Episode 230: How S&P has Embedded Workforce Planning into Business Strategy (Interview with Alan Susi)
At Insight222, we’re seeing more and more leading companies approach workforce planning with the same discipline and structure as financial planning - treating it as a core part of how they run the business, not just an HR process.
And one company that is doing this exceptionally well is S&P.
So, in this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green sits down with Vice-President and Global Head of Organisational Analytics and People Insights at S&P Global, Alan Susi, to explore exactly what it takes to transform workforce planning into a true strategic capability
Join them as they discuss:
How S&P Global is embedding workforce planning into core business decision-making
Why Finance is such a key partner in making planning successful
Balancing short-term execution with long-term workforce health
What leading companies are doing differently, and what others can learn
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[0:00:00] David Green: In the age of AI, effective strategic workforce planning is absolutely critical for organisations to stay ahead of their competitors, with top performing companies managing their human capital with the same rigour as they do their financial capital. This is why I'm delighted to be joined today by the Vice President and Global Head of Organisational Analytics and People Insights at S&P Global, Alan Susi, to discuss how he and his team are shaping workforce planning into a true strategic capability, one that's built on data, strong relationships, and a clear connection to business outcomes. So, how do you build these partnerships across the organisation? How can you link planning with both short-term productivity and long-term organisational health? And how is technology, particularly AI, reshaping the way we design, plan and lead the workforce?
I'm David Green and on this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, we're taking an inside look at how S&P Global is putting all of this into practice and turning workforce planning into a core driver of business performance. With that let's get the conversation started.
Hi, Alan, welcome to the show. It's great to see you outside an Insight222 peer meeting like we usually do. To start, can you share a little bit about your background and how you became involved in workforce planning and people analytics?
[0:01:39] Alan Susi: Absolutely, David. Thanks for having me on the show. I am a longtime listener, first-time participant, and have loved engaging with you and the team at Insight222. I have been on quite a journey in the HR space, and most recently over the past couple of years have gotten into people analytics. I ultimately, about 15 years ago, finished off my MBA with a real desire to do org design and workforce planning, coming out of seeing the financial crisis happen while I was getting my master's, and had the fortunate opportunity of working in financial services at Fannie Mae, which was a big player, depending on your opinion, around the financial crisis, but had a great opportunity to help reshape the world that was touching the mortgage industry, the secondary mortgage market, and got so much of the space to be able to understand business strategy, business outcomes, and how orgs are functioning. So, I spent a lot of time at Fannie Mae growing my capability, getting into workforce planning and HR business partnering, and was always the dangerous former MBA with data, and trying to use analytics to help make better decisions.
Naturally, kept going in that world to solve problems, had a wonderful experience at another organisation running org effectiveness, and then came to S&P Global a few years ago, that ultimately got to do work on the merger that was announced in 2020 with IHS Markit. And I spent a lot of time bringing data and workforce planning to bear in my role on that, and ultimately was afforded the opportunity to then go run people analytics and workforce planning at S&P and the combined organisation. It was a great experience where I actually got to turn my passion into leading a great team.
[0:03:43] David Green: And first, I mean we won't mention the date that we're recording this, Alan, but it's actually your birthday. So, thank you very much for recording this on your birthday. I'm not sure we've had many episodes when it's been the guest's birthday, so this is a special one in that respect. Just listening to you there, Alan, and hearing about your long background in organisational effectiveness and workforce planning, and obviously latterly coupling that with people analytics, we're seeing at Insight222, with all the research that we're doing, that workforce planning and people analytics are increasingly being coupled together. As someone that's kind of come to that, what are your thoughts about putting OE, workforce planning and analytics together?
[0:04:29] Alan Susi: I think they're inextricably linked. What I found, as being an org designer early on in my career, was that you had to always be thinking about business strategy. You had to understand how an organisation was constructed in order to deliver on its outcomes, whether it's a for-profit, whether it's a not-for-profit, and in my weird experience, whether you're a secondary-backed mortgage provider that's run by government entities, it provides a different context of how you build the organisation. And you have to know your data, you have to understand the boxes, lines, the costs and all of those elements. And so, I grew up in that space, really seeing how making right decisions about the workforce was interlinked perfectly with org design. And so, I just felt like I had to continue to learn how to bring analytics to bear, to either help better design or solve problems with planning with data. And again, this is back in the early '10s, and that was kind of provocative at that point. And we were using Excel, and we were building models with Excel formulas, and that worked perfectly fine in that time.
But as we've grown and matured in that capability, it's just only been more entrenched, especially when leaders in, you know, I work in financial services and technology spaces, those leaders understand the use of data to drive decisions. Because for S&P Global, for instance, our job is to provide essential insights to all markets. So, we are delivering data in an analytical fashion, or giving that data to people to do it correctly for themselves, and that just always seems to be apparent to me. So, to me, it's just woven around a stronger rope of sorts of OE, workforce planning, and analytics all together.
[0:06:22] David Green: And in terms of the S&P, obviously, you said you've been there for a few years now, and obviously helped through the merger, which is always an exciting challenge in the org planning and people analytics space. What excites you most about the role?
[0:06:40] Alan Susi: I think the most exciting thing is that working for a global company, and if I take the step back into the merger-related time, working for a global company that understands the dynamics at play, right? The merger that we went through a few years ago was announced in the fall of 2020, where the world was very different, no one understood what was really happening, the markets were up, the markets were down, and the opportunity to combine these two entities was a fantastic one. But we had to be flexible, we had to be fluid, and we had to understand how this merger would benefit not only the shareholders, but the stakeholders that we support. And that's always something you want to see when you're doing workforce planning. But being at S&P, going through that, and then seeing the parallel changes in the market at that point in fall 2020, markets were down, hiring was down, unemployment was way up.
By spring, summer of 2021, you started to see jobs take up. And so, everything was changing and evolving, and that has just presented such a wonderful situation. And S&P has always been a very fluid, very understanding player in markets, because that's what our customers expect of us, that we can provide that foresight and insight. And so, combining two orgs during that time just felt like the best of all opportunities.
[0:08:07] David Green: Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to exploring some of the work that you've done and you do at S&P, over the next 45 minutes or so. It's interesting you're saying that. When we think back to 2020 and think about five years forward, as we are now, I mean it's been a real rollercoaster. I named it, I'm sure I'm not the only one that named this, so I'm not going to claim credit for this, on a webinar I did the other week, 'The turbulent '20s', and it certainly seems like that. And I think what we've seen at Insight222 through our research is that HR has become more and more important in the organisation, not just because of the challenges that we've gone through, but maybe the challenges that we're going to be facing as well, in terms of rapid increases in technology and demographic challenges moving forward as well. And again, what we see, whether it's people analytics or workforce planning or HR in general, it's not just about doing stuff for HR, it's about doing stuff that's going to actually have an impact on the business, the shareholders, the stakeholders that you talked about, and employees. And workforce planning in particular, it's not something that HR can do in isolation, as I'm sure you can testify.
In your experience what are the most critical partnerships needed to drive success in workforce planning?
[0:09:32] Alan Susi: I mean, it sounds like everybody would say, "Well, it's the business". They'll be like, "Of course it's the business", but that is truly the challenge of workforce planning. And in my experiences where it hasn't gone so well, it's where the business isn't at the table as you're trying to define what workforce planning is, or why. And so, I may have been, in my early years, doing this work too HR focused, or too adversarial with partners like a procurement or partners like a finance or FP&A function. So, I think as much as that is critical, finance maybe is even more critical, and I know we'll probably talk more about that one in particular. The third is the centres of excellence, especially in the HR space, where workforce planning has had its fits and starts. I love the idea of turbulent 20s, because it feels like workforce planning becomes either a cudgel for problems or this mythical solution, when stuff is really hitting the fan. But when centres of excellence feel like they're involved and you have this collaboration with HR business partners, or what will be called people partners, where your centres of excellence are at the table and finance is with them, and the business doesn't feel like they're refereeing some debate, they're getting this team of teams together, I think those are the collaborations that drives it all. Because I might have background in talent, I might not have the best background in total rewards, but if we're thinking about them at the table in a workforce planning concept, that's going to deliver programmatic aims or interventions that solve those business problems, the business doesn't care who has the data, who has the insight, who has the final say, they just want to know that there's a collaboration or coalition that's built to support them.
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I'd love to dive deeper into your partnership with finance, because I know from conversations we've had that I think this is a very good example of developing a successful relationship with finance that you've achieved and continue to achieve at S&P Global. Interesting as well, because the research that we've done into leading companies in people analytics, those companies that tell us that they're creating value on a consistent basis in people analytics, the A-teams in our model, they tend to have a very strong relationship with finance. And I guess if you want to deliver value and measure it, that kind of makes sense in many respects. I'd love to dive deeper into that. How does this collaboration shape the way you approach workforce planning at S&P Global and, for that matter, people analytics as well, especially when it comes to connecting workforce planning and people analytics to business priorities and outcomes?
[0:13:16] Alan Susi: I will state all this with the point that the outcomes that happen from workforce planning are not only financial, right? There's so many other things that impact the way our people are supported, their growth. Putting that aside as critical, financial success drives for-profit businesses; financial success enables not-for-profit businesses to continue to provide their essential services to their constituents. So, what I really try to make sure we're doing from a workforce planning lens, and this very Dave Ulrichian, is it starts from the outside in, the business is constructed to deliver value to their customers, and financial success is almost predominantly a key driver of that. And so, I think it starts with reading our releases, understanding the drivers of value, how do we manage our financial success, our operational success? How do investors understand that? And if you're speaking that language or trying to interrogate reality and understand, I kind of frame it as this empathetic lens to start with, if I'm really understanding what the business is thinking about, what the leaders are thinking about, not just about their people, but about what they need to do to succeed, now I'm starting to be on the same page as them.
So, finance is actually doing that. They've had a lot more experience doing that, obviously. And so, that brings us to the table in a way that's far more approachable to collaborate with them. And then when you're actually doing that, we can use that commercial value to drive how we make the right investments. Because most of the return on investment of any work in workforce planning is probably going to have some sort of financial or cost impact. And so, that again plays into their ideas of where is strategic investment? Where do we actually have to make change to get to the next quarter, the next year or long-term strategy? And at that point, depending on where they focus on things, we then lean in heavily on doing some of the heavy lifting that they may either not have the capacity to do or the wherewithal, because we have the people data. And that's kind of been our initial approach to partnering with finance and how that plays with workforce planning. There's a lot more to it, but that's where I think you really start getting the connection.
[0:15:43] David Green: Yeah. I mean, again, thinking of our listeners and many of the people listening to this, we're working HR roles and many will work in people analytics, workforce planning, OD roles as well, how do you build and develop those relationships with finance? What are some of the guidance that you would give? And I appreciate that not every company is the same, but there are probably some broad tips that you can give around this. And are there any examples that you're able to share with listeners about where that's been successful?
[0:16:18] Alan Susi: We've done it in the way that we tried to really get in the weeds with them on the connectivity of data. So, typically finance is going to operate in their own systems, they're going to operate with their own data elements, and they're not going to see a heck of a lot of, or much at all, shared people data, right? Just enough to meet what they need to do to get things either to the general ledger or provide their internal reporting. When we bring that forward with them, we try to really understand, "Well, how could our people data solve some of your challenges?" whether it's bringing much more depth to providing attrition in their planning, or whether it is the labour market data that we might see that informs making a better location strategy decision, where they might be at the table and the people partner is not or we're not giving them those tools. But the way that we've really done it is then, we lead in and I'll frame it as compassionate work, meaning they have a problem, we might have a solution, but if we commit our bandwidth and energy to solving that with them, we've knocked out a key effort for them and built that trust.
So, in this example, if we have really good attrition, hiring data for all the actuals, right, so for a workforce plan, we're trying to understand, "Hey, you have a P&L impact versus a run rate impact. Let's bring to bear all of our people data, work together to combine it with finance data, so that you can articulate the challenges you need to articulate". So, I think when we were talking with some folks in Insight222, it's like, we're going to do 90% of the work and get 10% of the credit. And that's fine, we're okay with that. As long as the tool is delivering value for the business and the partnership is growing because they understand not only did we hear their challenge, we empathise with it, but we compassionately served and supported what they did, now they've got a trusted partner in doing that. And so, for people analytics or workforce planning professionals, your view of workforce planning or however many B's you use or the wonderful attrition dashboard you have that they can't see is almost irrelevant, unless you're solving the problem on the ground. And when you're doing that, then you can actually start tactically quantifying some of the changes.
That's where I think stuff really takes off for a workforce planner, is that you don't need to do a lot, but if you can identify that value because you've informed a decision, all of a sudden now you're on another higher playing field with those business partners and finance partners.
[0:18:58] David Green: Yeah, and it's really good, you mentioned location strategy, and how often do companies make decisions about maybe a new site or site they're going to expand upon, and they look at things like the cost of real estate, presumably they look at the availability of real estate, other factors, they don't look at the people factor? And if you don't understand the supply and demand of the talent that you're going to need there, then you're potentially going to spend a lot of money on a white elephant that you're not going to be able to staff up with the right people and then keep replenishing those people as well, if you don't understand talent supply and demand competition, salaries in those areas, education, that's maybe bringing new people into the workplace as well. Those factors, it's almost like you're trying to make a decision with only half the data. So, I think it's a really good example of where you'd work together on that clearly.
[0:20:02] Alan Susi: And, the thing that would be the and to that is, you do all the other stuff on the most important things, so they know that they can just ring you when that decision comes up. So, if I'm doing something now during our merger, we make those decisions, well, we have conversations about making those decisions in a world that is very clean and antiseptic, you can't share certain information, and so there's a natural bridge of having conversations about, "How does that location work for you?" "Well, we have talent here. Should we be thinking about something?" And so, you can document all those ideas and track them, so when the integration happens, you execute on them, right? That happens in any M&A.
But when you're doing that work and trying to deliver value in a combined organisation or a BAU state, they have to know that they can ring you and they're going to get that help, or they have to know that you've thought through some of those things on an adjacent topic because they know, "Oh, well, Alan has all this location data and he's referenced, and his team has referenced, these tools that we use from different providers out in the market for talent intelligence or labour market intelligence". Now they're saying, "Hey, what do you think about Buenos Aires here, or Istanbul there?" We're looking at this and we can actually then be at the table. So, all that heavy lifting, all that work then is that trust being returned to you in conversation. And location is honestly, to your point, one of the biggest ones, because people do see what they see or what they hear, "Well, I've heard this place is fantastic or the talent supply is high". "Well, let's look at the data and let's see what really exists. Let's get under the covers and understand what we can do with that".
[0:21:48] David Green: Yeah, really good. You mentioned actually that workforce planning isn't just about delivering financial outcomes, and clearly it should only really be conducted to benefit the health of the organisation and its people, I guess, and everything else. What are your secrets or tips maybe that you could give to listeners to help them think about how they ensure short-term productivity perhaps, if that's a goal, and long-term organisational health?
[0:22:20] Alan Susi: So, we use the idea of organisational health as a baselining framework. So, for the listeners, that's where people analytics comes into workforce planning, right? Because we can have all the great dashboards, we can have people analytics platforms, and that's fantastic. But philosophically, how is it approachable for the finance team or the business partners, the COEs to utilise. So, we say org health is a baseline assessment of your current state, right? So, if you follow the workforce planning approach, that's usually step one, and that helps us understand, "Okay, well, just where are you?" So, we think about, why is the organisation constructed in a certain way? How do your people mobilise around that, that organisational structure and mission? What risks does the organisation face in executing on its strategy? And what are the experiences of your people in either movement or those risks or challenges? And if you understand those things, then you can go through a workforce planning approach that has short-term or long-term impact, but you've essentially set like, where are you today? And then, that long-term strategy of some duration is your workforce planning approach. But now, we've said all those interventions that we need to execute tie out to a health view.
So, I mean, Alice Reinhold on my team, she's this great storyteller, right? And we kind of talk about it as a blood panel. You go get a blood panel, you're looking, there's a ton of data on it. I need to know where are we supposed to be? Where are these challenges? You can use benchmarks, maybe for market intelligence at S&P Global, or other places. But you're able to actually see where you are and then come up with your strategy and then monitor against that. So, again from an org health perspective, if I take a personal health view and I need to lose ten pounds, do I need to lose ten pounds to gain muscle to be an Olympic weightlifter, or do I need to lose ten pounds to get faster in my mile time? Those are two very different strategic directions, maybe to optimal performance, but very different paths. And that's how we kind of think about it for the org that they're coming up with it. And those interventions, those day-to-day activities that you have to monitor, it's a programmatic view of workforce planning is how you make sure that the health, when you check back in, "Oh, we're seeing all of these markers on our org health moving in a certain direction". And so, that's how that's how we kind of approach it.
[0:24:55] David Green: Yeah. And actually, funny you mentioned Alice Reinhold, because I had the pleasure of sitting next to her at lunch at the Insight222 peer meeting that L'Oreal hosted recently in Paris. And you're right, she is a very good storyteller. So, if you're listening, Alice, hello, keep telling those great stories. So, just bouncing off that a little bit and maybe sending the conversation into AI. I know it's a topic which I'm sure is taking up a lot of your attention at the moment at S&P Global. And there's a lot of hype out there, to be honest, but I think the research that we did last year at Insight222, I mean, maybe one of the surprising things for me was we asked a question, "How long's your AI journey in HR been at your organisation?" And of the 348 companies that answered 62% said they were in the first year. So, that would now be in their second year, because they did the survey May, June last year. So, number one, I think it's quite new from an HR perspective, but obviously it's having an impact on work, it's having an impact on the workforce, and it's having an impact on the workplace, and it increasingly will do so, I guess.
How do you see those technologies influencing workforce planning? Maybe there's a two-part question there. The first one is probably the focus of workforce planning, ie what you're doing the workforce planning for; and then the second part is how you do the workforce planning?
[0:26:28] Alan Susi: Brilliant! And it's definitely a two-part answer, because it is such a big thing. And I think this is the crux of why workforce planning is growing in prevalence. I mean, I feel like we've seen it go in fits and starts and it's always a top five thing, but does it get its due? Right now, it feels like everybody understands that to better plan your organisation and your workforce, you have to think about AI, because it'd be like 30 or 40 years ago planning your organisation with the advent of the personal computer. Well, that changed the game and you don't need the same construct, you don't need the same type of talent to execute that work, and it's trying to look ahead to see how's the org design changed? How does the work and skills of your organisation change?
So, for us, it's thinking about, okay, that can augment roles, that can drive more productivity of our people. To what end? To a financial end? To a creative and innovative end, right? We ultimately want to produce more value in our products, the commercialisation, right, whatever it might be, and make sure that our people are gaining some of that benefit too, right? Because there's ultimately this work-life balance opportunity. I'm doing less administrative tasks so I can do more creative, and that drives some sort of value, but the company also needs to meet its objectives and meet its financial aims. And so, there's always going to have to be a social contract between the organisation and its people to benefit from it. That's what we end up looking at. So, whether it's one of those B's again, whether it's a bot or blend kind of view, you have to understand that to achieve the team effectiveness and people effectiveness or org effectiveness outcomes.
As it relates to how workforce planning can utilise it, to me it's all about the data. So, I think at the same time, and I know you guys have talked a lot about this, about a skills-based organisation, and there's some tremendous examples of companies that have done it. All of that data doesn't need to be this perfect workforce planning engine. But if I'm going to talk to you about your org of the future, and I don't understand the roles, tasks, and activities that are taking place and how our people's skills come into that, we've never had better data access to do supply and demand in the org. And so, we're talking about, well, how do we bring that data to bear in a way that AI is enabling it? So, whether it's a talent marketplace platform, a talent intelligence provider, or you're building some sort of generative AI tooling to look at task impact because of Gen AI, those are the things that I think are going to help speed up the workforce planning process so that, again, the leader has some input to make a good decision about where they need to take their organisation.
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How should HR leaders, heads of workforce planning, heads of OD and people in science, how should they strike a balance between human capability and technological augmentation?
[0:31:05] Alan Susi: I think it's such a challenging question at the moment, because it gets back to how I described what we do for workforce planning to build towards that trust. And there's that social contract, right? We know you have to have people in the loop, or humans in the loop I think is how a lot of folks talk about it. But that learning and playing and understanding with AI, utilising those capabilities, which people have been using for maybe broader AI, we've been using it for years and years, but now this feels very direct to the person's utilisation. On a role job level, this can be done in a different way. And so, are we helping people reskill and upskill and grow and develop? Are we mobilising them against future work needs? And are we doing it in a way that's deeply empathetic and compassionate? Are we giving you the resources to do that, so that there's trust that we're going to make the right decisions for all our stakeholders. So, I think humans have to be in the loop, whether it's for deeply technical reasons or risk reduction reasons.
But in reality, bringing that technology to bear is the same thing that's happened for ages and ages, right? Any type of industrial revolution has involved new technology that takes away from individual or human in-the-loop work. It's just, we've got to keep that in mind as we continue to talk to our people.
[0:32:36] David Green: And I guess what it does as well, it creates new roles and it will create roles that we don't even know about yet. And I guess that's a challenge from a workforce planning and org design perspective, is obviously someone like you that's been doing this work, you mentioned since 2008, that's 17 years, I've obviously mentioned that because it's your birthday, but seriously …
[0:32:59] Alan Susi: I'm 21!
[0:33:00] David Green: It's impressive that you started when you were 4, I'm very impressed! Got your MBA as well when you were 3! It's almost as well, I mean, I guess we're having to continually update our workforce plans, with things are changing so quickly now. Maybe that's different, is that different from the past, or do we sometimes exaggerate the speed of change now? Or is it actually real-world, we are having to do it on a more continuous basis?
[0:33:30] Alan Susi: I feel like you've got to do it on a more continuous basis. And to me, there's no three-year workforce planning or five-year workforce planning approach. It's, are you agile or nimble enough to understand the business challenge and have relationships that you don't have to restart every single time, right? So, to wrap all this stuff that I've been talking about relationships, in any personal situation, you're going to interact more quickly and more effectively with people you have built trust with, or teams that have built trust with each other. And so, some rigid workforce planning approach is just not going to do it, and the outcomes will change dramatically. I mean, we're talking about AI and Gen AI as this brand-new thing, and it's going to change the world and we're going to need so few jobs. And then, agentic AI came out and people were, "Oh, that's brand new and this is changing the way we operate". And yeah, cool, that was within a year pretty much, where that was kind of in the conversation broadly.
So, I think as long as we're having the right conversations and in workforce planning terms, we're scenario-planning to some degree, I don't think it needs to be this beautifully complicated situation. It's kind of just simple and elegant, right? "Can I give you some views so that when we see things change, you can react quicker?" That to me is how workforce planning needs to evolve. And I've termed it as kind of minimum viable workforce planning. I just don't think there's enough time to build some sort of perfect workforce planning approach that is going to stand the test of time and adapt with the challenges and needs that HR business partners have or finance partners have. They've got to just deploy it quickly and know it's going to affect the outcomes they need over the short and long term.
[0:35:19] David Green: And is that part of how you balance the kind of big-picture strategy, thinking about the organisation for the future with managing the day-to-day productivity and change? Is that part of that? Is there anything else that you would add to that at all?
[0:35:33] Alan Susi: That's it. And, I mean, I know you're a Liverpool guy, I'm a big sports fan. So, I think about it as when you go to the practice pitch, when you go to the football field, or wherever, every day you're working on small things to get better or more productive at what your job is, right? But you have to kind of trust that the long arc of what leaders are thinking about, or the long-term vision, is there to either win a championship or be more successful as an organisation. You kind of have to have that trust. And so, if we balance that short-term reality with the ability to understand how an injury impacts a team, or a signing window opens up, right, and you need to bring in certain talent, we all see that in the sports world. I think we can adopt that and knowing that each day on the practice pitch, that's going to have a big impact. As long as we're keeping forward in the direction and we know we can bring the right talent to bear, that is I think how workforce planners can operate.
[0:36:37] David Green: Very good. We've got a couple of questions left, Alan, and the second one will be the question of the series. But firstly, things are changing so fast I think in the spaces that you're in and you're specialising in, people analytics, workforce planning, org design. And obviously, we talked about the impact of technology, and suddenly last year there was lots of noise around agentic AI, and we've seen big technology companies now launch products based around that as well. Interesting really, and this is maybe something that will help listeners as well, what helps you stay ahead of industry trends?
[0:37:21] Alan Susi: You know, I think I'd be silly not saying Insight222's partnership. I love being around people that are in the same situation and trying to just help each other. It's helped me, it's helped my team, it's certainly helped my career, being around like-minded folks who are either like-minded in the way that they want to operate, but with maybe completely different setups in what their team does or the constructs of their people analytics operating model. That's been one thing. The other two is understanding that macro environment. LinkedIn has been a godsend for me, being able to learn from different peers out there. So, just being in that environment and making that a part of my day-to-day has been amazing.
I think the last thing is, and it's kind of to that discussion around moneyballing and thinking from a different perspective, is I try to read and listen as much as I possibly can of things that are adjacent to HR or people analytics. So, I constantly read on business topics, economics, behaviour and psychology, on civics, on politics. Those elements all touch us in different ways, whether it actually impacts the company you work for, but it allows you to kind of bring in these ancillary ideas and can apply it in a new way to your world. So, if we're too staid and static in the dogma of people analytics, we're not going to advance enough at it. So, I think learning from other adjacencies, or just the world, has helped me a ton. And that just means a lot of reading, a lot of listening. So, that's how I've been able to stay up on it.
[0:39:14] David Green: I think we need to keep learning. It doesn't matter how senior you are, how experienced you are, how successful you are, we have to keep learning and we have to be curious about learning. I think it's a great example there. And again, I'm going to squeeze another question in before the question of the series, actually. With that reading, with understanding what the future could hold, what excites you most about the future of workforce planning and people analytics?
[0:39:44] Alan Susi: The thing that excites me the most is that I've never felt like this work could have more of an impact on both the company and our people. So, to that end, talking about how you live and you learn, I do that and I do that with AI enabling me. But I have to balance the two so I can make sure that my awareness or growth of access to things is coupled with my development of that skill or capability. So, that is what I feel like workforce planning can be for the organisation. Because if we're able to bring this data forward and we're able to do it in a way that the business and our collaborators understand, I never saw that before, I never felt the burning platform of workforce planning being more critical. And I think AI has done a great service to workforce planners to enable that, because now everybody's wondering, "Well, how can you help us?" And maybe it used to be a poisoned chalice, but I feel like it's actually the opportunity that I've been waiting for to work as closely as possible with the people that want to both advance their people forward and advance the organisation forward. So, it's I think a great time to be in the space.
[0:41:12] David Green: Yeah, I totally agree, it's a great time. It's a challenging time at times, but it's a great time as well. And I think that leads really nicely to the question of the series, Alan. So, this is a question we're asking every guest in this series of the podcast. How can HR or people analytics, if you want to add that nuance, help the organisation understand and improve team effectiveness?
[0:41:38] Alan Susi: It's a great question. I think if we use some of the older ways of thinking that we've done in the past around org design, role design, rewards and incentives, if we can better combine that with new ways of operating, kind of in a more of an ecosystem environment or teams of teams, there's all sorts of different concepts that have been thrown out there, but the old way of Taylorism, like structures, hard structures, hard roll designs does not match this kind of ecosystem or more fluid, digitally-enabled environment of the future; and understand, well, that dynamic means teams work in different ways. It might not be incredibly fluid like some organisations do it, but I think if we can understand how those two things come together and change the way we guide on team effectiveness and that we take more of a, and I'm going to use something our new Chief People Officer, Girish Ganesan, uses is people forward, right, understand what we need to get everybody to, and we're going to take them along. And in that kind of social contract, we're going to make sure their team works better. We're going to make sure they have access to the right reskilling and upskilling and growth opportunities, and that their movement in our team, maybe our broader team, but movement in our team to develop that capability is going to help them and the org. And we win off of that performance exhaust, right?
So, whereas before maybe you said to, "Do your job in a very staid way", but now, team effectiveness is all about, "Are you growing and are we going to benefit from your growth, whether it's your innovation, your creativity, or your collaboration?" That's why I think of workforce planning as a team sport, and I think HR can be a team sport to help those business teams be more effective.
[0:43:33] David Green: It's been a real pleasure, as it always is, speaking with you today, Alan. Before we wrap up, where can listeners find out more about you and the work that you're doing at S&P Global?
[0:43:44] Alan Susi: Absolutely. You can find out more about me, I'm on LinkedIn. You can definitely reach out to me there. I'm not the most avid poster, but I try to participate as much as I can. But you can definitely find me there.
[0:43:57] David Green: Alan, thank you very much for being on the show. I look forward to seeing you possibly in a couple of weeks in New York, but if not, in a not-too-distant future. And thank you so much for being a guest on the show.
[0:44:10] Alan Susi: Thanks for having me, David, really appreciate it.
[0:44:12] David Green: And that's a wrap. Thank you again, Alan, for joining me and sharing such practical insights into how organisations can turn workforce planning into a true driver of business performance. And thank you as always for listening and tuning in each week. Here at Insight222, we are on a mission to help as many HR and people analytics professionals and leaders build the skills, strategies and confidence needed to drive real business value. So, if you enjoyed today's episode, please do subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network so we can help more people drive meaningful business transformation. And as always, if you'd like to dive deeper and learn more about us here at Insight222, follow us on LinkedIn, explore our resources at insight222.com, or subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter at myHRfuture.com. That's all for now. Thank you for tuning in and we'll be back next week with another episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast. Until then, take care and stay well.