Building Workforce Capacity in a Labour‑Constrained Market: Scenario Planning You Can Actually Use
Building Workforce Capacity in a Labour‑Constrained Market: Scenario Planning You Can Actually Use
How Swiss Re built ExCo-ready buy–build–borrow workforce decisions.
Swiss Re needed workforce planning that leaders could use, not a planning ritual. This session shows the scenario mechanism they built (1/3/5-year horizons, role-family focus, minimum inputs), how skills became the real constraint (including skill shelf life), and how AI was treated as bounded uncertainty. You will see what the ExCo signed off, how assumptions were challenged, and which decisions changed.
This session explores
- Framing the blocked decision that headcount planning could not answer.
- Designing 1/3/5-year scenarios at role-family granularity.
- Minimum viable inputs: demand drivers, supply baseline, key skills.
- Skill shelf life: prioritising build now vs buy later.
- Decision pack outputs, governance, and ExCo sign-off under uncertainty.
Learning outcomes
- Spot the planning decision your current rhythm cannot support.
- Build a scenario mechanism leaders can review and approve.
- Use skills as constraints, not a long list exercise.
- Document bounded AI assumptions as ranges, not promises.
- Translate gaps into buy–build–borrow actions with clear ownership.
25 February 2026
10:50-11:20 CET
Oliver Kasper
Group Head Strategic People Analytics & People Planning
Value
Lens
Learning Pathways
Why this matters
Across Switzerland and wider Europe, competition for scarce skills is colliding with strategy shifts, cost scrutiny and uncertain automation impact. Leaders still need to commit to hiring, capability investment and location choices, even when forecasts are imperfect. The hard part is creating scenarios that are explicit about assumptions and usable for decisions.