Ebook
The Workforce Planning Handbook
Use the 8A system to connect workforce demand, supply, critical gaps and response options, supported by two worked plans.
View PDFA2 / Strategy & planning
Plan the work.
Build the capability.
Bring business demand, future scenarios, workforce supply and investment into one practical plan. A connected collection for better workforce decisions.
Your HR Delivery directories
Explore our approach. Find your starting point.
A2 / Workforce Planning Toolkit
A workforce plan built for real decisions.
Move beyond a headcount forecast. Explore the work that needs to be done, the capabilities required and the capacity available. Test plausible scenarios, make assumptions visible and compare a feasible mix of workforce responses.
For workforce planners, HR and OD practitioners, operational leaders, Finance colleagues and consultants.
Your working library
Workforce Planning Toolkit
Explore the complete toolkit, then use the supporting document alongside the guides and examples.
Complete practitioner toolkit
533pages
122practical tools
122 practical tools, diagnostic instruments, modelling guidance, eight practice laboratories and fictional worked plans. Follow the full planning assignment or select the records needed for a specific workforce decision.
Open the complete toolkit130 pages / PDF
Working templates
A 130-page companion containing all 122 reusable working pages. Stable tool codes link each record to its guide and example in the complete toolkit. These are PDF working records, not automated spreadsheets.
View supporting documentPDF resources are in English. Read on screen: Actual view on desktop and full width on mobile.
The thinking behind the tools
8A Strategic Workforce Planning System
The 8A Strategic Workforce Planning System connects the planning question with future work, current supply, gaps and practical responses. It treats planning as a continuing cycle, with explicit assumptions and review triggers.
- 01Anchor · purpose and authority
- 02Anticipate · plausible futures
- 03Architect · future work and skills
- 04Assess · current supply
- 05Analyse · gaps and risk
- 06Address · response portfolio
- 07Activate · implementation
- 08Adapt · review and renewal
Explore the Eight Rights and the 9B workforce levers in the toolkit. Compare recruitment with development, retention, redeployment, partnership and work redesign; a forecast is a decision aid, not a promise of certainty.
Explore the interactive frameworkRead & diagnose
Build understanding.
Test the evidence.
Use the ebook for depth, the diagnostic manual to examine your starting point, and the long read for a different perspective.
Diagnostic manual
Workforce Planning Diagnostic Manual
Review eight dimensions of workforce planning to identify gaps in evidence, decisions and delivery readiness.
View PDF
Long-read article
Crystal Balls & Visa Stamps
Consider the practical uncertainties behind workforce forecasts in the Gulf and the assumptions that deserve scrutiny.
View PDFShort insights
A useful idea.
A sharper question.
Strategic Workforce Planning for Vision 2030: Skills, Roles and Readiness
Connect future work with skills, roles and readiness in the Saudi transformation context.
Read insight
How AI Will Change Workforce Planning in Saudi Organisations
Explore how changing technology affects tasks, capability assumptions and workforce choices.
Read insight
The Honest Talent Inventory: What Capability Assessments Reveal Before Growth Exposes It
Strengthen the capability evidence behind workforce plans before growth exposes gaps.
Read insightLearn & apply
Put knowledge
to work.
Explore a focused one-day introduction or build wider professional capability through a related development programme.
One-day workshop · In-house
An introduction to strategic workforce planning
A one-day, in-house introduction to demand scenarios, supply constraints and workforce responses using the 8A system.
Related development programme
HR Business Partners
Three days. Practise workforce scenarios linking capacity, capability, talent and succession with business needs.
Explore the programmeRelated development programme
Leadership Development
Five days. A related leadership programme for scenario planning, resource trade-offs and capability development decisions.
Explore the programmeA practical starting point
Choose your next step.
- 01
Anchor the plan
Define the business decision, population and planning horizon.
- 02
Test the baseline
Check evidence quality and assess current planning practice.
- 03
Compare scenarios
Explore future work, demand, supply, gaps and feasible responses.
- 04
Mobilise and adapt
Fund the plan, assign owners and monitor readiness and review triggers.
Need help applying it?
Work with HR Delivery to turn the evidence and tools into a response suited to your organisation.
Continue the connection