforce planning:
Leverage a 360-degree view of the Talent Ecosystem
One of the biggest hurdles in workforce planning is the availability of data about the talent ecosystem.
With AI, you get access to the entire talent ecosystem and understand what is happening in the talent market and how you can utilize it to your benefit.
One of the finest aspects of AI is its ability to collect, organize and present data in its most relevant form. AI presents talent data in a way that is easy to grasp and needs one glance to derive information from.
You can use AI to track industries, organizations, locations, and individual profiles combined with job roles and universities that may be relevant to you.
With such an extent of data available at your disposal, the process of workforce planning becomes smooth and organized.
Forecast and analyze talent trends
It is no secret that job roles are evolving as we move forward with a digital-first approach to work. Today, new-age job roles that leverage talent in AI, ML, Cloud, Data Science, IoT, and other allied fields are looking at a talent gap of ~20% to 33% on average.
When planning your workforce, it is essential to prepare for the future, and for that purpose, forecasting becomes paramount.
When we talk about forecasting using data, AI is the first to come to mind. That is because AI has the capability to transform existing data into predicted trends and forecast the future.
AI uses its data stack and lets you find out:
- Digital technologies that are transforming businesses
- Emerging new-age roles
- Skillsets needed for long-term success
- Present-day talent needs
- Any reskilling and L&D programs as needed
With AI, you can analyze how a particular role is supposed to evolve and what it will require in the future. This information can help you prepare years ahead of your competition and make your workforce ready for a global change.
Track your Competition and their talent strategies
Since AI-based talent intelligence platforms come with an evolving bundle of global talent data, they also give you a peek into your competitor’s talent needs and strategies.
Tracking your peers and how they are leveraging global talent can help you understand what needs to be changed within your organization.
With AI, you can access global competitor data and analyze their talent strategies across locations and job roles.
This information can help you understand what skill sets are needed for today, how they are leveraging it and how you can, and if you need to reskill, upskill or hire new talent to fill the right job roles.
When you start to analyze your competitor’s workforce plan, you get into the process of crafting a more detailed and data-backed workforce plan for your organization.
Workforce planning remains incomplete if it is only coming from within the organization. It is crucial to analyze market-wide talent, competitor-specific talent, and organizational talent together to craft a perfect workforce plan.
Workforce planning is a prerequisite to running organizations smoothly and delivering exceptional results. When your organization tackles workforce challenges, it can result in higher employee satisfaction, overall productivity, and good retention rates while smoothening the operations within.
Using a tool like Draup for talent can make workforce planning smooth and fast, considering it analyses more than 10 Mn data points every day spread across 33 industries and 4 Mn+ career paths. Being an analytics-driven workforce planning tool, it can eliminate challenges and make planning a fact-based, objective, and systematic process.
