Talent Informed Space: SWP as the engine for Forecasts, Allocation and Flex.

Most organisations have already invested heavily in workplace strategy; hybrid policies, portfolio optimisation, IWMS, and utilisation analytics.

What’s changed is the precision and cadence with which people plans can flow into space and services. Strategic workforce planning (SWP) tools (e.g., Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle EPM, Visier, Orgvue) are evolving their offering to include workplace forecasts, creating a single, living plan that HR, Finance, and Workplace can act on together. In my own transformation programmes, explicit alignment with the People function has been essential and a key contributor to success; once we agreed the drivers, cadence, and guardrails, decisions sped up and quality improved.

Why this matters for space (and why forecasts must be clearer).

Workplace moves on longer lead times than hiring: lease options and negotiations run months ahead; fit-outs, technology, change management, and compliance add more months; specialised environments (labs, trading floors, secure suites) can stretch timelines further. SWP should therefore produce clearer, earlier signals—not just headcount totals, but the shape of demand by role, skill, and work pattern—so we can sequence leases, projects, and services with confidence.

From headcount to talent-informed space.

Different talent pools have different space signatures. SWP makes those differences explicit so Workplace can plan mix and location, not just quantity:

• Software & product teams: high focus time with short, frequent collaboration bursts → quiet zones plus plentiful 4–6 person rooms, bookable project rooms, strong AV for hybrid stand-ups.
• Sales & client teams: high mobility and peaks around events → hoteling with high locker density, touchdown benches, collaboration lounges near client suites, extended-hours access.
• R&D/engineering & labs: fixed benches, specialist utilities, clean/contained areas → early design lock-in, rigorous change control, proximity to suppliers/universities.
• Operations & service centres: shift-based, stable seat demand → ergonomic open plan, resilient power/voice, queue-friendly meeting spaces, good transport access.
• Leadership & governance: confidential conversations, external hosting → acoustically-private rooms, secure video, adjacent support spaces.
• Early careers & cohorts: learning-heavy, high social density → training rooms, mentoring hubs, community areas, easy wayfinding.

What a SWP/Workplace integration automates (with humans in the loop).

• Translates hiring, attrition, internal mobility, and hybrid policies into seat and room demand by location, with buffers and lead times.
• Compares demand to lease capacity and option windows, auto-building “renew/expand/contract/exit” scenarios with cost and service implications.
• Ranks location shortlists by skills availability, cost, time zones, and risk to support growth or consolidation.
• Scales workplace services (cleaning, security, catering), IT endpoints, and access credentials to the people plan.

Benefits you can bank.

• Forecast clarity: role-based demand profiles reduce guesswork and smooth peaks.
• Option capture & cost avoidance: fewer missed windows, fewer emergency expansions.
• Experience uplift: the right mix (focus/collab/specialist) for the actual teams using it.
• Portfolio elasticity: faster, policy-safe adjustments as hiring plans change.
• CapEx discipline: projects sequenced to real demand, less stranded fit-out.
• ESG gains: right-sizing cuts energy and embodied carbon from unnecessary build.

Make costs traceable to demand (and change your charging structure!)

When SWP feeds role, headcount, hybrid ratio and location into Workplace, you can allocate costs to business units and legal entities on drivers everyone accepts. Imagine not arguing about cost allocations!!

Cost pools & drivers

• Fixed/lease costs → allocate by planned seats or m² (with agreed buffers for hybrid).
• Variable services (cleaning, security, catering) → allocate by occupied m², headcount on-site days, or badge hours.
• Utilities & energy → allocate by metered use or modelled intensity per m².
• IT/AV & amenities → allocate by devices, room booking hours, or event counts.
• Projects/CapEx → amortise to the benefiting BU/entity based on expected utilisation.

The arbitrary approach to allocate costs, often manipulated by divisions or business units, is removed. There is little hiding room from the SWP planning tool thats signed off by the people function.

Simple, auditable maths (example)

Because the drivers come from the SWP plan, Finance can lock budgets earlier, Workplace can defend capacity decisions, and BUs see price signals that encourage demand shaping (e.g., smoothing peak office days or choosing lower-cost sites for non-client roles).

What you gain

• Transparent showback/chargeback that lands in the right GLs and entities.
• Variance you can explain: forecast vs. actual headcount, on-site days, and bookings.
• Faster approvals: business cases tie cost to the SWP scenario the BU already owns.

Use SWP to design a flex on-/off-shoring strategy

Integrating SWP with Workplace turns location strategy into a repeatable playbook rather than a one-off study, something that is of high benefit to organisations looking at increasing the use of flex in say expanding markets. Below are some considerations in using the SWP data points to define your flex strategy.

Segment roles by their “location signature”

• Regulated/client-facing/IP-sensitive → on-shore or near-shore cores with strong confidentiality controls.
• Process, back-office, scale ops → off-shore/near-shore hubs where talent is deep and costs are efficient.
• Project-based/volatile demand → flex capacity (managed offices/coworking) near leadership or client sites.

Design a Core–Flex portfolio

• Core: long-term leases in anchor markets for stable headcount and critical teams.
• Flex: service agreements (3–18 months) to absorb SWP’s upside/downside without CapEx.
• Remote micro-hubs: pop-ups for bursts (product sprints, implementations, seasonal peaks).

Decision rules you can automate

• If 12–24-month SWP shows stable FTEs above a minimum site size → commit to Core.
• If demand is volatile/experimental or below threshold → place in Flex.
• If wage/talent depth differential and real-estate savings exceed switching & transition costs (including travel, tooling, and productivity curve) → near/off-shore shortlist.
• Always screen for regulatory, language, time-zone coverage, and data residency before recommending off-shore.

In summary, workplace decisions have longer lead times (option windows, design, procurement, fit-out, change). SWP gives earlier, clearer role-based signals so you can capture options, stage projects, and negotiate flex capacity before the wave hits.

Final Thoughts

With SWP and Workplace integrated, you don’t just right-size space—you also right-price it to the owners of demand and place it where talent and cost make most sense. That’s how clearer forecasts turn into better budgets, faster decisions, and a resilient on-/off-shore flex strategy that keeps you ahead of change.

How to make it real.

Start with one business unit in one city. Connect SWP outputs to leases and utilisation. Define a small rule set (densities, buffers, minimum site size, option thresholds). Establish a shared cadence with HR and Finance (monthly variance, quarterly re-forecast). Measure forecast error (seats vs. actual), option capture rate, and decision cycle time. With that backbone—and tight partnership with the People function—you’ll turn longer workplace lead times from a constraint into a competitive advantage, with forecasts that are earlier, clearer, and consistently acted upon. The scaleability of this will then start to help you redefine your portfolio and its cost base.