Beyond Headcounts: An Experiential Activity to Teach the Dynamic Process of HR Workforce Planning

While workforce planning is a key practice in human resource (HR) management, it is often taught as a linear process that does not reflect organizational realities. We present an experiential activity that engages students in a realistic workforce planning exercise. Students are assigned to HR or operational teams and provided with scenarios outlining competing personnel needs and objectives. After initial team planning, each HR team meets with each operational team to discuss their talent needs before presenting and justifying final resource allocations. Debriefing highlights asymmetric information, collaboration challenges, and the need to balance departmental demands with organizational priorities.