There are three main categorizations to gain this understanding and identify ways to ensure that demand and supply meet. The first two deal with the workforce demand, while the third considers supply.    Categorization 1: What Work is Being Done? Strategic Workforce planning is used with groups of employees, not individuals, and it is important that these groups are created based on what work is being done. You must divide groups logically according to the work the organization needs them to do, which will vary between organizations. This is easiest done by a breakdown according to organizational design, but can also be done by dividing according to function or role.  This process is creating a CAP group, which groups like output and focuses on the three things that make up output: Capability, Availability and Productivity. At this level, is is beneficial to understand key demographics such as median age, length of service, retirement eligbility, gender breakdown, management/clerical ratio and average working hours, among other key metrics. Categorization 2: How is the Work Aligned to Strategy? The second level of workforce breakdown recognizes which workforce groups are critical to the business strategy, core to the strategy or support the strategy, as well as those who are misaligned. This enables the organization to prioritize strategic workforce planning efforts, action planning and the HR budget to the job functions or groups with greatest importance to strategy. It also allows you to divert resources from roles with a finite future by identifying in advance the skills that are misaligned to future strategy.   Categorization 3: What People Do the Work? Since not all workers want or do the same thing, it is important to also segment according to the workforce supply, that is the people who do the work. This step involves recognizing that different value propositions will attract and retain different people.  In this step, CAP groups should be segmented according to the characteristics of the employees – what attracts, motivates and engages them. This can be done according to life employment cycles, career drivers or many other factors and will give you insight into what value propositions appeal to your employees. We call these Talent Segments.    If you'd like more information on getting a rich understanding of your Current Workforce, please contact us.