Compare providers
Download our outplacement comparison sheet
Request pricing
Compare our rates to other providers
Workforce planning tools include both strategic methods and software solutions that help HR teams assess their current talent, forecast future hiring needs, and align workforce strategy with business goals. These tools help organizations take a more organized and data-driven approach to workforce planning as business needs change over time.
Not only can workforce planning tools help companies better understand their workforce today, but also support ongoing planning, forecasting, and decision making in the future. Using both workforce planning strategies and software together can help HR teams stay proactive with hiring, retention, and employee development instead of reacting to problems as they happen.
In this article, we’ll cover the most essential workforce planning tools and software solutions your HR team should know about.
What are workforce planning tools?
In short, workforce planning tools are simply ways to gather and synthesize data. They can be anything that helps you keep track of your massive amounts of talent information. This is vital for organizations to proactively plan and predict workforce needs, and then more efficiently devise and implement human resources strategies, which will help prevent future layoffs, panic hires, and understaffing challenges.
Use these workforce planning tools to gather as much information about your current workforce as possible, and then compare that to your business goals in both the short term and long term. Strategic workforce planning usually covers a forecast period of around three to five years. The ultimate goal here is to improve current business practices by problem solving and predicting issues before they arise.
What is the difference between workforce planning tools and workforce planning software?
While the terms are often used interchangeably, workforce planning tools and workforce planning software are not exactly the same thing. Workforce planning tools typically refer to the overall methods and frameworks organizations use to support workforce planning, while workforce planning software refers specifically to digital platforms that help automate, organize, and analyze workforce data.
What tools do HR professionals use for workforce planning?
While most organizations understand the need for strategic workforce planning, many experience barriers that make it difficult for HR departments to successfully implement it. Using the right set of workforce planning tools, however, can make it much easier for organizations to conduct their strategic workforce planning.
Let’s explore the five best HR workforce planning tools and techniques to understand why they are valuable and what they entail. If you need additional guidance on implementing these strategic workforce planning tools for your organization, you can also download our free comprehensive Careerminds workforce planning template below.
1. Strategic workforce map
Strategic workforce mapping helps organizations connect their workforce plans directly to larger business goals. Before companies can make informed hiring, restructuring, or talent development decisions, they first need a clear understanding of where the business is headed over the next three to five years. This includes evaluating company goals, market conditions, growth plans, and industry competition to determine what types of talent and skills will be needed in the future.
As part of this process, organizations often ask questions such as:
- What workforce skills will we need to support future growth?
- Are there talent shortages or hiring challenges in our industry?
- Which teams or departments are expected to expand?
- What are competitors doing to attract and retain talent?
Once leadership identifies these priorities, HR teams can build workforce strategies that align with those goals. This may include adjusting recruiting efforts, improving retention strategies, investing in employee development, or planning for future leadership needs.
Example:
If a healthcare company plans to expand telehealth services over the next few years, workforce mapping may reveal a growing need for digital health specialists, remote care coordinators, and IT support staff. HR can then proactively develop hiring and training plans before talent shortages become a problem. Strategic workforce mapping helps organizations stay proactive instead of reacting to workforce challenges after they arise.
2. The 9-box grid
The 9-box grid, also known as the performance-potential matrix, is a workforce planning and talent management tool used to evaluate employees based on two factors: current performance and future potential. Organizations use this framework to better understand their workforce, identify high-potential employees, and make more informed decisions about employee growth opportunities.
The grid places employee performance on one axis and future potential on the other, creating nine categories that help HR teams and managers assess talent across the organization. This allows companies to identify strong performers with leadership potential, good candidates for future advancement, and those who may need additional support or training.
The 9-box grid is especially useful for succession planning and long-term workforce development because it gives organizations a clearer picture of their internal talent pipeline. Instead of making promotion decisions reactively, companies can proactively prepare employees for future leadership roles and skill needs.
Example:
A growing marketing agency may use a 9-box grid during annual talent reviews to identify account managers who consistently perform well and show strong leadership potential. Those employees could then be enrolled in management training programs or given mentorship opportunities to prepare them for future leadership positions as the company expands.
3. HR dashboarding
An HR dashboard is a workforce planning tool that tracks, analyzes, and reports on key HR metrics. This is a very effective instrument for mapping current workforce capabilities to identify any gaps or future talent needs and track progress toward organizational goals.
This workforce planning tool is essentially a workforce database linked to all HRIS sources—including payroll, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and the 9-box grid we covered earlier—to collate all data on employee demographics, earnings, retention and distribution, turnover and recruitment, current competencies and performance, employee recognition and rewards, budget and market pressures, and even insight into competitors’ workforce management strategies.
This HR dashboard and your analysis thereof can help further inform workforce shortages, gap-closing strategies, succession planning, and future talent needs to attain business goals.
Example:
A retail company experiencing high turnover across multiple store locations may use an HR dashboard to identify patterns in employee retention, hiring timelines, and staffing shortages. After reviewing the data, HR may discover that certain locations are understaffed or experiencing higher burnout rates, allowing leadership to adjust hiring plans, improve manager training, or increase retention efforts before turnover worsens.
4. Compensation and benefits analysis
Compiling this HR data and analytics can help you calculate costs and link financial planning to your strategic workforce plan. This starts with a compensation and benefits analysis, which is an essential workforce planning tool for understanding what you pay for talent in your workforce and how that compares to the market as a whole.
This is especially helpful when used alongside the 9-box grid we covered earlier, to ensure that you’re compensating your employees appropriately for their effort and performance. You can further enrich this data with labor market statistics, using external or industry payment benchmarks to adjust for internal payment discrepancies.
The idea is to make sure that you’re not underpaying your top talent or overpaying your underperforming talent. Getting this wrong could mean losing your top talent to competitors and only retaining your lowest performers, stagnating your business performance.
Example:
A technology company experiencing high turnover among software engineers may conduct a compensation analysis and discover that competitors are offering significantly higher salaries and more flexible benefits. Based on these findings, leadership may decide to adjust compensation packages, expand remote work options, or introduce retention bonuses to remain competitive and reduce employee turnover.
5. Scenario planning
Scenario planning is a process that starts by identifying key uncertainties that could affect the business, such as technological change, shifts in consumer demand, regulatory updates, or broader economic conditions. HR teams then analyze both internal and external drivers of change, including talent availability, industry trends, and organizational growth plans.
Next, these drivers are prioritized based on their level of impact and uncertainty. The most significant and unpredictable factors are used to build distinct future scenarios. These scenarios are then used to test how workforce needs might change, helping organizations plan ahead for hiring, training, restructuring, or skill development in a more strategic way.
Example:
A manufacturing company might model a scenario where automation technology rapidly advances and becomes widely adopted across production lines. In this situation, the organization may need fewer manual assembly roles but significantly more robotics technicians, maintenance engineers, and data specialists to manage automated systems. By preparing for this shift in advance, HR teams can retrain existing employees and adjust hiring strategies before the transition creates major workforce disruptions.
What are the best workforce planning software platforms for HR professionals?
Below are some of the best workforce planning software platforms organizations can use to support long-term workforce planning efforts.
1. Careerminds’ Workforce Intelligence
Careerminds’ Workforce Intelligence is an AI-powered workforce planning platform that focuses on helping leaders identify workforce risks, model future scenarios, uncover skills gaps, and make proactive workforce decisions before disruption impacts the business.
Unlike traditional workforce planning systems that rely heavily on spreadsheets or static dashboards, Careerminds’ Workforce Intelligence combines workforce analytics with execution support. Organizations can model restructuring decisions, analyze workforce capabilities across teams, and connect workforce planning directly to redeployment and one-on-one career transition support.
Best for: Mid-sized and enterprise organizations managing workforce transformation, restructuring, reskilling, or redeployment initiatives
Key features:
- AI-powered workforce scenario modeling and risk analysis
- Organization-wide capability and skills mapping
- Integrated workforce transition and redeployment support
Pricing: Custom pricing available through direct consultation
If you’re interested in learning more about Careerminds’ Workforce Intelligence solution, click below to connect with our experts and see how we can help you make smarter, better-informed workforce decisions before disruption makes them for you.
2. Workday
Workday is a full-scale enterprise human capital management (HCM) platform that combines workforce planning, payroll, talent management, finance, and analytics into one system. It functions as a complete business operating platform rather than just a workforce planning tool. Organizations can connect hiring plans directly to budgeting, labor costs, organizational restructuring, and financial forecasting in real time.
Workday is commonly used by large enterprises with complex global workforce structures because it supports advanced organizational modeling, multi-country workforce management, and enterprise-wide reporting. The platform is also known for its strong automation and workflow management capabilities across HR and finance teams.
Best for: Large global enterprises needing workforce planning tightly connected to finance and operations
Key features:
- Enterprise workforce and financial planning in one platform
- Advanced organizational charting and headcount modeling
- Global payroll, compliance, and talent management tools
Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing based on workforce size and selected modules
3. Visier
Visier is primarily a people analytics and workforce intelligence platform rather than a traditional HR management system. Unlike platforms focused on payroll or workforce administration, Visier specializes in helping organizations analyze workforce data to uncover patterns, risks, and predictive insights.
Organizations often use Visier alongside existing HRIS systems to improve workforce visibility and decision making. The platform is particularly strong in retention forecasting, DEI analytics, workforce productivity analysis, and identifying turnover risks before they escalate.
Best for: Organizations focused heavily on workforce analytics and predictive people insights
Key features:
- Predictive turnover and retention modeling
- Prebuilt people analytics dashboards and benchmarks
- AI-powered workforce trend and productivity analysis
Pricing: Custom pricing based on analytics scope and company size
4. Anaplan
Anaplan is a business planning and scenario modeling platform designed for highly strategic workforce and operational forecasting. What sets Anaplan apart is its ability to model complex “what-if” business scenarios across HR, finance, supply chain, and operations teams simultaneously. Rather than focusing mainly on HR administration, Anaplan is designed for enterprise planning and forecasting at scale.
Organizations use Anaplan to model restructuring decisions, expansion plans, labor cost changes, hiring freezes, and future workforce demand under different business conditions. Its collaborative planning environment also allows finance and HR teams to work from the same forecasting models.
Best for: Organizations needing advanced workforce scenario planning tied to broader business forecasting
Key features:
- Multi-scenario workforce and financial forecasting
- Real-time collaborative business planning tools
- Large-scale modeling for restructuring and growth planning
Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing available through consultation
5. Deel
Deel is a global workforce management platform built specifically for distributed teams, international hiring, and contractor management. Unlike traditional workforce planning systems focused on analytics or organizational modeling, Deel’s main strength is simplifying global employment logistics and compliance.
The platform allows organizations to hire employees and contractors across multiple countries without setting up local legal entities. It also centralizes onboarding, payroll, contracts, tax documentation, and compliance management for international teams. This makes Deel especially useful for startups and fast-growing companies building remote or global workforces.
Best for: Remote-first and international organizations managing distributed teams
Key features:
- Global payroll and international compliance management
- Contractor and employee hiring across multiple countries
- Localized contracts, onboarding, and tax documentation tools
Pricing: Deel uses modular pricing based on services selected. Core HR tools start at around $5 per employee per month, while global payroll, contractor management, and EOR services are priced separately. EOR plans start around $599 per employee per month, contractor management starts around $49 per contractor per month, and payroll services start around $24–$29 per employee per month.
6. Paylocity
Paylocity is a workforce management and HR platform focused on usability, employee engagement, and workforce operations for mid-sized businesses. Compared to enterprise-focused platforms like Workday or Anaplan, Paylocity is designed to be more accessible and easier to implement while still offering strong workforce management functionality.
The platform combines payroll, scheduling, time tracking, engagement tools, and workforce analytics into one system. One of Paylocity’s key differentiators is its focus on employee engagement and communication, including features like peer recognition, surveys, mobile access, and collaboration tools, alongside traditional workforce management functions.
Best for: Mid-sized organizations wanting workforce management and employee engagement in one platform
Key features:
- Workforce scheduling, payroll, and labor cost management
- Employee engagement, communication, and survey tools
- Mobile-friendly workforce management and HR automation
Pricing: Custom pricing based on organization size and selected features
Workforce planning software comparison
| TOOL: | BEST FOR: | KEY FEATURES: | PRICING: |
| Careerminds’ Workforce Intelligence | Workforce restructuring, redeployment, and workforce risk analysis | AI-powered scenario modeling, skills mapping, workforce transition support | Custom pricing |
| Workday | Large enterprises needing integrated HR and financial planning | Workforce forecasting, organizational modeling, global HR management | Custom pricing |
| Visier | Organizations focused on workforce analytics and predictive insights | Predictive analytics, retention forecasting, workforce dashboards | Custom pricing |
| Anaplan | Enterprise scenario planning and operational forecasting | Workforce modeling, financial planning integration, scenario analysis | Custom pricing |
| Deel | Global and remote-first workforce management | International hiring, global payroll, compliance management | Modular pricing based on services |
| Paylocity | Mid-sized businesses needing workforce management and HR automation | Payroll, scheduling, workforce analytics, employee engagement tools | Custom pricing |
How do I choose the right workforce planning tool for my organization?
Choosing the right workforce planning tool depends on your organization’s size, complexity of workforce data, and whether you need basic reporting or advanced forecasting. The best tool is the one that matches your current needs while supporting your future growth.
Small organizations (1–100 employees)
Smaller teams usually prioritize simplicity, speed, and affordability over advanced features. At this stage, workforce planning is often more about visibility than deep analysis:
- Spreadsheet-based tools or lightweight HR platforms
- Basic tracking of headcount, roles, and hiring needs
- Mostly retrospective reporting (what has already happened)
- Minimal or no HRIS integration required
- Low-cost tools with quick setup and easy adoption
Mid-sized organizations (100–1,000 employees)
Mid-sized companies typically have more structured HR processes and need better visibility across departments. Workforce data becomes harder to manage manually, so integration and reporting become more important:
- HR platforms with dashboards and reporting capabilities
- Integration with HRIS, payroll, and ATS systems
- A mix of retrospective reporting and early predictive insights
- Department-level workforce visibility and planning
- Moderate-cost SaaS tools that scale with growth
Large organizations (1,000+ employees)
Large enterprises require advanced systems that can handle complex workforce structures across multiple teams, locations, and business units:
- Enterprise workforce planning platforms with predictive analytics
- Strong HRIS, finance, and BI system integrations
- Advanced forecasting and scenario modeling capabilities
- Real-time dashboards with deep segmentation and reporting
- Higher-cost, enterprise-level tools with implementation support
Workforce planning tools: Final takeaways
When it comes down to it, choosing which strategic workforce planning tools to use is entirely up to you and your organization. Whatever software you choose, you’ll want a way to implement the five HR workforce planning tools we’ve covered here, starting with a strategic workforce map and 9-box grid, then inputting it all into an HR dashboard, parsing out your compensation and benefits analysis, and conducting scenario planning to prepare for potential future challenges.
To get the most out of workforce planning tools and software, it’s important for experienced HR professionals to oversee all aspects of the workforce planning process. So make sure that your HR team is fully equipped and prepared to use these workforce planning tools and techniques to meet your business objectives.
If you’re unsure about how to implement these workforce planning tools, we’re here to help. At Careerminds, our goal is to help you foster both individual and organizational growth, ensuring that everyone in your company can achieve their goals. If you’re interested in learning more, click below to connect with one of our experts and see if Careerminds is the right fit for your organization’s workforce planning needs.
Frequently asked questions about workforce planning tools
What is the 9-box grid used for in workforce planning?
The 9-box grid is a workforce planning and talent management tool used to evaluate employees based on their performance and future potential. Organizations commonly use it to identify high-potential employees, support succession planning, guide leadership development, and make more informed talent decisions. It can also help HR teams identify skills gaps and future leadership needs within the organization.
What workforce planning software is best for small businesses?
The best workforce planning software for small businesses depends on the company’s size, budget, and workforce needs. Many small businesses look for platforms that are easy to use, affordable, and able to support forecasting, employee data tracking, reporting, and hiring plans. Small teams often benefit most from flexible software that can scale as the business grows over time.
What features should I look for in workforce planning software?
When choosing workforce planning software, organizations should look for features such as workforce analytics, forecasting tools, reporting dashboards, scenario planning, employee data management, and integration with existing HR systems. User-friendly design, customization options, and real-time workforce insights are also important.
How do AI workforce planning tools work?
AI workforce planning tools use data analysis and automation to help organizations predict workforce trends and make more informed talent decisions. These tools can analyze employee data, identify skills gaps, and model future workforce scenarios based on business goals and historical trends. Many AI-powered platforms also help HR teams save time by automating reporting and workforce analysis tasks.
bring the CHALLENGE.
wE have the SOLUTION.
Protect your brand and support your people through change. From career transition to leadership development, we bring clarity and care to the moments that matter most.