Strategic workforce planning: From reactive recruitment to a planned talent strategy
Most CEOs call talent a strategic priority, yet almost half of organisations still hire without a plan. Our new paper, drawn from the CIPD’s Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2026, supported by Omni, sets out why that gap is more expensive, and what to do about it.
Talent, skills and succession now sit alongside AI and productivity on most leadership agendas. Yet the CIPD’s Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2026, supported by Omni, found that 46% of organisations still take an ad hoc approach to recruitment, and only 19% calculate the return on their investment. Over a third collect no workforce planning data at all.
For an SME, that gap is riskier than it looks. Fewer people carry more institutional knowledge, one senior departure can stall a growth plan, and there’s rarely a large HR function to absorb the shock of getting it wrong.
The conversation has shifted from scarcity to pressure. Redundancies rose from 17% of organisations in 2024 to 27% in 2026, and 29% put recruitment on hold altogether. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to raise costs for most employers, and tighter migration rules have already affected 37% of organisations.
None of that has made hiring easier. 52% of organisations report competition for well-qualified talent has increased over the past year, and 44% say talent is harder to retain. A quarter market is exactly when the people you’ll need in two to three years become more expensive to find the longer you wait to identify them.
Talent acquisition teams are usually measured on how fast they fill today’s vacancies, not how well they’ve prepared for tomorrow’s. That’s why so many organisations stay reactive despite good intentions.
Omni’s own strategic workforce planning methodology treats workforce planning as a continuous cycle, not a one-off exercise: forecasting requirements, assessing talent availability and gaps, choosing strategic interventions, then measuring and realigning, on a loop that feeds straight back into the next cycle. It needs a clear owner, alignment with talent acquisition, internal mobility, learning & development and talent intelligence, as well as sponsorship from senior leadership and a standing conversation on the leadership agenda, not a document nobody revisits.
AI is already changing headcount, not just job descriptions: 29% of employers replaced some jobs with technology and automation in the past year, rising to 46% among large private organisations. Many are investing in AI and agentic tools before the underlying workforce data and plans are in place to support them, and that investment rarely delivers the return expected as a result. Before deciding what AI can do for your organisation, decide what your people need to do, and revisit that answer at least once a year.
Measurement is the weakest link in strategic workforce planning at organisations of every size, and the gap widens with scale: 37% of large private organisations measure recruitment ROI, against 9% of private SMEs. You don’t need a dashboard to close it. Five numbers matter most: time-to-hire for business-critical roles, the cost of a critical hire gone wrong, retention of your hardest-to-replace people, the share of vacancies filled internally, and one forward-looking estimate of headcount and skills needed 12 to 24 months out.
Losing someone you didn’t need to lose is an expensive mistake. Only 37% of organisations took active steps to improve retention over the last year, down on 2024, and of those tracking turnover, just 24% calculate what it actually costs. For every business-critical role, the paper argues, leaders need an honest answer to one question: if this person left tomorrow, what would we do? Omni’s 7Bs model, build, buy, borrow, bind, bot, bounce and bridge, frames the response, and “bind”, investing to keep the critical people you already have, is the option most often overlooked.
We believe, simply, that talent is everything, and that the organisations winning the next decade will be the ones who plan for it rather than react to it. Our full paper sets out the latest findings from the CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning Report, alongside Omni’s four-phase methodology and the 7Bs model for closing a capability gap.
At Omni, we prioritise an evidence-based approach that ensures reliable and effective assessment processes. Our team of expert Organisational Psychologists brings extensive experience in designing and delivering robust assessments that are inclusive, skills-focused, and tailored to your unique organisational needs. We also offer flexibility and support throughout the assessment process, ensuring successful implementation and tangible results.
Our assessment solutions are designed to elevate your hiring process by identifying the best candidates based on their skills, potential, and fit for the role. We help you define the critical competencies required for success, develop tailored assessments that accurately evaluate these competencies, and provide deep insights into candidates’ aptitude and personality traits. This evidence-based approach improves productivity, reduces turnover, and ensures a positive candidate experience. There are several benefits that personality profiling can bring to the recruitment process, such as supporting inclusive hiring, improved decision making, and increased efficiency.
Omni’s training covers understanding potential discrimination areas during recruitment, recognising bias and its impact, avoiding discrimination, implementing positive action and diversity strategies, making reasonable adjustments, objective shortlisting and selection through evidence-based decisions, and structured interview techniques with appropriate questions.
Omni’s programme covers understanding discrimination in recruitment, recognising and mitigating bias, legal frameworks for positive action, making reasonable adjustments, objective shortlisting and selection, and effective interview techniques.
Our recruitment training for TA teams includes developing brand awareness, proactive attraction and sourcing, creating a great candidate and hiring manager experience, stakeholder management and influencing, talent mapping, and creating talent pipelines. It also covers inclusive selection techniques, advanced selection and interviewing skills, advanced sourcing, and conducting your own Resourcing Effectiveness Assessment (audit, assess, action) to benchmark and improve recruitment processes.
