The Adecco Group’s Daniela Seabrook says HR shouldn’t own workforce planning alone. Here’s why.

Most CHROs spend their time serving their own company. Daniela Seabrook also has to answer to the market.

As Chief Human Resources Officer of The Adecco Group, one of the world's largest talent companies with 70,000 employees and more than 2 million associates on assignments every day, she leads HR for an organization whose customers are, in large part, HR leaders themselves.

Seabrook joined The Adecco Group in January 2024 after spending virtually her entire career with life sciences organizations, and most recently at Dutch health tech company Philips. The Adecco Group is the first services company she has worked for, but there is a common thread that links them all.

“The reason I chose all those companies, including the Adecco Group, was the purpose; to create a contribution to a greater good, to have a meaningful impact on millions of people's lives, which goes beyond having great products and commercializing them,” she tells UNLEASH.

Despite moving to an organization that works for HR leaders, Seabrook says it hasn’t changed her view of how she leads the function. The role of CHRO may have become broader, but the purpose is the same: “To help the people in our organization to grow.”

Why HR alone cannot own the redesign of workforce planning

One of the most pressing tasks in front of Seabrook, much like any other HR leader currently, is redesigning work.

In a recent OpEd for UNLEASH, she laid out the case that their new mandate is to build and lead “hybrid workforce orchestration,” starting with refocusing workforce planning around tasks, not the org chart.

But that doesn’t mean HR should own workforce planning outright; instead, it should form one corner of a triangle, alongside Technology and the business where the work takes place in the other corners.

This is how the right people at The Adecco Group can “come together and decompose the work into tasks” to identify where there are tasks that can be done in a “more effective or efficient way, either with technology, with simplification or by doing them differently.”

“Disagreement comes from misalignment, so it is important to have that discussion beforehand."“Disagreement comes from misalignment, so it is important to have that discussion beforehand."

Seabrook adds it is critical to involve the people doing the work in the conversation. She highlights how The Adecco Group reached out across its recruiter network to solicit intelligence on the reality of the role, what needs changing and how to do it.

“The voice of the people who do the work is really important, not least for the adoption later.”

Building the talent pipelines of the future

Entry-level roles and the pipelines that feed them are an essential part of future workforce planning, and Seabrook says The Adecco Group is “aligned on that on the executive committee. We believe that entry-level jobs are key for the future workforce.”

The expanding role of AI at organization level does have the potential to threaten entry-level positions, but she also highlights that this is not a new phenomenon.

“We've seen entry-level jobs disappear because of automation, digital, or technology improvement. So, we see that now as well, while we also see new roles being created”

The difference with AI is that the speed of change is much quicker, especially on tasks that are already automated.

Seabrook explains that entry-level roles are a significant part of The Adecco Group’s business model, with a constant in-flow of recruiters starting out their careers and developing into more senior roles over time.

She specifically highlights the need for human interaction between recruiters and candidates as to why entry-level continues to be “a relevant part of our workforce”.

She also acknowledges likely disruption and change to what the role itself looks like going forward, as well as the prospect of new roles being created.

Data first, intuition second for decision making

As well as life sciences, Seabrook has a background in organizational psychology – including a PhD. When it comes to making decisions, she says she considers the data first, then her intuition.

She explains that intuition is the “highest expression of expertise or experience which you have gathered over years in similar or different types of circumstances,” but that generally works best in stable environments.

In rapidly evolving or uncertain times, much like today’s operating conditions, data has to take center stage.

“Data is an important addition, but data alone isn’t the solution, as you can correlate a lot of things out of data. So having the data as a basis, but then also underpinning it with your experience, your intuition, that's a good starting point.”

A third element is to bring in outside perspectives and voices, particularly during periods of uncertainty, to strengthen decisions impacting the business – such as the views of other CHROs to understand the needs of our customers or our own recruiters when redesigning how work gets done.

Seabrook's approach offers a template for the HR leaders The Adecco Group serves: start with data, test it against experience, bring in the people who do the work, and keep a pipeline of early-career talent flowing – all in service of the purpose that has defined her career.