5 Best Workforce Planning Tools for Scaling Your Organization

Workforce planning tools are software applications that help you plan, manage, and optimize your human capital. They enable you to align your workforce strategy with your business goals, identify skill gaps and talent needs, create and execute hiring plans, monitor and measure performance, and anticipate and respond to changes in the market.

In this article, we will explain what workforce planning tools are used for and why you should use them. We will also compare workforce planning software tools with manual workforce planning methods, as well as take a look at five best workforce planning tools that you can use to scale your organization.

What Are Workforce Planning Tools Used For?

Workforce planning tools are used for various purposes, such as:

• Strategic alignment: Workforce planning tools help you align your workforce strategy with your business strategy. You can define your vision, mission, values, and objectives and translate them into specific workforce requirements. You can also align your organizational structure, culture, and processes with your strategic goals.
• Demand forecasting: With workforce planning tools, you’ll be able to forecast the future demand for your products or services and the corresponding workforce needs. You can use historical data, market trends, customer feedback, and scenario analysis to estimate the quantity and quality of talent that you will need in the short-term and long-term.
• Supply analysis: You can also use workforce planning tools to help you analyze the current supply of talent in your organization and the external labor market. You’ll be enabled to assess the skills, competencies, experience, performance, potential, and availability of your existing employees and potential candidates. You can also identify skill gaps and surpluses and plan accordingly.
• Hiring planning: Workforce planning tools help you create and execute hiring plans based on your demand and supply analysis. You can set hiring targets, budgets, timelines, and criteria for each role or department. You can also track the progress of your hiring process and measure the effectiveness of your recruitment sources and methods.
• Performance management: Through the use of workforce planning tools, you can monitor and measure the performance of your employees and teams. You’ll be able to set goals, KPIs, metrics, and feedback mechanisms for each individual or group. In addition to that, you can also evaluate the results, identify strengths and weaknesses, and provide coaching or training as needed.
• Succession planning: Workforce planning tools can be used to help you plan for the future leadership and talent development of your organization. You can identify critical roles and high-potential employees and create succession plans for them. You can also design career paths, learning opportunities, mentoring programs, and recognition schemes to retain and motivate your talent.

Workforce Planning Software Tools vs Manual Workforce Planning

Workforce planning can be challenging and time-consuming, especially if it is done manually. Manual workforce planning involves using spreadsheets, documents, and other tools that are not integrated or automated. This can lead to several problems, such as:

• Data inconsistency and inaccuracy: Manual data entry can result in errors, duplication, and outdated information. This can affect the quality and reliability of the workforce analysis and planning.
• Lack of visibility and collaboration: Manual workforce planning tools are often siloed and inaccessible to other stakeholders. This can limit the sharing of information and insights, and hinder the coordination and alignment of workforce plans across the organization.
• Inefficiency and inflexibility: Manual workforce planning tools are often slow and cumbersome to use. They require a lot of manual effort and time to update, maintain, and modify. They also lack the ability to handle complex scenarios, variables, and contingencies.

On the other hand, workforce planning software tools are programs that help automate and streamline the workforce planning process. They use data-driven algorithms and models to help analyze, forecast, and plan the workforce. They also provide features such as dashboards, reports, simulations, and scenarios to help visualize and communicate the workforce plans. Some of the benefits of using workforce planning software tools are:

• Data consistency and accuracy: Workforce planning software tools can integrate data from various sources and systems, such as HRIS, payroll, performance management, etc. They can also validate, clean, and update data automatically. This can ensure that the workforce analysis and planning are based on accurate and consistent data.
• Visibility and collaboration: Workforce planning software tools can provide a centralized and accessible platform for all stakeholders involved in the workforce planning process. They can also enable real-time sharing of information and feedback, and facilitate the alignment and integration of workforce plans across the organization.
• Efficiency and flexibility: Workforce planning software tools can reduce the manual effort and time required for workforce planning. They can also provide the ability to handle complex scenarios, variables, and contingencies. They can help organizations adapt quickly and effectively to changing needs and situations.

Best Workforce Planning Tools List

Now that you know what workforce planning tools are used for and why you should use them instead of manual methods, let’s look at some of the best workforce planning tools that are available in the market today.

1. Runn

Runn is a workforce planning tool designed for knowledge workers, such as consultants, agencies, and software developers. It helps them manage their team workloads, understand which roles are most profitable, and forecast future needs.

Some of the key features of Runn’s workforce planning tool are:

• It enables you to compare capacity with confirmed workload and gain visibility into everyone’s bookings.
• It allows you to track project budgets, revenue, and profitability in real time.
• It can be integrated with popular tools like Harvest, Slack, and Zapier, etc.

Price: The price of Runn’s workforce planning tool starts at $10 per user/ per month. You can visit Runn’s website for more information.

2. Workday

Workday is a cloud-based Human Resource Management (HRM) software that helps you manage your entire employee lifecycle from hire to retirement. It also offers a comprehensive workforce planning tool that helps you plan, manage, and optimize your human capital.

Some of the key features of Workday’s workforce planning tool are:

• It allows you to link your strategic plans to your corporate financials and align your future workforce composition to your business goals.
• It helps you optimize your people resources to meet current and future business demand by allocating the right people at the right time across operating units and projects.
• It enables you to model skills capacity by location, ramp time, cost of workforce, and more, and compare multiple what-if scenarios to pinpoint the best mix of talent.
• It supports continuous and agile workforce planning with up-to-date headcount plans and related costs, and allows you to monitor and adjust your hiring plans as business conditions change.
• It integrates with any HR system and provides a unified data core for planning, analytics, and reporting.

Price: The price of Workday’s workforce planning tool is not publicly available. You can visit Workday’s website for more information.

3. Visier

Visier is a cloud-based people analytics software that helps you understand and improve your workforce performance. It also offers a robust workforce planning tool that helps you plan, manage, and optimize your human capital.

Some of the key features of Visier’s workforce planning tool are:

• It allows you to combine people data and business data, wherever it lives, and share insights securely with the context that people leaders need to make better decisions.
• It enables you to use scenario planning and modeling via Visier’s analytical insights and compare different outcomes for your workforce composition, skills capacity, headcount plans, and related costs.
• It supports collaborative plan creation and real-time visibility that drives accountability and helps accelerate planning cycles. It also provides intuitive dashboards and ad-hoc analyses that make it easy to share plans and guide impactful discussions.
• It integrates with any HR system and provides a unified data core for planning, analytics, and reporting. It also offers a 360° view into your workforce by extending analytics beyond the core to explore the full experience and impact of employees as they apply, onboard, develop, and someday leave your organization.

Price: The price of Visier’s workforce planning tool is not publicly available. You can visit Visier’s website for more information or to request a demo.

4. SAP SuccessFactors

SAP SuccessFactors is a cloud-based software that provides human experience management (HXM) solutions for organizations of all sizes and industries. It helps businesses optimize their human capital by aligning their strategic plans, people performance, recruitment, and learning activities with their business goals.

Some of the key features of SAP SuccessFactors’ workforce planning tool are:

• It helps you to scenario-based model your future workforce demand and supply, and predict future gaps (shortages and surplus) in workforce along planning dimensions (e.g. org. units, job classifications.)
• It enables you to use SAP Analytics Cloud to create collaborative plans and insights into your people needs, skills, and talent, and compare different outcomes for your workforce composition, skills capacity, headcount plans, and related costs.
• It can be integrated with any HR system and provides a unified data core for planning, analytics, and reporting.

Price: The price of SAP SuccessFactors’ workforce planning tool starts at $8 per user/ per month. You can visit SAP SuccessFactors’ website for more information.

5. PeopleFluent

PeopleFluent is a cloud-based talent management software that helps you attract, develop, and retain your talent. It also offers a workforce planning tool that helps you plan, manage, and optimize your human capital.

Some of the key features of PeopleFluent’s workforce planning tool are:

• It allows you to see your whole enterprise from any angle, through any lens, and get all the information you need to make plans, decisions, and adjustments.
• It helps you to map your talent to inform your decisions, see your whole workforce on one screen, and sort and color code the data the way you want.
• It enables you to use OrgPublisher org charting software to create collaborative plans and insights into your people needs, skills, and talent, and compare different outcomes for your workforce composition, skills capacity, headcount plans, and related costs.
• It supports real-time visibility that drives accountability and helps accelerate planning cycles. It also provides intuitive dashboards and ad-hoc analyses that make it easy to share plans and guide impactful discussions.

Pricing: The price of PeopleFluent's workforce planning tool is not publicly available. You can visit PeopleFluent's website for more information.

Conclusion

Workforce planning is a vital process that helps you plan, manage, and optimize your human capital. It helps you align your workforce strategy with your business strategy, forecast future demand and supply of talent, create and execute hiring plans, monitor and measure performance, and plan for succession. However, workforce planning is not an easy task. It involves multiple stakeholders, data sources, methods, and tools. Manual workforce planning methods are time-consuming, error-prone, inflexible, and ineffective. Therefore, you need to use workforce planning software tools that can help you automate, streamline, and improve your workforce planning process.