Workforce planning is no longer just an HR exercise. In today’s volatile environment, it’s a strategic lever — one that requires deep collaboration between Finance and HR. Yet in many organisations, it still happens in silos.

Poor financial planning & analysis doesn’t always show up as a crisis. It shows up as delays, missed opportunities, and decisions made with more doubt than data.

In 2025, finance teams are expected to do more than report on performance. They’re expected to guide strategy. That means outdated tools and fragmented processes aren’t just inefficient — they’re a liability.

For modern FP&A teams, scenario planning has become a core capability. Not because the future got clearer, but because it didn’t. Economic instability, labour market disruptions, policy shifts, and AI-led business model changes have made volatility the norm.

AI and automation are changing the shape of the workforce — not by eliminating roles, but by transforming them. Repetitive, rules-based work is increasingly automated, freeing employees to focus on higher-value tasks.

FP&A has changed. It’s no longer about annual budgets and backward-looking reports. Today, it’s about

The manufacturing industry has always been defined by precision, timing and scale. But in 2025,