Beyond the Training Department

Why L&D Belongs in Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic workforce planning conversations are happening across organisations, and we're missing a significant opportunity to contribute our expertise. This isn't a case of being deliberately excluded; we haven't always positioned ourselves as natural partners in these discussions. The good news is that this represents one of the most promising ways for L&D to demonstrate strategic value.

Strategic workforce planning is the systematic process of analysing current workforce capabilities against future business needs, identifying gaps, and developing targeted interventions to bridge them (AIHR, 2025). Put simply, it’s about building the workforce we need for tomorrow rather than patching up today's problems. When you think about it that way, L&D should be central to these conversations.

The business case for strategic workforce planning is about as strong as it could be. Research from McKinsey (2025) shows that organisations treating talent with analytical rigour consistently outperform competitors by taking a three-to-five-year view of workforce needs. Meanwhile, Multiverse (2025) research found that skills gaps cost organisations approximately 25 days of productivity per employee annually.

Everything we do connects to workforce planning.

• When we design learning pathways, we're making decisions about future skill requirements.

• When we analyse performance gaps, we're identifying workforce capabilities.

• When we build competency frameworks, we're creating infrastructure that workforce planning depends upon.

We're already generating the insights these conversations need.

The challenge is that we haven't always framed our work in strategic terms. We talk about completion rates instead of capability development timelines. We report on course satisfaction rather than workforce readiness for specific business initiatives. We focus on individual learning outcomes instead of organisational capability building. This isn't wrong, but it doesn't help people understand our strategic contribution.

LinkedIn's 2024 Workplace Learning Report highlighted both the opportunity and the gap. Whilst people are eager to develop AI skills, only 19% of employees are encouraged to explore internal role changes.

• We understand how to bridge capability gaps through targeted development.

• We know how to design learning that creates lasting behaviour change.

• We grasp the complexity of building skills at scale.

These capabilities are exactly what strategic workforce planning requires.

The current changing working environment makes our involvement even more valuable. SHRM (2024) data reveals that whilst 92% of HR professionals consider workforce planning important, only 42% report their organisations are effective at it. There's clearly room for improvement, and we're well-positioned to help.

So how do we better contribute to these conversations?

Start by reframing your existing work in strategic terms. That skills audit you're planning becomes workforce capability mapping. Those learning pathways you're designing become strategic talent development pipelines. The language matters because it signals your understanding of the bigger picture.

Note: While the language you use does matter, the content of your work matters even more. Simply renaming is not enough; you do still have to do the work, but signalling your clear intent to do that work has some value.

Build relationships with whoever leads workforce planning in your organisation. Offer to share data on current skill distributions, learning engagement patterns, and realistic timelines for capability development. Most workforce planners work with incomplete information about what people can do and how quickly they can develop new capabilities.

Most importantly, start connecting your work to business outcomes. Instead of just reporting learning metrics, track how interventions affect workforce readiness for strategic initiatives. McKinsey's 2019 research demonstrates that organisations excel when they connect learning culture directly to business performance metrics.

This isn't about expanding our remit for its own sake. Strategic workforce planning represents a natural evolution of what good L&D already does. We understand performance, we work across the organisation, and we think systematically about capability development. These are exactly the skills that workforce planning conversations need.

Note: If, whilst reading this, you think, "I don't think I or my team does have those skills," then start there.

I firmly believe that the organisations that thrive in the next decade will be those with the most adaptable workforces. Strategic workforce planning is how we build that adaptability, and we have a vital role to play in making it happen.

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References

AIHR (2025) Strategic workforce planning 101: Framework & process. Available at: https://www.aihr.com/blog/strategic-workforce-planning/

LinkedIn Learning (2024) 2024 workplace learning report. Available at: https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report

McKinsey & Company (2019) 'The essential components of a successful L&D strategy', McKinsey Insights, 13 February. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-essential-components-of-a-successful-l-and-d-strategy

McKinsey & Company (2025) 'The critical role of strategic workforce planning in the age of AI', McKinsey Insights, 26 February. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-critical-role-of-strategic-workforce-planning-in-the-age-of-ai

MIT Center for Information Systems Research (2024) Resolving workforce skills gaps with AI-powered insights. Available at: https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2024_0401_DigitalTalentTransformation_VanderMeulenTonaLeidner

Multiverse (2025) 'What is strategic workforce planning, and how can it close skills gaps?', 9 January. Available at: https://www.multiverse.io/en-GB/blog/strategic-workforce-planning

SHRM (2024) Strategic workforce planning: Navigating the future of HR. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/labs/resources/strategic-workforce-planning-navigating-the-future-of-hr