In short
The problem: Singapore businesses are facing acute skills shortages, rising labour costs and increasing execution risk. Often, workforce decisions are made reactively rather than strategically. Subsequently, leaders are struggling to deliver growth and transformation with the capabilities they actually need.
The solution: Strategic workforce planning must be treated as a leadership discipline, not an HR exercise. Aligning workforce capabilities to business strategy means organisations can anticipate future skill needs, optimise costs and build the flexibility required to navigate rapid change.
The outcome: A workforce that is fit for purpose, resilient and commercially aligned. Businesses are better positioned to execute strategy, protect margins and sustain long-term growth in an increasingly constrained Singapore talent market.
About the author
Andrea began her career at PwC in Hong Kong, advising multinational and listed clients on tax compliance, consulting and due diligence. She then spent a decade with Robert Half Hong Kong specialising in permanent finance and accounting recruitment for financial services, partnering closely with CFOs across private equity, venture capital, family offices, insurance and banking, and representing the firm within the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. In 2022, Andrea relocated to Singapore and now serves as Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore, overseeing Permanent, Contracting and Consulting across finance, financial services, technology, transformation and HR.
In boardrooms across Singapore, few risks are debated as frequently — or as urgently — as people risk.
There’s a good reason for it.
In 2025, 83% of employers in Singapore struggled with finding skilled talent.
Research also shows that only 30% of Singapore business leaders are confident their organisation has the skills needed for long-term success, with 43% worried about future talent shortages.
These pressing challenges reflect many of the fears and frustrations held by the nation’s business executives and strategic planners. In addition to skills shortages, they are grappling with cost overruns, raid change, and resistance from teams.
Having spent more than 15 years working with CFOs, CEOs and boards across Asia, first as a tax consultant at PwC in Hong Kong and later advising senior leaders in financial services, private equity and regional headquarters on critical leadership and capability decisions, I’ve seen how closely workforce strategy is tied to enterprise value.
Today, as Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore, I work with organisations navigating skills shortages, rising costs and accelerated transformation across finance, technology and business-critical functions. My message is consistent: strategic workforce planning is not an HR exercise. It is a leadership discipline that underpins sustainability, profitability, resilience and innovation and one that boards expect executives to get right.
If you’ve ever wondered, ‘What is workforce planning?’ read on. I’ll explain what it is, why it’s crucial and how it delivers competitive advantage and long-term growth for my clients.
Related: 5 skills to shape modern leadership styles for Singapore executives
What is workforce planning, and why is it important?
Workforce planning is a strategic process of anticipating future workforce needs and developing plans to meet those needs.
As I tell my clients, aligning your workforce with your business goals comes down to ensuring that you have the right people with the right skills in the right roles at the right time.
I’ve worked with countless organisations to help them navigate this process by:
Assessing current capabilities, productivity and cost implications.
Forecasting future skills relating to strategy, disruption and tech evolution.
Identifying gaps that could compromise execution, commercial outcomes or customer experience.
Designing targeted solutions — from hiring to upskilling and flexible talent models.
Although strategic workforce planning is an intensive process, I know just how important it is. The businesses that do it right can respond to market shifts and optimise their human capital.
Take one of my Singapore-based financial services clients as an example.
The company reached an inflection point as it shifted from rapid scale-up to sustainable growth. Leadership acknowledged that their hiring process had become reactive, driving cost overruns and slowing decision-making.
To support profitability, platform stability and regional expansion over the next three years, leaders undertook a workforce planning exercise to identify the non-negotiable capabilities.
This saw a rebalancing of roles, targeted upskilling of existing talent into higher-value functions, and selective use of contract specialists to support transformation initiatives without permanently inflating the cost base.
That shift was critical - it allowed the business to maintain momentum, protect margins and execute change without exhausting its leadership team or workforce.
I’ve also seen what happens when strategic workforce planning is overlooked.
Another Singapore-based firm grew much faster than its leaders anticipated. Workforce decisions remained reactive and short-sighted, and hiring initiatives focused on filling immediate gaps rather than building sustainable capability.
This resulted in duplicated roles, inflated salary costs, overworked teams and a small concentration of critical skills. When market conditions shifted, the organisation struggled to adapt and they were forced into abrupt restructures that impacted morale and stalled innovation.
In this case, the absence of strategic workforce planning didn’t just increase cost; it undermined resilience and slowed the business at a time when agility was crucial.
Related: The biggest misconceptions about interim managers
The Singapore significance
Since relocating to Singapore in 2022, it’s become clear to me that strategic workforce planning isn’t an optional initiative here. It’s imperative.
Singapore businesses are facing endemic constraints when it comes to talent supply. Factors including an ageing population, a declining resident labour force, and a sustained demand for PMET skills are all distinct realities here.
Take ageing as an example.
Singapore’s overall labour force participation rate for residents aged 15 and over has fallen for several consecutive years, from 70.5% in 2021 to about 67.9% in 2025, largely because of a growing proportion of older workers exiting the workforce.
Despite this, national participation rates amongst older cohorts remain high. For example, participation among those aged 65–74 has risen significantly over the past decade, proving that they are remaining engaged for longer.
The way I see it, these trends present both a challenge and an opportunity for Singapore’s business leaders. While the workforce is ageing and consolidating, older workers can be a major asset in the way of productivity and employment outcomes.
When I’m guiding businesses through the process of strategic workforce planning, I’m always sure to take into account not only how many people they need, but also what mix of age and skills will help to deliver lasting competitiveness.
The benefits of strategic workforce planning
When leaders ask me, “What is workforce planning?”, they often assume it relates to how quickly they can hire. I always emphasise that it’s less about speed, and more about consideration – how deliberately they can build, deploy and retain their workforce capabilities.
Organisations that plan their workforce strategically are better positioned to protect profitability, reduce execution risk and remain competitive in a market where people constraints increasingly shape growth outcomes.
Why?
Because, as I’ve seen, workforce planning helps to:
Achieve organisational goals – It enables businesses to forecast the staffing requirements that will make their goals a reality.
Improve efficiency – It allows for smarter hiring decisions, better resource allocation and cost-effective operations.
Mitigate risks – It provides greater visibility to anticipate potential challenges before they become severe (i.e., high turnover, retirements or shifts in skill requirements).
Upskill employees – It clarifies areas for employee development to cultivate a more engaged and capable team.
Related: Why a good company culture attracts talent to your business
Common challenges
Fostering a high-performing, future-ready workforce is not without its hurdles.
In some cases, clients will seek out Robert Half support after failing to address some of the major national challenges.
These include:
Economic uncertainty - Fluctuating economic conditions, industry trends or consumer habits can make it difficult to forecast workforce needs. Inaccuracies can lead to overstaffing or understaffing. As a highly open economy, Singapore is particularly exposed to global volatility and shifting regional demand, making inaccurate forecasting extremely costly.
Technological change - Technology is rapidly evolving, and we are already seeing some skills becoming obsolete. Given Singapore’s rapid adoption of digital, AI and automation, skill requirements are evolving faster than traditional hiring cycles. Proactive planning is pivotal in avoiding capability gaps in critical areas such as data, cybersecurity and transformation leadership.
Talent scarcity and retention – While industries are becoming more specialised, finding (and keeping) employees with the right expertise is challenging. The reality of recruitment in Singapore is a tight PMET labour market and intense competition for specialised skills. Over-reliance on a small pool of key individuals increases succession and delivery risk, particularly in leadership and transformation roles.
Data quality – I still see organisations that lack a single, reliable view of workforce capability, performance and future demand. I firmly believe that workforce planning cannot be optimised without accurate data. As I’ve seen, it will only compromise planning decisions, turning workforce planning into a reactive exercise rather than a strategy-led one.
Strategic workforce planning best practices
Explore strategic worforce planning options
As I often remind my clients: if you fail to plan, you’re setting yourself up to fall behind — because your competitors certainly aren’t skipping the planning stage.
When businesses operate without a clear strategy, they face major skill gaps, talent shortages, increased costs and reduced productivity.
I’ve seen how this plays out long term – these businesses often lose their competitive edge and struggle to adapt to industry changes.
The businesses that excel at workforce planning all do four things:
They leverage data and technology – they employ quality analytics and workforce management tools to make informed decisions and pre-empt their talent needs.
They forecast their future needs – they map out different scenarios. They consider their growth plans, industry trends and tech developments to predict future workforce requirements.
They invest in employee development – They make an effort to engage their employees to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Their focus is on upskilling employees to bridge skill gaps and address future talent needs.
They retain flexibility – They keep their strategy adaptable, revisiting and readjusting their plans periodically. They know that workforce planning is not a ‘one-time’ project, so they keep things fluid to stay on top of business and market changes.
My career has taken me many places, but my time in Singapore has taught me the true value of strategic workforce planning. In a market defined by a tightening labour pool and rising PMET demand, I believe that workforce planning matters more in Singapore than anywhere else. What I’ve learnt is that Singapore leaders succeed not by hiring faster, but by planning smarter.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the meaning of workforce planning?
Workforce planning is a strategic process of anticipating future workforce needs and developing plans to meet those needs.
Aligning your workforce with your business goals comes down to ensuring that you have the right people with the right skills in the right roles at the right time.
What are examples of workforce planning?
Some examples of workforce planning include:
Succession planning
Skills forecasting
Capacity planning
Build–buy–borrow decisions
What are the 4 criteria of strategic workforce planning?
Leveraging data and technology
Forecasting future needs
Investing in employee development
Retaining flexibility
What is the difference between HR and workforce planning?
Put simply, HR manages the workforce and workforce planning shapes it.
