THE CHALLENGE

Planning for a skilled and diverse workforce in economically volatile conditions

A forward-thinking financial services organization with 50,000 employees found itself at a critical juncture. Its success had always hinged on anticipating and responding to customer needs, but the landscape was shifting dramatically. It was no longer just about meeting growing demand; it was about navigating a volatile, complex market where customer expectations and economic conditions could change in the blink of an eye. The workforce was evolving too, mixing traditional full-time employees, a growing contingent of remote workers across time zones, and increasing reliance on specialized gig-economy talent.

Spreadsheets, the company's legacy tool for people strategy, were buckling under the strain. Planners struggled to maintain consistent processes, track countless versions of plans, and gain a holistic view of the workforce. At the same time, rapid technological change widened the gap between current skills and the expertise new technology demanded, competition for top talent was fierce, and traditional forecasting models built for stable times were no longer valid. Annual and even quarterly planning cycles had become too slow, while diversity, equity, and inclusion and an increasingly complex regulatory environment raised the stakes further.

THE SOLUTION

Aligning people plans to business strategy to create an agile, resilient organization

Historically, workforce planning had been the domain of the Finance department. Essential for budgeting, that siloed approach often disconnected workforce strategy from broader business goals. So the organization set out to transform the process: cultivate a truly agile workforce, link workforce strategy to business strategy, and elevate the employee experience, all on a safe, accurate, and accountable system built to meet complex compliance and regulatory demands. It implemented Visier Workforce Planning, moving away from static, infrequent planning cycles to continuous planning and feedback loops, with plans treated as living documents that are constantly updated and refined.

THE OUTCOME

A truly collaborative workforce planning process

The rollout began by building strong relationships with the Finance leaders who had historically driven planning. The planning director then extended Visier to larger groups, starting with those of 500 to 750 employees, to establish a consolidated planning environment. Visier became the single source of truth for workforce information, letting each group refine its headcount plans with current data. More than 100 vice presidents, directors, and managers now use Visier Workforce Planning to capture their headcount needs: the planning director builds a top-level plan with VPs, who delegate sub-planning to directors, who involve the managers closest to the work. This layered approach distributes the workload and sharply increases the accuracy of every plan.

Visier's solution strengthened planning in three ways: it improved accuracy by using current, validated people and financial data and eliminating manual data preparation; it enabled proactive workforce shaping through scenario planning, so the company could model future outcomes and weigh the impact of its decisions; and it optimized talent allocation with role-based strategies that put the right skills in the right roles for organizational success.