Introduction to workforce planning
What is workforce planning in HR and how are workforce plans related to business and HR strategies? Boost your ability to respond to frequent changes by learning to use organisation design tools and techniques.
Perfect for:
You’ll learn how to:
- explain what workforce planning is and how it benefits business
- create a ‘baseline’ of what your organisation looks like and what it is trying to achieve
- determine workforce supply and demand to conduct a gap analysis
- create and implement an action plan.
About this course
Please note, On 16 April 2025 the Supreme Court returned the ruling that the protected characteristic of “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex. The result of this ruling can be viewed on the Supreme Court website. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (the EHRC, the national equality and human rights regulator for England, Scotland and Wales) released an interim update on 25 April 2025 to help employers and others understand how to follow the law in response to the Supreme Court ruling. The EHRC is working 'at pace' to update its statutory and non-statutory guidance. We will update our content appropriately when the EHRC statutory guidance is available or changes are made.
Course length: One day
Delivery: Online, and self-directed learning
Suitable for: People professionals who need to know how to deliver a workforce that will achieve organisational goals.
Topics covered
- introducing workforce planning: what is workforce planning in HR?
- understanding the baseline
- supply, demand and gap analysis
- creating and delivering an action plan.
What to expect from this ‘workforce planning’ course
This short course is for people professionals who want to know how to deliver a workforce that responds to their organisation’s goals. You’ll learn the latest practices and data-driven insights to determine and identify future demand and supply for people and skills.
Delivered by experts in workforce planning, this course will equip you with an introductory knowledge of workforce planning that you can apply to your workplace. You’ll learn how to conduct a gap analysis between employee supply and demand. You’ll also create and implement an action plan to close this gap. This will include identifying potential challenges, improving productivity, targeting inefficiencies, and increasing employee retention.
What you’ll need to do on this course
This is a one-day course, delivered online.
We recommend you support your online learning with self-directed learning – this should take around one hour before and four hours after the course.
To ensure you get the most out of this course, we will ask you to complete a short questionnaire before the session. This will allow our experts to fully support you with your learning goals.
What you’ll get on this ‘workforce planning’ course
At the end of this course, you’ll receive a certificate.
Taking part in this course gives you access to the CIPD Learning Hub for 12 months. Here, you can access your course content together with other valuable resources and tools. When you finish your course, you can enjoy an additional 12 months of access to other resources on the Learning Hub.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this ‘workforce planning’ course, you'll be able to:
- answer the question, ‘what is workforce planning in HR?’
- create, implement and deliver a strategic action plan
- establish a baseline that shows what your organisation looks like, what it is trying to achieve and why
- determine workforce supply, historical workforce trends and the future forecast
- assess demand, demand drivers and the future forecast
- create a gap analysis between supply and demand
- create and implement an action plan to close the gap between supply and demand.
Team bookings
Interested in booking this course for your team? We offer group bookings solutions for teams of four or more people.
When your teams learn with the CIPD, they get direct access to the latest professional research and insights.
And through courses co-created with industry thought leaders and practitioners, they’ll build the skills and confidence they need to inspire action, influence change and drive business value.
We offer a wide range of Learning and Development solutions to suit employees at every level – whether in HR, L&D, OD or wider people management.
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