How many Bs in Strategic Workforce Planning?

Written by Alicia Roach | Feb 24, 2023 6:00:00 AM

3 B’s? 7 B’s? Don’t give a B?

It seems that everyone these days has their version of the old “Build, Buy, Borrow”.

The truth is, it doesn’t actually matter how many B’s you do or don’t have, although for the record, eQ8 has gone with 6.

What this is really about is bringing coherence to the organization and its workforce-related initiatives.

This is about distilling the HR roadmap from the thousands of things we COULD be doing, into what we really SHOULD be doing to better enable our business.

It is about moving our organizations beyond the old “fire and rehire” or “layoffs now, skill gaps later” MO.

We are making the right data-driven decisions based on nuanced insights for each and every workforce segment.

The truth is, it doesn't really matter how many B's you do or don't have.

What does matter is that we are creating a coherent set of actions for all workforce related initiatives, that are focused and prioritized for maximum business impact.

At eQ8, we consider each and every potential action as a business case - where we look at the costs, benefits, net present value - as well as the risk it mitigates to the organization's ability to achieve its strategic and operating imperatives.

This is why it is just SO important that organizations lift their gaze to take a proactive, future-looking and holistic approach to their people.

What value do the 6 B's bring to an organization?

Retaining (Bind), reskilling (Build) or better enabling our existing workforce (Boost) have 2-3x return versus the old "fire and rehire" (Bounce and Buy) MO. But you need to have that forward looking view to really do this properly.

Not only does it make sense commercially, but it is better for our organizations, our people, our society.

It's time to do things differently. a business case and comparing the trade-offs of our choices with a true commercial lens.

We are lifting the gaze and seeing where the organization is heading and how it can best get there, avoiding those short-term reactive, knee-jerk decisions that destroy our longer term viability.

We are making better decisions today, for a sustainable and socially responsible tomorrow.

For more great discussion on how businesses can find success with Dynamic Scenario Modeling and Strategic Workforce Planning, Chris Hare and I recently held a discussion on Navigating Uncertainty and Emerging Effectively.

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