For HR leaders, navigating the pressure to get workforce planning right has never been higher, due to uncertainty about AI and macroeconomic factors. Failed hiring decisions, unexpected employee departures and misaligned teams can derail growth strategies and erode competitive advantage.

Successful organizations know that a workforce planning strategy is key to business success. According to McKinsey, S&P 500 companies that “excel at maximizing their return on talent” earn about 300% more revenue per employee than the median firm.

However, the challenges are mounting from multiple directions, according to analysts. AI is reshaping job requirements, hybrid work has created new complexities and global talent competition means the best candidates have more options than ever. Meanwhile, plenty of middle managers—often the link between strategy and execution—say they lack the training and support needed to succeed.

5 ways to refresh workforce planning for today’s environment

1. Build a data-driven foundation

According to researchers at McKinsey, “successful organizations recognize that their workforce is a strategic asset,” making talent development and retention vital to long-term success. Because employees are both the biggest investment and greatest source of value, strategic workforce planning leverages data to identify future capacity and skill gaps, guide upskilling and reskilling, and align HR, operations and finance to improve enterprise-wide resource allocation.

Many HR leaders realize that successful workforce planning now requires a fundamental shift toward data-driven insights. “Know your data and understand what it is your company does,” says Leslie Bostic, senior vice president of HR at Amalgamated Life Insurance Company. She points out that “anything is a data point” when it comes to opening meaningful dialogue with leadership.

Ray Martinelli, chief people officer at technology company Contentful, echoes this sentiment, arguing that HR teams must “come equipped with relevant data to support their recommendations.” He points to real-time employee data as “one of the best tools HR teams can leverage to understand how their teams can operate at their most effective and productive level.”

This data-focused approach goes beyond tracking basic metrics to include scenario-based planning. Martinelli recommends analyzing trends in new hire retention: “Identify what percentage of new hires leave within their first year, and investigate the reasons behind it.” He advises HR leaders to ask managers whether these departures were due to poor fit or unrealistic expectations, and to look for patterns, such as whether turnover spikes at certain times of the year.

2. Empower middle management

Perhaps nowhere is the changing nature of workforce planning more evident than in the critical role of middle managers and the organizational structures that support them. “I think many companies are failing their managers, and specifically their middle managers,” Martinelli states. “At the end of the day, they’re the ones who are managing employees daily.”

Bostic’s experience reinforces this observation: “Talking to middle managers is critical,” she says, noting that listening to their ideas and insight is increasingly important. The challenge becomes more complex in distributed work environments where managers must navigate different time zones, cultures and communication preferences.

“Managers will also benefit from training programs tailored to supporting folks in different time zones or from different cultures,” Martinelli explains. “If someone is based in the U.S. and has an employee in Germany, managers should ensure teams stay cognizant of appropriate and fair meeting times and deadlines.”

McKinsey’s report found that leading organizations are addressing the needs of global teams by embedding strategic workforce planning across finance, operations and HR functions, rather than treating it as solely an HR responsibility. This cross-functional approach ensures managers have the support and tools they need to succeed. Creating a core team that includes business leaders alongside HR personnel helps “make strategic workforce planning a way of life throughout the enterprise.”

3. Evaluate tech integration and AI adoption

The integration of artificial intelligence and advanced technology platforms represents another fundamental shift in workforce planning, requiring organizations to model multiple adoption scenarios rather than taking a standard approach. AI adoption is raising the bar for talent across every industry. It’s “rewiring how organizations operate and generate value,” according to McKinsey researchers.

Bostic observes that when “people get comfortable with that tech, there are ways to improve” how AI fits into the workforce. Martinelli takes this further, positioning AI as rapidly becoming a foundational element of the modern workforce. He says the tech is “transforming how we streamline workflows, boost productivity and, from an HR lens, enhance how we attract, assess and engage talent.”

However, he cautions that AI implementation requires consideration: “Without a thoughtful approach, there’s a real risk of undermining the human element or building systems that create more friction than value.”

Regulatory complexity adds another strategic layer. “In a globally distributed workforce, AI training and usage guidelines must be both regionally informed and adaptable,” Martinelli notes, especially given that “regulatory contexts are shifting quickly—particularly in regions like the EU, where sweeping AI regulations are being phased in through 2026.”

Read more | AI in HR: Over half of leaders report no progress in adoption

4. Rewrite ‘retention’ for modern workforce planning

Both leaders agree that hybrid work models have reshaped workforce planning. Bostic calls it a “paradigm shift” that has helped attract younger talent—one that brings both opportunities and challenges.

“The benefits of remote work are vast, and one of the greatest is the ability to tap into international talent pools to strengthen your company’s competitive edge,” Martinelli says. But he stresses that supporting a globally distributed workforce requires alignment: “Managers across all regions must be clear on what’s expected of employees.”

The key, Martinelli adds, is balancing consistency with flexibility. “While employee needs can vary by location, the goals we pursue and the standards we uphold should be consistent company-wide.”

Traditional retention approaches are proving inadequate in this new environment. Martinelli challenges conventional thinking about employee retention: “I don’t like to focus on the term ‘retention,’ I prefer to ensure our employees are enabled to do the best work they can. If you’re trying to retain somebody, they’re likely already on their way out.”

Instead, both leaders advocate for proactive engagement strategies that focus on capability development and strategic redeployment. Bostic notes the importance of having “conversations about using new talent for future problems.” This approach recognizes that with up to 30% of current work hours potentially automated by 2030, according to McKinsey, organizations must help employees adapt and grow rather than simply trying to keep them in static roles.

Martinelli emphasizes the value of “engagement stats” and surveys that highlight “how we’re engaging people to be productive.” But he goes further, advocating for strategic internal mobility: “Making a shift that ensures a high performer can grow in their desired field is easier than losing that employee to a competitor.”

This internal development approach is increasingly critical as external hiring becomes more challenging and expensive. Organizations are finding that talent currently in roles that may become obsolete often have skill adjacencies that make them suitable for emerging roles, according to McKinsey. The key is identifying these connections early and creating pathways for growth.

The approach requires regular assessment and adjustment. “A regular cadence of check-ins—not just yearly—is essential to determining whether or not employees are in the right place and the right department,” Martinelli explains. This continuous evaluation allows organizations to spot potential retention risks while there’s still time to address them through role adjustments, skill development or internal transfers rather than waiting until exit interviews.

Managing diverse, distributed workforces requires heightened cultural intelligence and a strategic approach to talent development that looks beyond traditional external recruiting. Bostic’s experience with union and non-union workers across different states has taught her to “treat both populations as equal” and approach narratives in “culturally appropriate” ways based on “personal experience.”

Martinelli extends this to international contexts, noting that “cultural priorities and values may differ” across regions. This requires workforce planning that is “both a science and an art.” He says HR leaders need a strong framework “rooted in market data,” but they also need the “agility to respond to shifting talent dynamics.”

5. Consider the ‘work and the worker’

The organizations that will thrive are those that embed strategic workforce planning into their core business operations, rather than treating it as a periodic exercise. This approach provides what McKinsey experts describe as “greater fluidity of resources” by allowing companies to understand their future capacity and capability gaps with the same rigor they apply to financial planning.

The leaders who will succeed in this environment are those who can balance technological capabilities with human insight, global reach with local sensitivity and strategic vision with operational excellence. As Bostic’s experience suggests, effective workforce planning requires building “a sense of work and the worker” while remaining prepared to adapt as business needs change.