So here are three very short case studies on how some of our customers have gone about getting true Strategic Workforce Planning to succeed: The workforce planning team at a leading automotive manufacturer knew that they would need to tailor their workforce planning approach to be a perfect match for their organisational culture, so the adaptability of Aruspex's framework was really important. They worked with us to tailor the tools and approach to suit, and then chose a strategically important pilot group to pilot the process, which included introducing new methods such as scenario planning and action planning, as well as changing some misconceptions about workforce planning from being focused on the numbers and headcount towards thinking strategically and proactively. The business group were sceptical at first, but after only the first workshop they were very positive - and their HR strategy "just fell out of the process"! In the Energy Industry, there are some big challenges around workforce aging and skills shortages, with many of the skills highly specialised, taking up to seven years for workers to be fully competent. So while this energy company wasn't suffering any current workforce pain, they suspected that the future might be challenging for them - so they started their project by forecasting where their current trends where taking them (the "No Change Future State"), enabling them to quantify the potential future challenges and really get the attention of the business. Armed with this information, they had some preliminary discussion with the business - just enough to allow them to build some "possible" future scenarios, and go back and workshop these in detail with management, allowing them to move towards action plans which comprehensively prepare the business for the future. A tertiary training and education provider, though, wanted to take an enterprise wide approach, educating as many managers as possible and building momentum from the bottom up. Like the energy company, they used forecasting and analysis, but they incorporated this into tailored internal workshops, during which their managers learned the principals of workforce planning, and developed a "straw man" of their strategic workforce plans. The corporate HR team is then supporting each group individually to develop and implement their plans - but the bulk of the work is definitely being done by line management. These examples vary because Workforce Planning is a menu, not a prescription! Understand your choices, consider your situation, and then choose the best way to apply the framework in your organisation. Make your decision considering what will work for your organisation’s culture, capabilities, and executive appetite – and considering just how pressing each of your organisation’s future needs will be. If you would like to hear more about our customer success stories, or find ways we can help you with your workforce planning, visit aruspex.com or contact us.