4 reasons why data is vital to workforce planning for aerospace and defense

There is now a multifaceted array of opportunities for leveraging data. Organizations seek better insights to keep up with the changing aerospace and defense workforce landscape. Arguably, one of the most important aspects of your company is a workforce plan that accounts for future and past trends (both internal and external).

Companies are now turning to workforce planning as a fundamental part of their overall corporate strategy – as such, there has never been a better time to make key decisions using well-placed, structured data.

More than just being able to forecast budgets and headcounts, data-driven workforce planning can consider many types of data and figures to allow a more streamlined process of acquiring, nurturing, and retaining talent to better place your company in the market.

In this article, we’ll learn 4 big reasons why data-driven workforce planning elevates your bottom-line.

Workforce planning is the encompassing plan for analyzing, planning, and forecasting workforce requirements, assessing skill gaps, and determining talent development and management needs to fulfill a bigger corporate objective or goal.

Data can help organizations forecast future workforce needs based on historical data and current trends by analyzing employee turnovers, skills, and performance. Advanced algorithms and analytics tools allow a more accurate assessment of these metrics.

This will help your organization shape your workforce to tackle existing and future endeavors while informing leaders of tactical, day-to-day flow.

Predictive analytics can consider many trends and changes that could lead to a need for development and even factor in external market trends to see how they may affect business decisions & strategy in the long run.

Analyzing data can help organizations identify skill gaps that may need to be addressed immediately or in the near future. As such, companies will be able to enrich and create targeted training and development programs to help bridge these gaps and improve workforce performance and workforce preparedness.

A data-driven approach can help organizations identify skill gaps, especially in areas where particular or unique problems exist, such as productivity. Data can also inform companies about why certain skill gaps exist, whether environmental, management, or plain bad hiring.

This will allow companies to help bridge these gaps with targeted training and development programs and create a workforce plan that’s prepared to address these issues more objectively.

Other data sets can immediately impact your bottom line, especially when integrated into workforce planning. These oft-forgotten data sets can transform how you plan and improve your workforce while finding new ways to implement said programs. This unlocks a wealth of knowledge that would’ve otherwise been overlooked.

• Employee engagement survey results: to identify areas for improvement and development
• Performance review data: to assess employee performance and potential succession candidates
• Training and development data: to assess skills gaps and training needs
• Labor market data: to understand external demand for certain skills
• Career progression data: to identify career paths and potential mobility within the organization

Don’t forget to find out other sets of imperative data that is unique to your organization. Find ways to structure certain data sets to reveal new opportunities or overlooked issues in your processes that may need overhauls or modifications.

Never fall into the pitfall of managing and collecting data but failing to benefit from it. A data-driven culture with a unanimous approach to implementing data can benefit workforce planning and the organization.

Companies should also be wary of systems that may be difficult to access or need extensive training or knowledge. They must consider key questions that the organization wants answered with clarity and promptness and not be bogged down by meaningless rows of data.

A data culture means everyone utilizes aligned, structured data sets within their roles, capacities, and people. Employees, leaders, and stakeholders must also be able to interpret data, hold conversations, and work together to factor data into company processes.

Data-informed decision-making is effective when stakeholders and managers avoid having too many data sources flowing into planning. Companies should also streamline testing and validation of these data and be ready for adjustments.

In conclusion, transforming workforce planning with data-driven insights can help organizations make more informed decisions, identify key talent trends, and optimize their workforce for success.

By using predictive analytics, identifying skills gaps, leveraging underutilized data, and streamlining through a data-centric culture to inform strategic workforce decisions, organizations can create a workforce plan that aligns with business goals and ensures they have the right talent at the right time to achieve success.