Reflecting on 2024, and Preparing for 2025 - Workforce Planning Exchange
If you joined us for this session, you know we shared an inspiring mix of stories, achievements, and ambitions from this past year. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry—you’ll find everything you need here to catch up and feel ready to jump into the 2025 Exchange series.
This session wasn’t just about looking back; it was about gearing up for what’s next. Members shared their most significant wins, discussed challenges they overcame, and brainstormed priorities for the year ahead. It’s clear there’s a lot to celebrate—and even more to strive for.
Your Successes in 2024
This year, you and your peers made big strides in workforce planning and readiness. Here are some of the highlights:
- Formalizing Workforce Planning: HealthPoint took a deep dive into data—like absenteeism and onboarding metrics—to convince leadership that workforce planning needs to be proactive, not reactive. Their work revealed gaps that no one had noticed, paving the way for better planning in 2025.
- Aligning to Business Strategy: Lucid transformed how HR collaborates with production teams, ensuring workforce plans are tightly linked to operational goals.
- Position-Based Planning: Dow Chemical shared how they’re transitioning from headcount-focused planning to a more granular, position-based approach using tools like Workday. This allows for detailed scenario planning—whether growth, stability, or restructuring is on the horizon.
These stories were just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone’s contributions made it clear that this group is tackling challenges with creativity and determination.
Where We’re Headed in 2025
As we look ahead, you helped shape the priorities for the upcoming year. Here’s a sneak peek at what we’ll explore together:
Big News! We’re incorporating Readiness!
Our biggest news is that the Workforce Planning Exchange is expanding in 2025 to also focus on Workforce Readiness. The change reflects the group’s broader focus on preparing organizations for future challenges. While workforce planning remains central, the addition of "readiness" highlights the importance of aligning skills, talent mobility, and strategic agility to ensure organizations have the right people in the right roles at the right time. This updated name better represents the evolving priorities and diverse audience our Exchange.
With that in mind, below are some of the topics those present most wanted to hear about in upcoming conversations:
- Industry trends and emerging technologies: how are AI and HR tech transforming workforce planning? (We’ll explore this in our February meeting)
- Skills-Based Planning: How do you identify, measure, and close skills gaps? This includes analyzing what you have, what you need, and turning those insights into action. (We’ll be looking at this in our April meeting)
- Best Practices for Workforce Readiness: Let’s hear from organizations that have mastered readiness, whether it’s responding to unexpected changes or rolling out new initiatives.
- AI in Workforce Planning: What skills might AI take over? What roles will still need the human touch? Deconstructing jobs to find that balance will be a key topic.
- Templates and Tools: You’ve asked for practical resources like templates that integrate headcount planning, skills, and readiness. We’ll share and discuss the best tools in the industry.
- Innovative Metrics: How do you measure the success of workforce planning in a way that resonates with your business leaders?
Is your organization making strides in any of these areas? We’d love for you to join us and help lead the conversation. Get in touch with keith.resseau@i4cp.com to discuss how you can get more involved.
Links to Get You Started
Let’s make 2025 the best year yet for workforce planning and readiness. Sign up for the new series, bring your ideas, and let’s keep the conversation going. We can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish next!
Be sure to register for our upcoming sessions at this link.
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