How to Turn Strategic Workforce Planning into Impactful Action (an Interview with David Wilkins)
Jan 28, 2025
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David Wilkins, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at TalentNeuron, shares his expertise on transforming strategic workforce planning. He discusses the importance of data integration for effective decision-making and the need to move beyond basic tools like Excel. David highlights the critical question of ownership in workforce strategies and how aligning internal and external data can drive impactful actions. He emphasizes the role of continuous planning and analytics in navigating workforce challenges in today’s agile business environment.
Strategic workforce planning should be viewed as an ongoing capability, enabling organizations to continuously adapt to market demands and talent challenges.
Integrating internal and external data is crucial for effective strategic workforce planning, enhancing decision-making and ensuring alignment with labor market trends.
Deep dives
Importance of Strategic Workforce Planning
Strategic workforce planning (SWP) has gained significant importance for organizations, especially as data-driven insights reshape the competitive landscape. This critical process aids organizations in proactively tackling current and future talent challenges, which are compounded by rapid changes and unpredictability in the market. Companies must adopt a mindset of continuous planning instead of viewing SWP as a one-time, annual exercise. Embracing SWP as an ongoing capability equips businesses to navigate complexities and ensure they can adapt to the ever-evolving demands of the workforce.
Challenges and Priorities in Workforce Planning
Organizations face various challenges in strategic workforce planning, underscored by a survey revealing that 67% of respondents deemed SWP very important. Key challenges identified include understanding the talent landscape, demand planning, skill analysis, and labor market intelligence. Interestingly, while these areas are prioritized, many organizations report low maturity in their SWP capabilities, often relying heavily on traditional tools like Excel for analysis. This gap highlights the need for better tooling and more sophisticated approaches to address strategic workforce planning effectively.
The Role of Technology in Workforce Transformation
The integration of technology into strategic workforce planning is essential but should be complemented by cultural and systemic changes within organizations. Companies need to stop treating SWP as an isolated financial exercise and instead view it as a continuous process that aligns with their overall business strategy. This requires breaking down departmental silos, fostering strong internal collaboration, and developing a workforce shaping mentality. Establishing a culture of agility and adaptability will enable organizations to respond effectively to workforce dynamics and optimize their talent acquisition and development strategies.
Leveraging Data for Informed Decision-Making
Organizations must focus on specific internal and external data sets to enhance strategic workforce planning initiatives. An effective data architecture requires integrating both internal talent data and external labor market intelligence, allowing for a comprehensive view of supply and demand trends. By employing similar algorithms for evaluating internal and external talent, companies can ensure consistency and clarity in their strategic decisions. This data-driven approach, enriched by AI and machine learning capabilities, leads to more informed forecasting and effective workforce development strategies.
Are you still struggling to get it right? Are you struggling to make that transition from Excel sheets, align your data effectively, or executing your plans in a way that drives real impact? In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, host David Green sits down with David Wilkins, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at TalentNeuron, to uncover what it really takes to master SWP.
Drawing on years of experience and TalentNeuron’s extensive research, David shares actionable insights and forward-thinking strategies to help organisations transform their workforce planning efforts. So, hit play to learn more about:
Why the question of ownership is central to the success of SWP—and who should take the lead
How to align internal and external data for smarter, more impactful decision-making
Why getting the right data architecture in place is just the first step—and what comes next
The tools, strategies and skills organisations need to move beyond traditional methods and drive real workforce transformation
Whether you’re leading SWP efforts, navigating workforce transformation, or just trying to keep up with the rapid pace of change, this episode, sponsored by Talent Neuron, is an absolute must-listen.
About TalentNeuron:
TalentNeuron is shaping the future of workforce transformation. From Strategic Workforce Planning to skill gap analysis, TalentNeuron seamlessly combines external talent intelligence with internal data into one powerful platform. Join leading global enterprises already using actionable insights to boost organisational readiness and performance. Visit talentneuron.com today.