Right-Sizing with Integrity: Data-Led Workforce Optimisation That Protects Capability

Right-Sizing with Integrity: Data-Led Workforce Optimisation That Protects Capability

People Analytics World PAWorld mark

Balancing cost, skills and fairness during workforce change

Workforce reductions are unavoidable at times, but poor design can damage capability for years. This session shows how one organisation built a data-led approach to right-sizing that distinguished between redeployment, reskilling and genuine redundancy. Delegates will see how internal mobility options were surfaced, how conversations were supported, and how risks were managed. The speaker explains how skills adjacencies, performance signals and business-critical roles were brought together into a single view that leaders could act on with confidence. The result is a practical blueprint for reducing cost while protecting long-term capability and maintaining transparency with employees.

This session explores

  • Combining skills, performance and risk data into a workforce segmentation model.
  • Identifying roles suitable for redeployment, reskilling or true redundancy.
  • Supporting managers with data, conversations and mobility options.
  • Balancing cost targets with long-term capability preservation.
  • Ensuring fairness, transparency and responsible communication throughout change.

Learning outcomes

  • Understand how to segment the workforce using skills, performance and risk signals.
  • Apply a data-led approach to decide redeploy, reskill or remove roles.
  • Design manager support tools that enable fair, confident conversations.
  • Build governance that protects critical capabilities during cost pressure.
  • Maintain trust through transparent and responsible workforce change.
Zurich Switzerland DACH Europe People Analytics Conference
25 February 2026
11:20-11:50 CET

Catty Bennet Sattler

CHRO and Director of Human Resources

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

Value

Lens

Learning Pathways

Why this matters

Organisations across Europe are facing cost pressure, productivity stalls and shifting talent pools. Reductions and footprint changes are increasingly common, but blanket cuts harm capability and trust. Leaders need approaches that balance cost targets with skill retention, responsible treatment of people, and regulatory awareness – especially with tightening reporting expectations and Works Council scrutiny.

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