At Rijkswaterstaat, Terry reviewed the allocation and deployment of scarce personnel resources. By translating external developments into the internal context, comparing them to employees’ current competencies, and identifying development needs through a gap analysis, he directly linked strategic workforce planning to the organization’s goals. In doing so, he optimized both capacity utilization and resource allocation, ensuring agile and predictable execution of the multi-million portfolio.
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In strategic workforce planning initiatives, anticipating emotional resistance is essential, such as employees’ fears that tighter planning will lead to micromanagement, a loss of autonomy, or increased work pressure. To successfully overcome this, absolute transparency regarding the “why” is indispensable. When it is clearly communicated that planning frameworks are not intended to make people work harder, but rather to make workloads predictable and to absorb peak workloads, intrinsic support is generated. Sustainable organizational change succeeds only when long-term objectives align seamlessly with the qualities, agility, and personal ambitions of the people themselves.