Workforce Planning
You can’t hire, build or automate your way to a plan you don’t have.
We build the architecture behind every people decision: job families and levels, skills, critical roles and succession, and a clear view of how AI changes the work.
When leaders call us
- Titles, levels and pay ranges no longer line up across the business.
- Nobody can say which roles are critical, or who is ready to step into them.
- AI is changing the work, and leaders don’t know which roles change first.
- Workforce cost is rising faster than revenue, with no clear build, buy or automate plan.
What we deliver
- Job and career architecture: job families, levels and career paths
- Skills taxonomy and target proficiencies by role
- Critical roles, succession plans and talent reviews
- Supply and demand planning, with the pipeline math behind hiring, promotion and retention goals
- AI exposure by role family, and the work redesign that follows
- Workday and HR data set up to keep the plan current
Our approach
Start from the business plan and work back to the workforce
We identify the roles that create the most value, the skills they need, and whether to build, buy, borrow or automate each one.
The architecture lives in your HR systems, so the plan stays current after we leave and every hiring, pay and promotion decision draws on the same foundation.
What you get
One architecture, many decisions
Sanitized examples of workforce planning work products.
Workforce Planning
Career architecture
Client service
Strategy
Creative
Data and analytics
Technology
Operations
Executive
10
9
Director
8
7
Manager
6
5
Professional
4
3
Associate
2
1
Every cell is a role profile: accountabilities, required skills and target proficiency, so people can see the path to the next level.
Levels rise from Associate to Executive. Empty cells show where a job family stops.
Illustrative. Client data removed.
Workforce Planning
Skills and target proficiency
Client leadership
Data fluency
AI fluency
Financial acumen
Coaching
Analyst
1
3
2
1
1
Senior analyst
2
4
3
2
1
Manager
3
3
3
3
3
Director
4
3
3
4
4
1 Aware2 Working3 Skilled4 Expert
Target proficiency by role. Employees compare their own profile against any role to see the gap.
Illustrative. Client data removed.
Workforce Planning
Critical roles and bench strength
Ready nowReady in 1 to 2 yearsNo successor
Head of client service
Chief financial officer
Head of data and analytics
Regional managing director
Head of technology
60%of critical senior roles filled internally at dentsu Americas, against a 50% target
Illustrative. Client data removed.Proof
Where we have done this work
| Work | Result |
|---|---|
| One career architecture for a global network (dentsu) | 100+ job families consolidated into 13 families and 10 levels, then 45,000+ employees mapped worldwide |
| Skills-based organization in Workday (Merkle) | 15 job families, 10 levels and skills by role for 10,000 employees |
| Succession for critical senior roles (dentsu Americas) | 60% filled internally against a 50% target, across 43 roles |
| People data tied to business results (dentsu) | Learning, HR, engagement, finance and client data in one dataset by country and service line |
A workforce plan needs leaders ready to run it.
Leadership and Talent Development