We define SWP as: “the sum of actions taken to acquire, retain, develop, motivate and deploy human capital in the service of an organisation’s mission”.

Ours is an asset based, whole of workforce approach (including the contingent workforce) over the employment life cycle. It is much more than a suite of HR policies, and ad hoc HR initiatives such as talent management, succession planning and workforce planning (supply and demand, forecasting).

Furthermore, our emphasis is on the “here and now” (i.e., the legacy workforce) – getting the workforce strategy and management foundation right – as well as forecasting and configuring the future workforce.

What’s Different About Our SWP Approach?

• We put the “strategy” factor back into SWP in illuminating how the workforce contributes to strategic success.
• We challenge some traditional or conventional thinking and models, revealing the limitations of several of those models and how they have now reached their “use by date”.
• We focus on value creation in so far as understanding the key drivers of value, how various roles create value, and understanding the “line of site” to value creation.
• We introduce the AWS Skills- based Workforce Segmentation Model – the key to treating the workforce assets as a portfolio that can be managed.
• We emphasise the importance of understanding the true characteristics of roles and their differentiation, including Critical roles, “Make” and “Buy” roles.
• We focus on aligning roles/talent with value creation and intelligent investment in people.
• We base our work on global thought leaders and latest research (e.g., Boudreau, Huselid, Guest, Lepak and Snell).
• We contend that many organisations are delusional about their SWP claims – and we have the research to prove it!

Our consulting services - in particular the AWS Skills-Based Workforce Segmentation Model including Critical Role identification - are sought after by firms seeking to manage their workforces more strategically. This includes changes to their business models as a consequence of digital disruption and the associated need for workforce transformation.

To find out more, refer to our whites paper on The 12 Deadly Traps of Strategic Workforce Planning and Critical Role Identification: A Best Practice Approach to Addressing the Blind Spots in Talent Management and Succession Planning.