A Quick Introduction to Workforce Planning (Revamped)
July 11, 2025 in Informed Decision-Making, Innovative Capabilities, Keeping Up with Human Capital, Strategic Planning, Workforce Planning
By FMP Staff
Workforce planning is a systematic process to align an organization’s future workforce to strategic priorities by anticipating and identifying work requirements, to include both the numbers and types of employees and skills the future work will require. Organizations typically plan workforce needs 3-5 years in the future and develop action plans to mitigate identified gaps. By conducting workforce planning, an organization can more thoughtfully ensure that it has the workforce deployed appropriately in terms of headcount, experience, skills, and more.
One model of workforce planning involves six phases of activity (outlined above), each with its own distinct tasks, tools, and deliverables. The chart below includes a brief summary of each of these phases. Within each of these phases, the specific methods, processes, and data analysis techniques can vary, based on the needs of the organization.
| Phase | Purpose |
| Supply Analysis | To understand the current workforce and how it is projected to change over time, due to attrition and other trends. |
| Demand Analysis | To understand the organization’s current and future workforce requirements, necessary to meet its business strategies and plans; understand how these requirements impact workforce competencies and other characteristics, as well as numbers and types of employees needed. |
| Gap Analysis | To understand the gaps between workforce demand and supply and to define top priority gaps with the greatest impact on organizational performance. |
| Solution Analysis | To design solutions for bridging the priority gaps identified, including programs and initiatives such as recruiting, development, and succession management. |
| Implementation Planning | To plan for and implement solutions, including identifying and acquiring the needed resources, fully developing solutions, and supporting implementation activities. |
| Evaluation | To monitor the performance of solutions and their impact on the gaps they were designed to address, and to continuously improve solutions to maximize their effectiveness. |
As workforce planners move through these phases, conducting these analyses and developing recommendations and action planning, the ultimate goal is to develop a data-driven workforce planning process that will:
- Align workforce requirements to the organization’s strategic goals
- Develop a comprehensive picture of where gaps exist and identify and implement gap reduction strategies
- Make strategic decisions about organizational structure and staff deployment
- Justify staffing requests to key stakeholders and inform future budget requests
FMP’s cadre of skilled workforce planners have decades of experience applying these best practices to help organizations plan for the future, making sure they get the right people in the right places at the right time to do their jobs effectively and contribute to mission success.
Ultimately, workforce planning is exciting because it helps organizations take charge of their destiny. Rather than endure the consequences of complex change in a complex environment, organizations can systematically enact change to get ahead of the impact of those environmental shifts.
Marni Falcone has over 15 years working on and leading human capital projects for the public and non-profit sectors. Ms. Falcone’s areas of expertise include competency modeling, applied training and development, competency/skill gap assessment and analysis, job/competency analysis, and employee selection. Ms. Falcone is also a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), the International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC), and the 2022 President of the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington (PTCMW). Ms. Falcone received her MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from George Mason University, is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
Jessica Milloy is the Chief Operating Officer of FMP. Jess is from Alexandria, Virginia and enjoys traveling, cooking, and time spent with family and friends.
Ashley Agerter Raitor originally joined FMP in 2007 as a graduate student intern, while she was obtaining her master’s degree in I/O psychology from George Mason University. Her areas of expertise include workforce planning, organizational assessment, and performance management. When she’s not working, you can find her cheering on her two kiddos on the soccer field!
Additional Author, fomer FMPer, Paul Bresnan