HR leaders urged to rethink workforce mix as AI, skills gaps and talent costs rise

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes jobs and skills requirements, HR leaders are being urged to take a more deliberate approach to workforce planning rather than relying primarily on traditional hiring.

A new blueprint from global HR research and advisory firm McLean & Company, Optimise the Workforce Mix for Strategic Impact, outlines a framework for deciding when organisations should build, buy, borrow or automate talent to address workforce gaps.

The firm said organisations are facing greater pressure from widening skills gaps, changing workforce demographics, rising talent costs and increasing opportunities for automation. These pressures are making reactive hiring less effective as a long-term workforce strategy.

“The right workforce mix does not happen by accident,” said Lexi Hambides, director, HR Research & Advisory Services at McLean & Company. “The goal is not simply to fill a role quickly. It is to choose the approach that best fits the work, the available resources, and the organisation's tolerance for risk while building the capabilities it will need next.”

A three-step approach to workforce planning

McLean & Company recommends that HR teams begin by identifying workforce needs and talent gaps. This involves defining the business need, assessing available resources, comparing talent demand with supply, identifying key stakeholders and establishing metrics to track outcomes.

The second step is to evaluate the available workforce mix options. HR leaders are advised to assess whether capabilities should be developed internally, acquired through external hiring, accessed through contingent or external talent, or supported through automation.

The assessment should consider factors such as the criticality of the role, urgency, time horizon, resources required and potential risks before deciding on the appropriate workforce approach.

The final step is implementation. Organisations should align the selected workforce strategy across departments, establish an implementation roadmap and prepare managers and employees for any resulting changes. McLean & Company also recommends revisiting workforce decisions as business and talent conditions evolve.

Workforce choices extend beyond hiring

The firm said workforce mix decisions can have implications across a range of HR processes, including learning and development, internal mobility, talent acquisition, onboarding, knowledge transfer and change management.

For example, choosing to build capabilities internally may require greater investment in learning, reskilling and career mobility, while buying talent externally can affect recruitment, onboarding and retention strategies. Automation, meanwhile, can require job redesign and the development of new digital capabilities.

McLean & Company therefore recommends a hybrid approach rather than treating one workforce option as the default. HR leaders can assess the build, buy, borrow and automate alternatives based on the nature of the role, availability of skills, business priorities, resources and risk.

The approach reflects a broader shift in workforce strategy: as AI changes the composition of work, HR's role is increasingly moving from filling vacancies to determining how different sources of talent and technology should be combined to meet both immediate and future capability needs.