Crossed views on Strategic Workforce Planning (eighth edition)

Akoya organized on Tuesday February 25^th 2020 its 8th round table, which was an opportunity to offer a new experience in the area of Strategic Workforce Planning. This new way of approaching the topic allows us to underline how the SWP process is an adaptive one. It never looks twice the same as it blends into a singular context that is specific to a particular company.

This is why we have decided to regularly address this topic and to emphasize the importance of an approach that should be built to fit your organization’s own context. Moreover, it is always interesting to be inspired by the experience of others before building your own SWP.

For this new edition we had the pleasure and honor to welcome Isabelle Lenicolais, HR Project Director at Fnac Darty. The following pages illustrates that there is no single formula for an effective SWP project. First of all, it is necessary to frame and understand the factors of the company’s evolution before getting started on the execution. However, a certain number of steps remain as key success factors of the exercise. Defining the framework of the analysis is a prerequisite to ensure the correct alignment between the work that is about the be carried out and the strategic business concerns.

The SWP will involve all the stakeholders according to the progress of the exercise, starting from management and HR Business Partners, operations, financial and strategic managers, the HR Centers of Excellence, but also the social partners. This cannot be limited to the HR function alone, even if it is the driving force behind it. The SWP is a real strategic business exercise. But foresight does not consist of looking into a crystal ball to guess the future. Far from it. SWP is a reasoned approach that relies on strategic thinking and tools to write down trends and take into consideration scenarios that are weighed by the different stakeholders involved.

Simplifying the process and facilitating collaboration between teams are the main assets of Albert, our SaaS tool dedicated to SWP. After an in-depth examination of the situations and thanks to the data collected, Albert explores the evolution of jobs and prepares HR teams “today” for what will be needed “tomorrow”. Albert draws the possible futures of the population and thus guides the strategic HR thinking.

The independent spirit of the story that Isabelle Lenicolais shares is indisputable. However, we think it is important to point out to our readers that we accompanied Fnac Darty on their SWP project and that this exercise was conducted with the support of our tool Albert.

In addition to what Isabelle Lenicolais shares with us, we found relevant to include notes from Vincent Barat, Co-founder and retail expert at Akoya, who accompanied Fnac Darty in the implementation of its SWP. Finally, we would like to share with you our conviction: other retail players will be able to compare themselves to the Fnac Darty story as they address similar issues, especially at the store level. But of course, no matter your industry you are free to follow, or not, the practices that are shared. Your Strategic Workforce Planning is yours and its uniqueness will only make it more relevant to your challenges.