TAKEAWAYS
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, rapid 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.
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:
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.
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 among 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.
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:
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:
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:
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.
Andrea Wong is Managing Director, Robert Half Singapore. This article was first published on 24 February 2026 on the Rober Half website. Reproduced with permission.
