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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.