Annals of Optimization Strategic Workforce Optimization : Ensuring Workforce Readiness with OptForce

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) has been identified as a top business challenge and a high priority in order to produce organizations that are capable of performing more effectively. Industry leaders recognize that success depends on attracting, retaining and developing talent, and having the right talent in the right place at the right time – to achieve the condition often characterized as workforce readiness. High readiness levels require anticipating and responding to changing workforce needs and market demands, and allocating resources effectively. We have approached the SWP challenge by applying state-of-the-art technology from decision sciences and advanced analytics to the field of talent management. Our resulting software, called OptForce, enables organizations to optimize workforce readiness and composition while accounting for critical workforce constraints. OptForce offers a broad range of predictive analytics capabilities including sophisticated workforce demand planning, fine-grained employee retention models, and agent-based simulation forecasting. Cloud hosted, the system additionally provides a prescriptive analytics capability through its simulation optimization engine.