Q.1 How well aligned are HR, Finance, Transformation and business leaders around workforce planning priorities, decisions and outcomes? Strategic alignment and collaboration
Workforce planning is fragmented, owned by individual teams, and triggered mainly by urgent headcount or cost requests A HR, Finance and business teams collaborate informally, but planning assumptions, ownership and decision rights are unclear B A repeatable planning conversation exists across key functions, but it is still largely annual, reactive and dependent on manual coordination C Planning is jointly owned across HR, Finance and the business, with agreed governance, regular reviews and clear links to strategy, budget and transformation priorities D Workforce planning is an enterprise capability: leaders use one shared plan, one set of assumptions and clear decision rights to connect strategy, work, cost, risk and execution E Q.2 How reliable and connected is your data across work, skills, roles, positions, people and cost? Data foundation and organization system
Core people, position and cost data is inconsistent, incomplete or spread across systems, making even basic workforce analysis slow and hard to trust A Data can be assembled for planning, but it requires significant manual cleansing, is limited to in situ employees and does not provide a view of vacancies or future workforce demand B We have an accurate positions hierarchy that gives a fuller seat view of the organization, linking people to filled and vacant positions, but roles, work, skills and cost are not yet fully connected C Planning data is actively managed and enriched with defined roles to support job architecture, cost and external benchmarks, supporting fuller scenario modelling and better decision making, but actual work, activity and skills data are still only partly measured D The organization has a trusted, flexible data spine connecting work, skills, roles, positions, people, cost and external intelligence, enabling plans to move from strategy to execution without rebuilding the model E Q.3 How well do you understand the work that needs to be done, how it is changing with AI, and what this means for roles, skills, positions, FTE and cost? Work-led planning and scenario modeling
Plans are mainly based on current headcount, vacancies or budget limits, with little visibility of the work being performed or how demand is changing A Teams discuss skills, roles or automation impact, but assumptions about work demand are mostly qualitative, inconsistent or disconnected from workforce plans B Some scenarios model future workforce demand, supply and gaps, but work redesign, skills and labor market intelligence are only partially reflected in planning decisions C Planning starts from the work to be done, uses scenarios to test business, AI, automation and productivity assumptions, and translates demand into roles, skills, positions, FTE and cost D The organization continuously connects the work people do, work being redesigned, skills, external intelligence and scenario modelling to identify gaps early and choose the best build, buy, borrow, bot or redesign actions E Q.4 How well does your technology support workforce planning across strategic, operational and execution horizons? Technology and connected planning
Planning is performed mainly in spreadsheets and disconnected systems, with heavy manual effort to combine HR, Finance, payroll and operational data A Different planning tools and reports exist, but teams frequently export data, reconcile versions and make decisions outside the system B Technology supports parts of the planning process, such as dashboards, position planning or scenario models, but plans do not yet flow cleanly across horizons or functions C A dedicated planning platform connects baseline data, scenarios, position plans and monitoring, with workflows that support collaboration and decision governance D Technology enables one governed plan across strategic, annual and operational planning, with auditable assumptions, connected data, AI assistance and continuous monitoring against reality E Q.5 How confident is your organization in turning workforce plans into action and improving planning maturity over time? Capability, execution and continuous improvement
There is limited in-house workforce planning expertise, so planning relies on ad hoc effort, external support or a small number of specialists A Some capability exists, but execution depends on a few experienced people and often slows when business demand, data quality or stakeholder alignment becomes difficult B A defined planning team or centre of excellence supports the process, but capability transfer, business adoption and repeatable execution are still uneven C The organization has skilled practitioners, clear methods and stakeholder routines that help convert plans into hiring, redeployment, redesign, skills and cost actions D Workforce planning is embedded as a repeatable enterprise capability, with expert practitioners, business ownership, clear governance, continuous monitoring and ongoing capability transfer E