One Model Blog

Your finance team’s roadmap to better workforce planning and forecasting

Written by The One Model Team | Oct 3, 2024 3:00:00 PM

Workforce planning and forecasting have become paramount for finance leaders to navigate market uncertainties and stay ahead of the competition. One Model's advanced people analytics platform enables finance leaders to make smarter data-driven decisions, propelling their business toward sustainable growth and increased profitability.

Centralise HR and Finance data for accurate predictions.

The foundation of effective workforce planning lies in the ability to consolidate data from various sources into a single, reliable location. One Model achieves this by seamlessly integrating HR data with finance data, creating a centralised hub of valuable insights. By breaking down silos and allowing for data collaboration, finance leaders can gain a comprehensive understanding of their workforce, leading to more accurate predictions and tactical strategies.

Slice and dice data more efficiently.

Traditional ERP systems often struggle to handle the sheer volume and complexity of workforce data, leading to sluggish reporting and analysis. One Model, on the other hand, offers the ability to slice and dice data with ease, providing real-time insights and a granular, employee-level detail. Finance leaders can effortlessly examine the cost and productivity drivers at a departmental or individual level, empowering them to implement strategic initiatives with surgical precision.

Identify high performers and which roles deliver the most value.

Understanding the contribution of each role within an organisation is crucial for effective workforce planning. One Model's advanced analytics capabilities offer improved visibility into productivity, revealing which roles deliver the most value to the organisation. By identifying top-performing roles and focusing on their development, companies can reduce costly turnover, unleash the full potential of their workforce, and bolster overall performance.

Better prepare for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.

The financial services sector often witnesses mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, which can lead to complex organisational changes and talent restructuring. With One Model, finance leaders can confidently embark on these transformations by leveraging the platform's capabilities. One Model can provide quick insight into topics such as your spans and layers that would traditionally involve high-cost and time-consuming consulting projects. From developing clear organisational structures to conducting talent audits to retain key personnel, One Model ensures a smooth transition and alignment of talent with strategic goals.

Make more data-informed business decisions.

Quick and informed decisions are critical for CFOs. With One Model, you can build your own metrics and definitions for headcount, FTE (full-time equivalents) updated daily, and other performance indicators to assess the return on investment from talent programs. And if Finance and HR can’t agree on how a certain metric (e.g., headcount) is calculated, One Model can support both variations. 

With clear insight into headcount and FTEs, you can better measure performance and plan labor needs. One Model delivers a holistic view of talent distribution and performance so Finance leaders can optimise headcount for the company’s needs, maintain cost-efficiency, and strike the perfect balance between talent and resources.

Facilitate deeper conversations between HR and Finance.


HR and Finance teams can have more meaningful and pointed conversations using One Model — where all the workforce data is captured, data quality is managed, and all related dimensions (e.g., hierarchies, employee attributes) are available for analysis. Bringing HR and Finance teams together can help your company accelerate your people analytics journey and more easily identify opportunities to turn a profit. With One Model you can gain insight into more advanced metrics like Return on Human Investment Ratio (the ratio of operating profit, adding back total compensation expense, returned for every dollar invested in employee compensation and benefits) and hundreds of others to level up your HR and Finance decision making.

Two examples of content specifically designed to align HR and Finance teams and empower them to make smarter data-driven decisions are:

  • Headcount Storyboard — Setting up a storyboard which shows headcount represented in multiple ways: FTEs vs. employee counts, variations of which statuses are included/excluded, etc. This information becomes readily comparable with the metric definitions only a click away. Even better, the storyboard can be shared with the finance and HR partners in the discussion to explore on their own after the session. One Model is the best tool for counting headcount over time because it can support multiple variations.
  • Hierarchy Storyboard — Providing views of the headcount as seen using the supervisor and cost hierarchies side-by-side will help to emphasise that both are simultaneously correct (i.e., the grand total is exactly the same). This can also provide an opportunity to investigate some of the situations where the cost and organisational hierarchy are not aligned. In many cases, these situations can be understood. Still, occasionally there are errors from previous reorganisations/transfers which resulted in costing information not being updated for a given employee (or group of employees).

One Model is your partner for profitable growth

One Model stands out as the ideal people analytics partner for companies seeking to drive profitability through data-driven decision-making. If you’re ready to learn more, download our eBook 4 Ways CFOs Can Increase Profitability with One Model’s People Analytics Platform to discover even more ways our platform can enhance your profits.