Workforce Planning

Know the workforce you need, before you need it.

Openloop helps organisations build the workforce they need, now and into the future. We combine workforce data, environmental scanning and evidence-based modelling with your organisational knowledge to understand workforce demand and supply, and to close the gaps between them. With deep experience across the public, not-for-profit and private sectors, we translate strategy into a clear, practical workforce plan that your organisation can implement and keep current as circumstances change.

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Strategy only succeeds if the workforce can deliver it.

Workforce planning is too often reactive, addressed only once a restructure, budget pressure or skills shortage forces the issue. By then, the workforce is already the wrong shape, size or cost for what the organisation needs to deliver. We help you get ahead of that curve, building a clear, evidence-based view of the workforce you have, the workforce you will need, and the gap between them. This could be a critical skill or profession you can see becoming harder to source, an ageing workforce with limited succession depth, an increased adoption of artificial intelligence, a restructure or new strategy that changes what capability you need, or growing pressure to make the case for workforce investment to your board or general management.

We build question-driven workforce plans from evidence.

We work with you to understand your strategy, operating environment and workforce data, then model future demand and supply to identify where the real gaps and risks sit. We turn your workforce questions into a plan you can act on, grounded in your knowledge of the organisation and its people, and backed by workforce planning expertise, analytical rigour and insight into market and megatrends. Together we translate the analysis into a practical plan your organisation owns and can keep current as circumstances change. Because workforce planning touches every part of the employee lifecycle, we connect this work with our organisational design, learning and development, and leadership services where they add value.

Workforce planning from every lens.

We look at workforce planning through three connected lenses: strategic, analytical and structural, tailoring each engagement to your context:

Strategic workforce planning

Aligning workforce plans to strategy and preparing for what's ahead.

Workforce strategy development
Demand and supply modelling and forecasting
Scenario and workforce risk planning
Workforce input to business and strategic planning

Workforce analytics & insight

Turning workforce data into a clear, evidence-based picture of your organisation.

Workforce data analysis and reporting
Workforce metrics, dashboards and success measures
Attrition, mobility and retention analysis
Workforce benchmarking

Capability, structure & sourcing

Closing the gap between the workforce you have and the workforce you need.

Capability and skills gap analysis
Workforce structure, location and sourcing strategy
Succession and talent pipeline planning
Profession and workforce cohort strategies

Our work in practice

A Commonwealth government agency

A workforce plan to keep a critical profession sustainable

The challenge

A division in a Commonwealth government agency with a small, highly specialised technical profession needed a clearer view of its future workforce. The profession was ageing, difficult to source externally and expensive to replace, while demand for its skills kept growing. Leadership needed an evidence-based profession strategy that set out the workforce it had, the workforce it would need, and a credible plan to close the gap, not just a headcount forecast.

What we delivered

Openloop developed a Professions Strategy grounded in workforce demand and supply modelling, capability mapping and structured consultation with senior leaders and the profession's own workforce. We tested a range of future scenarios against the agency's strategic priorities, then translated the analysis into a practical strategy covering sourcing, career personas and pathways and capability development, sized and sequenced to what the division could realistically deliver.

The outcome

A clear, evidence-based profession strategy the agency could take directly to its executive and workforce for endorsement, setting out the workforce numbers, capability priorities and actions needed to keep the profession sustainable for years to come.

Tools & partnerships

We ground our workforce plans in structured demand and supply modelling, capability and skills mapping, and recognised workforce planning practices used across government and industry. This gives us a clear, data-led view of your current and future workforce, so recommendations are evidence-based and can be tested, refreshed and defended as circumstances change.

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Let's plan the workforce your strategy needs.

Whether you need a workforce strategy, a clearer view of future workforce risk, or a plan to close a capability gap, reach out to discuss how we can help you build the workforce your organisation needs.

Start a conversation hello@openloop.com.au