Strategic workforce planning is now the #1 priority

Published in October 2025, the Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent & People Success looks at the talent management and people experience solutions market for EMEA’s HR leaders – here, Fosway analysts discuss why strategic workforce planning is now the #1 priority.

Whilst empowering employees remains a fundamental priority, the strategic dimension of Talent & People Success platforms has stepped firmly into the spotlight in 2025. Strategic workforce intelligence is now pivotal for progressive HR teams that seek genuine influence at the executive level, delivering the insights to shape organisational direction and ensure the workforce is seamlessly aligned with business objectives.

Strategic workforce planning is now the #1 initiative for HR teams to invest in for 2026 , and the rise of sophisticated analytics and AI-enabled scenario modelling has changed the game, giving leaders the tools to make evidence-based decisions on workforce structure, skills, and investment priorities. Planning your transition to the future of work enabled by AI and automation is now #2 in HR’s business priorities .

Skills is less differentiating as a feature set

Skills functionality is the new norm in HR and HCM, but the connection of skills across the employee lifecycle is still a challenge for most. Only 27% report a standardised skills approach in their HR ecosystem . Disparate skills ontologies cause a disjointed people experience, and whilst ‘having skills’ has become a less differentiated feature, the complexity of execution and the need to get skills right means that skills consulting is needed as much as meaningful skills data and the systems to harness it.

Skills and talent marketplaces embrace the future of work

As strategic workforce planning takes centre stage, talent and opportunity marketplaces are expanding their focus to model which tasks and work will be undertaken by AI in the future, impacting the resourcing, skills and proficiencies of the future workforce. They are also now making recommendations to how to optimally resource that workforce through internal development, new hires or AI.

What was once an opportunity marketplace with people, gigs, roles, mentors and learning is now starting to manage how AI can automate or augment work. They are agents for AI transformation as well as providing a catalyst for C-suite conversations on the opportunity for AI and the people transformation plan to the future of work.

This is an excerpt from the 2025 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent & People Success. Get the full insight and discover all the latest market and solution trends by reading the whole report here.

What should you do next?

• There’s been little structured analysis of what AI features are live and delivering value for people experience teams. This is where Fosway’s Talent & People Success AI insights come in. More here.
• Phase Two of Fosway’s AI project is live; build your evidence-based AI strategy with Europe’s most experienced HR industry analysts. Sign up here

Other recommended reading

• Our latest cycle of research into EMEA’s HR leaders is here for you to benchmark you and your team’s experience: HR Realities 2025.
• The 2025 Fosway 9-Grid^TM for Cloud HR – full report. Released in September, it’s all the latest market and solution trends in Cloud HCM – get the full analysis today.

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