SWP - The Strategic Workforce Planning Podcast

Entertaining and insightful (as always) discussion with two of my great friends, Chris Hare and Alicia Roach on the topic of Dynamic Scenario Planning.  Learn all about the relevance of DSP to SWP, how to utilise data to inform scenarios and where enterprise software enablement is headed.  Also, grab a sneak peek at the pending product release from eQ8. 

In today's ultra dynamic labor market, redefining your global talent strategy is imperative for organizational success. From remote work, to skills-based hiring, new trends are reshaping how businesses approach talent acquisition and management meaning organizations are redefining how work is done. In Episode 41 of SWP podcast, the Brandon Crouch, Global Business Line Manager, and Elena Magrini, Head of Global Research, of Lightcast, are joined by Simon Haines, Founder & CEO of Simply Get Results to delve into these dynamic shifts and explore innovative strategies and technologies to help organisations thrive in this rapidly changing environment. An enthralling conversation with three labour market and skills experts!

Episode 40 of the SWP Podcast welcomes Clare Moncrieff, Executive Advisor with Talent Neuron.  This is a fascinating discussion where we explore the critical connectivity between labour market intelligence and SWP.  It was also a wonderful look back at the SWP Conference - London event.
Enjoy this engaging conversation with a true thought leader!

Episode 39 of SWP - The Strategic Workforce Panning Podcast welcomes Jonas Ottiger - Head of People Analytics and Workforce Planning at the International Committee for the Red Cross.  Jonas is one of so many people analytics experts to emerge from Jordan Pettman's Nestle alumni, one wonders whether there was something special in the chocolate milk during and since that period.  
When you think of SWP and the challenges it can solve for, 'life and death' doesn't arise all that often.  It does in Jonas' case however. This was an incredibly interesting discussion around trying to get people who's very nature is 'emergency response', to think strategically and engage in SWP. Lovely chap who's insight and intelligence shone through in this episode!

Episode 38 of the SWP Podcast saw me sit down with tech entrepreneur Ali Nawab, founder and CEO of SWP platform Agentnoon.  I really enjoyed this thought leadership conversation and am always inspired when I get to chat to successful business leaders with global customer bases like Ali. Looking forward to meeting the Agentnoon team in person in London! 

Episode 37 of The SWP Podcast was a long time in the making yet well worth the wait! We were lucky to sit down with two inspirational thought leaders in Sadhana Bhide and Jonathan Finkelstein  from Pearson Workforce Skills.  As well as an in-depth look at all things learning, SWP and skilling the workforce of the future, what resonated most from a Pearson perspective was the strategic and value alignment to what we do at the Institute.  Both the callouts specifically identified in the publicly available Pearson strategy, and the multi-faceted approach across verticals including learning, technology and skills make for a perfect partnership. Enjoy this fascinating discussion!

Episode 36 of the SWP podcast saw us sit down with two inspirational leaders from the Victorian Health Sector in Rebecca Meynell and Jennifer Dobell ahead of their key note session at SWP Conference - Melbourne.  What a breath of fresh air this discussion was in terms of insight, entertainment and all out positivity.  We loved hearing about the critical impacts SWP has at a regional level on Victoria's Health Sector and how it can be used effectively to impact the lives of so many.  Really looking forward to hearing from Jennifer and Rebecca in Melbourne! 

Episode 35 of the SWP Podcast welcomes Ralf Buechsenschuss from Microsoft.  Ralf is an incredibly intelligent and insightful people and analytics leader with a passion for leveraging data and insights to drive how organisations work.  What I loved most about this episode is the exploration of the role organisatonal network analysis plays in strategic workforce planning.  This is a critically underutilised tool in understanding how information flows, how culture can be influenced and where expertise sit within businesses.  Loved his simple, effective pillars for SWP as well!

Episode 34 of the SWP podcast welcomes Vincent Barat, Co-founder and CEO of SaaS platform Albert. I had the chance to catch up with Vincent ahead of SWP Conference to chat all things SWP, Technology and entrepreneurship in this highly entertaining and engaging discussion.  Loved the thought leadership around SWP and the important role technology can play.

Episode 33 of the SWP podcast welcomes will three leading members from Deloitte’s Human Capital team in the US.  I was joined by Kevin Moss, Managing Director - Human Capitan, Dhruv Patel, Senior Manager – Human Capital and Michael Morgan, Senior Manager – Human Capital. This was a fantastic discussion off the back of the team’s participation in SWP Conference – San Diego, covering topics including the hallmarks of effective SWP, relevant business problems SWP can be used to address, greatest SWP related obstacles and how organizations can position SWP to optimize its impact. So much knowledge and breadth of experience in one podcast the insights and shared experiences were a joy to watch unfold! 

Episode 32 of the SWP podcast welcomes will Crandle, Co-founder and CEO of Horsefly Analytics. Will is privileged to lead an extraordinary team of professionals committed to revolutionising workforce strategies through data-driven insights. With over two decades of experience building and scaling technology platforms, Will has successfully helped shape and guide the Horsefly product into the amazing platform it is today. This was an authentic, engaging and entertaining discussion where Will shared his insights around client challenges, real time labour market data and the impact it has on SWP along with all things 'talent intelligence'. 
Incredibly intelligent and likeable guy who was a pleasure to speak to! 

Episode 31 of the SWP podcast welcomes Vincent Lebunetel, Global Head of Skills Intelligence at Visier. Vincent is the Co-founder and former CEO of Boostrs. He previously led Corporate Innovation and the EMEA consulting division at CWT. Vincent is a board member and an investor in Tech’4’Team, TGI and Woobe and he also acted as an advisor to Welcome City Lab and Plug and Play and served as a mentor to startups competing at The New Sparks. This is a fantastic look at the shift from role based SWP to skills based SWP and how organisations can really make this tangible.  Vincent is a very knowledgeable, kind and personable person who was a pleasure to chat with. 

Episode 30 of the SWP podcast welcomes Michael Cox, Head of People Analytics for Nestle – Europe.  Michael led a revolutionary shift in SWP approach at Nestle which was underpinned by a fascinating change leadership initiative.  Michael is an incredibly engaging and inspirational SWP leader who was a joy to have on the podcast.  I’m really looking to hearing more about his and Nestle’s transformative journey at SWP Conference in London in November! 

What can you say about this incredibly inspirational HR leader and wonderful SWP Advocate that hasn't already been said?  As the sun sets on Jane's incredible CHCO career we look forward to seeing what her next chapter looks like.  It was wonderful having her join SWP Conference -  San Diego in person last month and our day 1 wrap up was an out and out highlight. I caught up with Jane in the lead up to both SWP Conference - San Diego and  People Analytics World to celebrate an amazing career and chat all thing people data and SWP.

Episode 28 of the SWP podcast welcomes Morgan Rossi, Global Director at LinkedIn.  Morgan advises some of LinkedIn’s largest and most important clients on their talent acquisition, workforce planning, and employer branding strategies. Outside of her daily role Morgan serves as the ‘Women at LinkedIn’ external communications lead and is LinkedIn’s NYC employee charity liaison board member. This was a fascinating discussion ahead of what promises to be a brilliant session at SWP Conference in San Diego.  I loved discussing the drivers behind the war for talent with Morgan who was able to share some incredible insights into why it’s a problem and how we can start to combat such a big challenge. What is also highly valuable in this discussion is the client lens Morgan has to look through.  Her perspective across what much of the world's fortune 500 companies are doing to secure top talent is truly diverse and insightful.  An enthralling conversation with another delightful, intelligent and highly engaging human! 

Episode 27 of the SWP podcast welcomes Steve Brown Head of Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning at Electronic Arts, the world’s leading video gaming and interactive entertainment company. Throughout his career, Steve has worked across HR, Finance, and Operations on talent strategy, workforce planning, compensation program design & consulting, M&A, HRIS implementation, relocation, tax and immigration initiatives. Steve has lived and worked in Belgium, Austria, and Spain and has an MBA from Northeastern University, Boston. Steve has worked with organisations including Nike, EY, Accenture as well as EA.  This is such an important discussion for any organisation starting their SWP journey to have as it sets out the building blocks and fundamentals to success.  
 

Episode 26 of the SWP podcast welcomes Ben Zwieg – Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Revelio Labs – a global leader in workforce intelligence. Ben is an Adjunct professor with both the NYU Stern School of business and Columbia Business School.  Before joining Revelio, Ben spent three and a half years with IBM as a managing data scientist. Ben’s career history in the data science education and advisory space is incredibly impressive – he is a true captain of industry.  This highly engaging and interesting discussion looks at just what’s possible through the enhanced utilisation of external data.  A fantastic session that explores how, despite how much tech exists in the world, many barriers to enablement are largely cultural and behavioural!

Episode 25 of the SWP podcast welcomes Peter Louch - founder and chief executive of Vemo.  Vemo brings to market a state-of-the-art workforce planning software and services offering that enables organizations to more proactively manage their business, align talent management and acquisition with what drives business success, and provide HR and Line professionals the strategic HR tool that integrates their approach to talent management and improves their effectiveness.  Peter is a wonderful advocate of our amazing profession and our discussion looked at how organisations can move from role-based planning to skill-based planning, how a flexible approach is required based on the specific nature of the organisation and how organisations can start small and grow their SWP activity from there. Great discussion with an intelligent, insightful person! 
 

Episode 24 of the SWP podcast welcomes Jakob Ejlsted - Workforce Planning Specialist to the pod.  Jakob has significant global experience across industries including Oil & Gas, Transport & Logistics, Management Consulting, and Industrial Chemicals. Fantastic discussion with Jakob which focused mainly around how we can better understand and utilise the contingent workforce for superior SWP outcomes. 

Episode 23 of the SWP podcast welcomes AJ Herrmann from Cleveland Clinic.  AJ is the Executive Director Strategic Workforce Planning at Cleveland Clinic and, across his career, has worked with organisations including  BCG, Nestle, Homeland Security, NBC and the Central Intelligence Agency . This long-awaited episode (for us) delivers everything we hoped and more.  AJ is a phenomenal advocate of our profession and we go deep on all things task and role design, war for talent, global people shortages and shifting our thinking and biases around common workforce planning ‘constraints’.  No shortages of laughs in this fantastic episode! 

Episode 22 of the SWP podcast welcomes Antony Ebelle-ebanda, Digital Surgery Integration Lead & Talent Insights at Johnson & Johnson to the Pod.  Antony is an experienced SWP leader who has worked across organisations including Johnson & Johnson, Allianz, Barclay’s and Deutsche bank (to name but a few). Fantastic chat with Antony which explored the potential homes of SWP within the org structure then highlighted the importance of not only considering SWP an enterprise capability but also the cultural understanding and acceptance of strategic workforce planning as ‘the way we work’.  The conversation touched on the potential shift from role-based organisations to skills-based organisations and we looked at whether we’d see a total shift to thinking purely in terms of ‘skills’ as opposed to ‘roles’ in the future.  Finally, the need to think and act differently to our competitors through strategic workforce planning was a fantastic way to wind up this highly engaging chat. 

Episode 21 of the SWP podcast welcomes Gergo Safar, Strategic Workforce Manager at BT to the Pod.  Gergo is an experienced SWP leader who has worked across organisations including BT, Unilever, McKinsey and Vodafone and countries including Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and the UK. This was such an important discussion to have with so many new themes raised including the opportunity to utilise the concept of risk far more frequently across SWP methodologies and the increasing importance of using data to tell stories.  Gergo’s session at The SWP Global Online conference took an important look at defining measures for SWP success.  A great chat with a global SWP champion! 

Episode 20 of the SWP podcast welcomes David Edwards of Visier.  Like many of us, David’s introduction to SWP happened through working on a large-scale workforce reduction project.  David has a strong background in resource management and strategic workforce planning in the banking and financial servises sector across Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest Group ahead of joining Visier as the director of product management in mid 2022.  Currently the Advisory Services Director, David supports clients through ensuring the underlying structures are in place within organisations to enable effective software implementations.  Always a rich and thorough discussion with David highlights during which include exploring the skill-based organisation and looking at the future as far as skills taxonomies and job architectures are concerned.  A true advocate for our profession, one of the inaugural members of The Institute and an absolute pleasure to chat to. 

Episode 19 of the SWP podcast welcomes one of our very own – Jen Allen.  A member of The Institute's GSCC, Jen is the Workforce Planning and Design Manager at Police Scotland.  With a recent career history spanning health and police, Jen has deep insight into the challenges faced by governments of the world across critical workforce segments.  Jen’s insights into stakeholder related challenges when developing a strategic workforce plans serve as an important reminder that SWP is most certainly not just an HR thing.  We love the notion of SWP sitting with strategy as an org chart option given the relative synergies. Jen wowed us at our Launch event in November with her panel discussion on blending data sources for commercial impact and we're very much looking to welcoming her back across multiple events across 2023!  What a delightful, kind and engaging person to chat SWP with!    

Episode 18 of the SWP podcast welcomes Emanuele Poletti, Group Workforce Planning and Analytics Manager at Campari. Emanuele found Strategic Workforce Planning originally through his time at GE where he spent a number of years as an analytics specialist, organisation and staffing. Through his time at both Sky and Generali, Emanuele has transitioned his focus from data and analytics into strategic workforce planning, a craft he now plies at Campari in Milan.  The nature of SWP for an organisation with Campari’s complexity is fascinating and I was interested to hear Emanuele discuss the differences between the operational workforce and corporate side of the business coupled with the fact that Campari’s growth is both organic and by acquisition which means integrating new workforces from time to time.  Also of particular interest is the concept of predicting turnover modelling which we discuss during at length. We’re looking forward to having Emanuele join our Global Online event next month to discuss Campari’s approach. 

Episode 17 of the SWP podcast welcomes Gill Aggus from, Jaguar Land Rover. Originally an economist, Gill found Strategic Workforce Planning following numerous roles working across the JLR business which has helped arm her with deep insights into the challenges faced the JLR leaders. Developing a job architecture is a critical part of any SWP process and Gill’s presentation at The Institute’s Global Launch event provided valuable information around how this can be done. Sadly I wasn’t able to get hold of a loan car while I was in the UK however it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying!

Episode 16 of the SWP podcast welcomes Matt Higgs from Babcock International Group to share his refreshing insights around practical and executable strategic workforce planning.  For us, one of the light bulb moments was Matt’s quote ‘the plan we develop today, is seldom what actually gets implemented’.  Our fascinating conversation was a staunch reminder that SWP is not intended to be a precise tool, we won’t always get it right but we’ll understand the associated risks and have contingency plans in place when the future landscape doesn’t evolve as we initially thought.  An enjoyable, entertaining and informative conversation with an authentic, humble and intelligent thought leader.  

Episode 15 of the SWP podcast welcomes Suzie Custerson – Director of Strategic Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition at Seek. When the recipe starts with business and strategy related study and early career work and branches out into HR, the combination is the perfect tonic for a strategic workforce planner. I loved my conversation with Suzie which provides a unique look at an organisation who as Suzie puts it ‘owns the platform’.  Interestingly, the unique position Seek finds themselves in brings about a whole different set of challenges.  I found the discussion around how difficult organisations find it difficult to articulate their current capability profile as opposed to finding it relatively easy to articulate their future capabilities. The future landscape of technology talent is set to change dramatically moving forward with cyber security, the gig economy and remote working all set to create complexity whilst enabling opportunity.  Great chat with one of SWPs good people! 

Episode 14 of the SWP podcast welcomes Rob Major – Director – Workforce Planning at Raytheon Technologies. Rob graduated his masters with a qualification in executive coaching having developed a passion for connecting psychology with business.  Having developed an interest in people analytics, Rob secured a role with World Vision which propelled his career in workforce planning and analytics. Rob’s role with Raytheon Technologies sees him supporting workforce planning across multiple business units within an organisation with 170,000+ staff and the sheer size of the undertaking is hugely impressive. Interestingly, with a large workforce, the ‘build’ strategy seems to be a real priority for Raytheon with a focus on how they develop and reskill the workforce of the future. The willingness of Rob’s workforce planning function to develop capability across the broader HR team having identified them as key stakeholders in the process is critical.   Loved the phrase ‘making friends with shadows’ to describe finding the right balance between encouraging the pre-existing workforce planning done by various parts of the business and maintaining a degree of consistency, rigor and control over the approach and application.  Super impressive guy who is always incredibly generous with his time.  

Episode 13 of the SWP podcast welcomes Justin Strharsky founder and director of Unearthed Solutions and Humyn.ai. Justin’s early career included time in Silicon Valley at Sun Microsytems  then spending a decade fostering start-ups and innovation hubs before founding Unearthed Solutions, an organisation who connects mining and resources companies with innovators to deliver a unique way of supplementing workforce demand.  Humyn.ai was born out of Unearthed along the way and focuses on tech innovators delivering hard to source capabilities through utilising hack-a-thon style thinking development solutions. One of the things that strikes me the most about Justin is his passion for leveraging communities to solve problems.  This was an incredible discussion that covered so many great topics, none more important than how culture, attitudes, policies and procedures need to change if the thinking behind how workforce demand is to extend beyond the traditional ‘buy’ bucket. Great guy and a thoroughly engaging chat! 

Episode 12 of the SWP podcast welcomes Oksana Jawabreh.  Oksana is an experienced SWP Leader and passionate advocate who has worked across organisations including Westpac, EY, Deloitte and Woolworths.  Oksana brings a wealth of experience and perspective having spent years consulting to the government on major transformations and reform projects prior to her time in the fin services space.  Such a great conversation with an incredibly intelligent and engaging person.  Personal highlights included a discussion around the importance of strategy to the SWP process along with some of the common strategic pitfalls,  referencing our favourite SWP reading material and where SWP can, and should fit in the traditional org structure.  Really interesting person to chat with, great episode!        

Episode 11 of the SWP podcast welcomes Kath Hume, founder and director of Workforce Transformations.  Kath has a long history building strategic workforce planning capability from the inside with NSW Health and is an incredible SWP advocate.  Kath’s insights and thinking about the workforce of the future are highly innovative and have led to the development of her own podcast, The Reimagined Workforce.  Kath’s background combines teaching, economics and HR, the latter two of which make for an interestingly commercial take on the people, data and transformation landscape.  Always an engaging, rich and productive discussion with Kath and this episode is no exception. Really excited to have Kath and the NSW Health crew joining our Asia Pac conference across two highly informative sessions on critical Health related topics. 

Episode 10 of the SWP podcast welcomes James McKay, Head of Workforce Strategy and Strategic Workforce Planning and Sravan Rajupalem, Senior Data Scientist from ANZ. Really insightful and engaging conversation with James and Sravan.  James found Strategic Workforce Planning through a large restructure a number of years back which is fairly common for professionals in our space however something we’re seeing less and less of these days. Sravan has a combined Chemical Engineering and Actuarial degree and spent years modelling financial data before moving into the people space.  Interestingly, skills across different areas of data aren't atomically transferrable a it was interesting to chat about the specific nuances with Sravan. Always interesting to chat about stakeholder challenges in large organisations and James’s insights into taking stakeholders along for the SWP journey are a must for listeners. I found it fascinating how Sravan is applying methods which come from outside the people analytics space to provide people data outcomes. Great chat with interesting, engaging humans! 

Episode 9 of the SWP podcast welcomes Jess Murphy, Head of Workforce Strategy and Future Workforce Design at Bupa.  Wonderful discussion with Jess who found SWP through a traditional HR career pathway.  What strikes me most about Jess is her relentless focus on capability and the critical role understanding enterprise capabilities plays in the SWP process.  One of the absolute hidden gems in this episode is most certainly the approach towards existing HR strategies and capability frameworks when introducing SWP, an activity which runs the risk of potentially threatening existing plans and frameworks developed prior to any SWP related work – fascinating to hear Jess’s views on how it can be handled! Really looking forward to Jess taking delegates through creating a ‘red thread’ with your critical capabilities at our Asia Pacific SWP conference! 

Episode 7 of the SWP podcast welcomes Adam Gibson, Director and Strategic Workforce Planning Leader at EY and author of the recognised go-to text for SWP, Agile Workforce Planning. We’ve been dying to pick Adam’s brain on the critical role capability plays in the strategic workforce planning process and the ensuing conversation didn’t disappoint.  You just get the sense that had there not been adjacent calendar appointments, this conversation could have gone for hours.  A wonderful conversation with a true captain of our industry and engaging person.  We loved the chat about the common pitfalls of many organisations strategies – something only too familiar! 

Episode 6 of the SWP podcast welcomes Commander Peter Chapman from the Royal Australian Navy to take an insightful look at how career pathways in SWP emerge.  The journey of the contemporary strategic workforce planning professional is seldom a consistent one.  In this deep-dive, we look at the many and varied backgrounds and pathways into the SWP space as well as look at how different capabilities are required across a successful SWP project team. We loved the thought-provocation around the ‘quintessential organisation’ who opts not to adapt traditional approaches to talent acquisition and how organisations must address key issues like policies, mindsets and culture in order to adapt to evolving ways of working.  We’re very much looking forward to Peter’s session at our Asia Pacific SWP conference and are encouraged by his passion and advocacy for both careers and professionals in the space. 

Episode 5 of the SWP podcast welcomes Philip De Nerve from Talent on Demand insight into the back story of ‘Oxygen’, Talent On Demand’s Strategic Workforce Planning Software tool. The fascinating back story into Philip’s journey into Strategic Workforce Planning along with how Oxygen evolved over time led to the tale of Wipro and how the CEO re-focused parts of the workforce (skilled in declining technologies) on internal projects rather than face redundancy.  Philip’s perspectives on how a robust SWP capability base is important as a pre-curser to a software implementation are refreshing. Philip is set to wrap up the day at our global launch providing a summary and key takeaways before the post conference celebrations commence. 

Episode 4 of the SWP podcast welcomes Vanessa Pietrobon from the Roche Pharmaceuticals to provide a critical look at how SWP can, and should, involve a customised approach and methodology across different organisations. The notion that ‘one size’ does not ‘fit all’ is prevalent right throughout this thought-provoking discussion as numerous themes around data and analytics capability, where SWP should and often does live organisationally, and the critical role SWP plays with Learning and Development (in addition to Talent Acquisition) are all raised and explored.  Vanessa’s journey started out in marketing analytics and over time she honed and shifted her analytical capability towards people data.  Interestingly, Vanessa drew inspiration from an SWP focused presentation at Tucana Global’s People Analytics World some 8 years ago and has been well and truly emersed in the SWP world ever since.  We love the perspective and insight Vanessa brings and truly value her support and contribution to the SWP Eco-system. 

Episode 3 of the SWP podcast welcomes James Bryce from the Kantar to take an insightful look at the critical intersection of Finance and HR through workforce planning.  James’ journey started out as many workforce planning journeys do in the throws of large-scale workforce downsizing and as is always interesting, we were intrigued to learn James originally studied Geology as an undergraduate course.  Our look at the emerging and critical relationship between Strategic Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition was fascinating and the manner in which Talent Acquisition is evolving as we shift more towards a capability-based approach promises unbound possibilities for the future. James’ philosophy around the granularity with which SWP effectiveness can be measured is a ‘must listen to’ for anyone looking to measure the impact of their SWP efforts whilst his thoughts on all things data (how do we know the answer to that question?) are well worth hearing.  What an enjoyable discussion with an incredibly engaging and kind human being! 

Episode 2 of the SWP Podcast sees world renowned SWP software entrepreneurs Chris Hare and Alicia Roach join The Workforce Planning Institute for an in-depth look at key organisational challenges around SWP ownership as we attempt to answer the age-old question, if not in HR, where does SWP belong in today’s organisation?  We also take a look back at how it all got started for our esteemed guests whilst taking a sneak peek at ‘Trends with benefits’ Chris and Alicia’s upcoming presentation set to drop at SWP APAC in December and EMEA in February. So many wonderful hidden gems uncovered in this session with two amazing individuals so incredibly passionate about strategic workforce planning.  

Join Nick Kennedy as he explores the wonderful world of Strategic Workforce Planning by chatting with a series of guests set to speak at the upcoming SWP conference series.