In recent weeks and months, economic and political uncertainty has intensified, reinforcing a sense of urgency among leaders worldwide. As a result, decisions are often delayed or made hastily, even though they must address increasingly complex HR challenges. Among them are the changes in skill requirements and the scale of the upskilling and reskilling necessary: if the global workforce were made up of 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030 (World Economic Forum, 2025).
The main transformations of recent years – whether economic, technological, or health-related, such as the COVID-19 pandemic – have profoundly disrupted the working world and redefined HR's role. In response to these changes, HR professionals, alongside other managerial functions, have prioritized actions and supported these shifts under challenging conditions in terms of timing, visibility, and risks.
The current context calls for HR leaders to modernise and align their duties even further with corporate strategy. To do so, they can rely on flexible tools to anticipate future developments and enhance the power and impact of their decisions. Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) is one such tool that helps strengthen long-term resilience and competitiveness for both private and public sector organizations.
"Having the right resources, in the right place, at the right time, to effectively meet strategic plans while integrating critical skills and market trends is a complex challenge," says Sabrina Younsi Yuth, Director of People & Change at Sopra Steria Next. "It requires not only reliable data but also close collaboration between various business stakeholders, including business teams, finance, and HR."
From data qualification to its integration into corporate practices, successful deployment relies on an integrated approach combining strategic consulting (available from Sopra Steria Next), software expertise (via Sopra HR Software), and technological innovation (Albert, 2025).
HR: from strategic partners to key decision-makers
HR leaders are becoming increasingly precise in defining and tracking quantitative and qualitative objectives. This ambition creates a dual expectation: delivering a flawless analysis of the current workforce and formulating rational action plans to achieve targeted organizations. Thanks to its data-driven approach, SWP allows HR Directors and CHROs to influence strategic decisions (Albert, 2025).
Data is the primary driver of decision-making, and SWP enables HR leaders to apply this principle across the entire HR value chain.
Christophe Galindo, Director of Solution Partnerships at Sopra HR Software, says: "Starting SWP does not require having a fully established and detailed dataset. However, it is crucial to build your practices on a solid structure, notably leveraging HR information systems for payroll and administration. Not only must core data be communicated to the SWP solution, but historical data enrichment will also enable better simulations and projections, using current, historical, and business-driven data."
This data must become the cornerstone of HR strategies to maintain coherent, real-time decision-making. Auditing these data sources requires breaking away from historical practices and exploring new opportunities. Sopra Steria Next, Sopra HR Software, and Albert understand these challenges and are supporting leading European companies in optimizing their workforce planning.
As a strategic function, HR leaders do not operate in isolation or silos but collaborate with business and finance teams to drive change and deliver long-term value to organizations. They are responsible for maintaining a holistic vision to support pragmatic transformations fully aligned with operational realities. Sabrina continues: "HR teams that play a full strategic partner role and are involved from the start of business strategic planning can translate ambitions into concrete HR challenges: anticipating hiring needs, designing targeted upskilling and reskilling programmes, strengthening talent strategies, and forecasting HR budgets accordingly."
From raw data to business impact: an end-to-end approach to SWP
- Data collection and segmentation: HR data is abundant, which can be both an advantage for interpretation and a challenge if its reliability is not ensured. Proper sizing, qualification, prioritization and tagging are essential. This is supported by the combined expertise of Sopra HR Software, which provides a 360° view of business priorities and maturity levels, and Sopra Steria Next, which helps create systematic reference frameworks. The Albert solution is designed to integrate and structure data from multiple sources.
- Predictive analysis and insights: Data modelling enables the gap analyses needed to enhance performance and human capital growth. Albert converts raw data into actionable metrics for HR leaders. With deep ecosystem expertise, Sopra HR Software adds granular interpretations, enriching strategic transformation discussions.
- Action plans and change management: Based on data-driven insights, companies can develop multiple scenarios with predefined drivers (e.g., recruitment, reskilling and internal mobility). Albert identifies these levers, while Sopra Steria Next ensures the proper framing and implementation, aligning them with business and operational requirements.
Concrete applications
SWP applies across all industries, professions and company sizes, benefiting both private and public sectors and ensuring long-term improvement of HR performance. Some key applications include:
Financial services and insurance
- Job segmentation in large corporations: At its most detailed level, one of Albert's clients, an international company with 80,000 employees, had only 300 distinct job roles.
- Project framing and HR strategy deployment: Sopra Steria Next defines and executes step-by-step workforce planning strategies, covering impact analysis, market research and alignment between business and finance teams.
Public sector
- Workforce evolution: European governments are increasingly using SWP to prepare for public sector transformations (OECD, 2024).
- Defining HR drivers: According to Albert, a large enterprise with around 10,000 employees across 100 job roles requires 10 to 20 key drivers to effectively plan and manage its workforce.
Conclusion
To tackle tomorrow’s challenges, companies must move beyond reactive workforce management and adopt data-driven HR strategies.
Vincent Barat, CEO of Albert, says: "Uncertainty is no excuse to abandon planning – quite the opposite. In a constantly evolving world, businesses need a structured yet agile approach to anticipate skills gaps and align talent with business needs. By combining Albert’s predictive analytics with Sopra Steria’s expertise in data and consulting, we empower HR leaders to transition from reactive decision-making to proactive, data-driven strategies. Together, we help businesses confidently navigate complexity, ensuring they have the right people at the right time to secure long-term success."
Through an integrated approach that combines consulting, technology and HR expertise, Sopra HR Software, Albert, and Sopra Steria Next enable HR leaders to make informed decisions and align their workforce strategies with corporate ambitions.
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