Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic Workforce Planning is a 5-day senior workforce strategy course delivered by Mars Training Centre UK in London, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Johannesburg and Amsterdam, and online — designed for senior HR leaders, chief people officers, business-unit directors and strategy leaders responsible for ensuring the organisation has the people it will need.

Most organisations have a workforce plan. Few have one that connects credibly to the business strategy, looks beyond the next budget cycle, or accounts for the structural shifts now reshaping the labour market — demographic change, automation, AI, geographic dispersion and rising employee expectations. This programme is built for senior leaders who want to lift workforce planning out of the headcount-budget conversation and turn it into a strategic discipline.

Across five focused days, you will work through the major frameworks of strategic workforce planning — demand and supply analysis, scenario-based planning, capability and skill modelling, the build, buy, borrow or automate choice, succession and talent pipelines, and workforce-related risk — apply them to real cases drawn from British, European, Gulf and Asian organisations, and build a strategic workforce plan for an area of your own organisation. The programme is delivered by senior practitioners with executive HR and strategy experience.

What You Will Learn

• Distinguish strategic workforce planning from headcount budgeting.
• Link workforce planning to strategy, operating model and capability needs.
• Forecast workforce demand and supply at executive depth.
• Apply scenario-based planning to workforce uncertainty.
• Map capability and skill gaps and choose how to close them.
• Lead the build, buy, borrow or automate decision deliberately.
• Design succession and talent pipelines for critical roles.
• Anticipate workforce-related strategic risks — demographic, technological and regulatory.
• Communicate the workforce strategy to boards, peers and the workforce itself.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a working strategic workforce plan for an area of your organisation and a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a senior leader who can hold credible workforce conversations at the executive table, reduce the gap between strategic ambition and people capability, and protect the long-horizon talent investments most organisations under-fund.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior leaders responsible for the workforce, including:

• Chief People Officers and HR directors
• Heads of talent, organisation design and workforce planning
• Heads of strategy and corporate planning
• Directors of business units accountable for capability and capacity
• Senior finance leaders responsible for people cost
• Senior public-sector officials leading workforce reform
• Family-business principals shaping the people side of the next chapter

The seniority floor is senior manager and above. The course is delivered in person over five consecutive days and carries a fee of £4,950.