Forecasting Skill Demand from Strategy and Market Signals

Link revenue plans to external wage, supply and risk data.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
9:10 AM - 9:40 AM

Most workforce plans still start with head‑count budgets, not capability requirements. This session shows how to reverse the logic: start with product and market ambitions, enrich them with real‑time wage trends, visa constraints and competitor hiring, and translate the blend into a quantified skill demand curve. You’ll see the data inputs, modelling steps and visual outputs that allow HR, Finance and BU leaders to debate facts – not guesses – when approving resource plans.

This session will explore
  • Translating revenue and product roadmaps into capability assumptions
  • Data sources: wage inflation indices, supply density, competitor hiring
  • Building a demand model at skill‑family level
  • Visualising confidence intervals for executives
  • Governance for quarterly refresh cycles.
Learning outcomes
  • Identify the external data sets that raise forecast accuracy
  • Build a simple demand model linking strategy to skills
  • Present skill gaps in language Finance and BU leaders accept
  • Establish refresh triggers that keep the forecast current.

Why this is on the agenda:

Tight labour markets and volatile technology shifts mean that mis‑forecasting a single critical skill can delay product launches and inflate costs by millions. Capital‑market guidance now demands forward‑looking head‑count and cost signals, making credible skill‑demand forecasts a board priority.