Organizations are under increasing pressure to ensure they have the right capabilities in the right place at the right time—a task that is becoming more challenging as the pace of change accelerates. The scale of the challenge is clear: Only 27% of CPOs across the world say both their company’s CEO succession planning and executive pipeline management position the organization well for the future, according to our recent leadership assurance survey.

The limited role of L&D in workforce planning today

HR leaders are acutely aware of the vital role learning and development plays in meeting this challenge, at both the executive and full-workforce levels. In a recent survey, 89% of HR leaders reported that the ability to develop the skills and capabilities the organization will need is essential to shaping their workforce planning strategy. Similarly, 85% emphasized the importance of adapting workforce skills in response to evolving technology and shifting customer expectations. To inform these strategies, many organizations rely on data about their current talent; 75% of HR leaders indicate that they use assessments of individual managers’ skills and capabilities in their workforce planning models, making it the most used data source for this purpose.¹

However, fewer than half of HR leaders say their organization explicitly aligns workforce planning with L&D—meaning that L&D is the least aligned tactic or approach among all we asked about.

Further, despite their reliance on assessments, only 57% use enterprise-wide skills or capability frameworks to guide talent planning.

The limited action on L&D may stem from boards showing little interest. For example, only 12% of HR leaders report that their board is actively interested in their skills-gap closure rate—and board priorities often signal the organization’s overall priorities. And, as we’ve explored in depth in our Route to the Top work, confidence in succession planning is closely linked to confidence in the organization’s future performance. In this case, companies whose boards do not make use of all the relevant tactics to improve workforce planning may be more vulnerable to talent shortages, decreased productivity, suboptimal investment decisions, higher costs and risks, and ultimately, missed competitive advantage.

Integrating L&D into strategic workforce planning

One way to more effectively integrate learning and development into workforce planning is for HR leaders to connect L&D initiatives to metrics that matter to boards. While boards may not be concerned with skills gap closure rates, they far more often care about retention rates of high performers and succession planning for critical roles. Demonstrating how L&D drives these outcomes can elevate its strategic impact. Because chief learning officers rarely interact directly with boards, the chief people officer often serves as the bridge. By strengthening their business acumen, leaders in both roles position themselves as credible voices at the table, enabling them to advocate for L&D and help the organization deliver on key priorities.

Meanwhile, accelerating shifts in technology, business models, and workforce expectations demand far greater agility from L&D functions than traditional approaches allow. Content development remains a time-intensive process, and identifying emerging skill needs is still largely manual. This lag makes it difficult for L&D to keep pace with shifting strategic priorities. Artificial intelligence offers a path to automate skills identification, dynamically map capabilities to evolving business needs, and rapidly generate or personalize learning content at scale. Yet 29% of HR leaders report that AI has not yet meaningfully impacted their HR systems, emphasizing a substantial gap between AI’s potential and its current application within L&D. Bridging that gap will be critical for organizations seeking to build a more responsive, future-ready workforce.²

However, AI should augment, not replace, human development. Junior employees build critical skills through hands-on projects, stretch assignments, and mentorship from experienced colleagues. The most forward-looking organizations will step back and take a strategic view: Where can AI create the greatest value within L&D? If AI can accelerate content development or personalize classroom materials, how might L&D leaders redirect their time toward higher-impact work such as coaching leaders, shaping culture, and strengthening succession pipelines? By approaching AI deliberately, companies can redefine the broader role of L&D and ensure it remains both technologically advanced and deeply human-centered.

Conclusion

Ultimately, strategic HR leaders who want to maximize the value of L&D in their workforce planning must cultivate two critical capabilities: the ability to anticipate future skill requirements precisely and the flexibility to continuously reassess and realign priorities as new information emerges. This requires scanning the market for signals of disruption, understanding how business strategy is evolving, and recognizing that the capabilities most essential three years from now may not be visible today. Effective workforce planning is not a one-time exercise—it is an ongoing, iterative approach grounded in data, scenario planning, and a willingness to rethink assumptions as conditions change. L&D has the greatest effect when HR leaders tie learning agendas directly to board priorities, deploy new technologies effectively, and create a seamless connection between future skill needs and how those skills are developed.

About the author

Dr. Leah Houde (lhoude@heidrick.com) is a partner in the Heidrick Consulting Practice; she is based in the Washington, DC office.

References

¹ Ellen Maag, Sharon Sands, and Jane Schroeder, “Leadership assurance: Leveraging assessment data as a key performance lever,” Heidrick & Struggles, November 27, 2025, heidrick.com.

² For a deeper discussion of these opportunities, see Dorothy Badie, Ryan Bulkoski, and Christina Cary, “CPO focus: Leadership essentials for an AI-enabled HR function,” Heidrick & Struggles, May 21, 2025, heidrick.com.