How employers can decide whether to develop existing talent, recruit externally or use flexible resource
Workforce planning is often associated with headcount forecasts, budgets and recruitment plans.
But effective workforce planning is about more than deciding how many people you will need.
It is about understanding what your organisation needs to be capable of doing, where those capabilities currently sit and how you will access the skills you need when you need them.
For some organisations, that will mean developing existing employees. For others, it will mean recruiting specialist expertise from outside the business. In some circumstances, temporary, interim or contract resource may provide the most appropriate solution.
The challenge is knowing which approach is right for which requirement.
A useful way to think about workforce planning is through three options:
Build. Buy. Borrow.
Build: Develop the capability you already have
Before going to market, consider whether the skills you need already exist within your organisation.
Someone may have the potential to take on greater responsibility with the right development. An existing employee may be able to move into a new role. A team member may have transferable skills that have not previously been recognised.
Building capability can support:
- Career progression
- Employee engagement
- Internal mobility
- Succession planning
- Knowledge retention
- Longer-term workforce stability
It can also send a positive message to employees that development is something the organisation genuinely invests in.
However, development takes time.
If you need a specialist skill immediately, building that capability internally may not be realistic.
That is where the next option comes in.
Buy: Recruit the skills you need
Sometimes the most effective solution is to recruit externally.
This may be particularly relevant where you need:
- Specialist technical expertise
- Experienced leadership
- A skill that does not currently exist within the organisation
- Additional capability to support growth
- Someone who can make an immediate contribution
- A different perspective on an established challenge
External recruitment can also bring knowledge and experience from other organisations and sectors.
However, recruiting simply because there is a gap can lead to the wrong outcome.
Before going to market, ask:
What does the organisation actually need this person to achieve?
The answer may be different from the responsibilities attached to the role previously.
Technology may have changed the job. The team may have grown. Business priorities may have shifted.
A vacancy is therefore an opportunity to reconsider the role, not simply replace the person who left.
Borrow: Bring in capability when you need it
Not every requirement needs to become a permanent position.
Temporary, interim and contract recruitment can provide organisations with access to skills and experience for a defined period.
This can be particularly useful when:
- A permanent employee is absent
- A project has a defined timeframe
- A business is going through change
- Additional support is needed during a busy period
- A permanent appointment is being considered
- Specialist expertise is required but not on an ongoing basis
- An organisation needs to respond quickly to an unexpected requirement
Flexible resource can also give employers breathing space.
Rather than rushing into a permanent appointment because a vacancy exists, an interim or temporary solution can allow the organisation to understand what it really needs before making a longer-term decision.
The answer isn’t always one or the other
The three approaches are not mutually exclusive.
An organisation could:
Build the future capability of an existing employee,
while buying specialist expertise externally,
and borrowing additional resource to manage the transition.
For example, an organisation experiencing growth might recruit an experienced Finance Manager while developing an existing Assistant Accountant towards a more senior role.
The permanent appointment fills an immediate capability gap.
The internal development creates a longer-term talent pipeline.
The result is a workforce strategy rather than simply a recruitment transaction.
Start with the capability gap, not the vacancy
One of the biggest mistakes employers can make is starting workforce planning with a list of vacancies.
Instead, start by asking:
What will our organisation need to be able to do over the next one to three years?
Then consider:
- What skills will we need?
- What expertise do we already have?
- Where are the gaps?
- Which skills can we develop?
- Which skills need to be recruited?
- Where could temporary or interim expertise help?
- Which roles would create the greatest business impact?
- What happens if we don’t fill the gap?
This changes the conversation from “Who do we need to hire?” to “How do we build the capability we need?”
That is a much more strategic approach.
Timing matters too
Workforce planning should not begin when a vacancy appears.
Specialist recruitment can take time. Senior appointments can take even longer. Developing internal capability also requires forward planning.
The earlier an organisation understands where its future gaps are likely to be, the more options it has.
It can develop people.
It can benchmark the market.
It can understand salary expectations.
It can begin building relationships with potential candidates.
And it can decide whether the requirement is permanent, temporary, interim or something else entirely.
A smarter approach to recruitment
The strongest workforce plans recognise that there is no single solution to every skills gap.
Sometimes you need to build.
Sometimes you need to buy.
Sometimes you need to borrow.
The important thing is making that decision deliberately rather than simply reacting when someone resigns or a vacancy becomes urgent.
At Bond Williams, we support organisations across permanent, temporary, interim and contract recruitment, helping employers understand the market and identify the approach that best fits their requirements.
Planning your workforce for 2027? Talk to our specialist recruitment team.
