Part of the talent strategy cluster. This is educational, operational guidance that connects to the wider site — the employee lifecycle, employer operations, metrics and templates.
Adapt it to your strategy, capability needs and context.
Why it matters
At the executive level, planning how to build needed capability decides whether the business has the people it needs to deliver. A clear strategy turns capability needs into priorities and programs, instead of reacting role-by-role.
Strategy connects capability to outcomes.
Key concepts
- Translate capability strategy into a plan.
- Sequence build/buy/borrow.
- Resource and time the plan.
- Track progress.
Operational framework
- Set the strategic objectives and target capabilities.
- Map current vs needed capability.
- Design the programs and priorities to close the gap.
- Connect to workforce planning and the lifecycle.
- Govern, measure and report on a cadence.
Workforce considerations
- What to build, buy or borrow when.
- How to resource the plan.
- How to sequence development.
- How progress is tracked.
Common challenges
- Strategy with no plan.
- No sequencing.
- Under-resourced plans.
- No progress tracking.
Best practices
- Turn strategy into a sequenced plan.
- Resource it realistically.
- Connect to workforce planning.
- Track progress.
Common mistakes
- No plan.
- No sequencing.
- Under-resourcing.
- No tracking.
Measure this with the workforce planning metrics metric, put it into practice with the workforce planning template, and run it as a system via workforce planning for operations.
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