Standard operating procedure · HR1C · Human Resources

Build-Buy-Borrow Position

Judgment procedure owned by Strategic Workforce Planning in Human Resources. 7 numbered steps, 1 of them a person deciding and 6 of them agent work … more

Human Resources manual Service view

Procedure code

HR1C

Judgment

Rule versions in force

v3.6 · v5.6 · v2.3 · v5.7

4 governing rules stacked over it

In force since

2024-12-17

Earliest effective date across those rules

Last reviewed

2026-08-13

Latest review date across those rules

Rules approved by

VP Workforce Strategy

Rule health

3/4

0 under review · 1 superseded

There is no document register behind this header. The version, the dates and the approver names are read off the governing rules this procedure runs inside, which is the closest thing the estate holds to a document control record. Nobody wrote these procedures. There is no document library behind this page and no Word file anywhere in the estate. Every procedure below is generated from rows this platform already holds: the line and its ordered stations, the owning team and the person accountable for it, the policy items bound to that team, and the governance gates seeded against the function. The steps, the owners, the gates, the approvers, the dwell times and the volumes are read straight off those rows. The sentences that join them together are generated. Read a procedure as the estate describing itself, not as a document somebody signed.

Purpose and scope

What this procedure is for and where it stops

To run build-buy-borrow position to one repeatable standard inside Strategic Workforce Planning, part of Human Resources. more

Entry condition

Runs judgment. Starts when the annual doctrine review opens.

Exit condition

The unit clears ratify, released by VP Workforce Strategy. more

In scope

Every unit of build-buy-borrow position raised inside Strategic Workforce Planning, from the trigger below through to the final step.
6 of the 7 steps, which run without a person present.
1 decision that stops the line until a named person releases it.

Out of scope

Anything outside the envelope set by the owning team. It leaves the line at a gate and becomes the named approver's decision.
Work that belongs to another function. This line records no handoff, so nothing leaves it mid-flow.
Shared-spine work. This line has none; every step is done inside the function.

Who owns it

Runs the line

Workforce Planning Orchestrator

Accountable person

VP Workforce Strategy

The end of the escalation path. Above them sits HR Chief of Staff for the function.

That team’s remit

Owns plan scenario work end to end inside Human Resources. more

That remit describes the whole team, not this one procedure, so its counts are larger than the ones on this page.

Autonomy

38% now · ceiling 62%

Planning is judgment work. more

The procedure, step by step

7 numbered steps · 1 of them stop for a person

A step is one station on the line. more

No.	Step	Who does it	What happens	System of record	Time on the step	In flight
01	Frame question Agentstrategy	Demand Forecast Agent	Demand Forecast Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	2.2 daysstandard 4.3 days	45
02	Gather evidence Agentstrategy	Supply & Attrition Model Agent	Supply & Attrition Model Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	2.7 daysstandard 3.3 days	30
03	Model options Agentstrategy	Skills Taxonomy Agent	Skills Taxonomy Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	2.2 daysstandard 4.8 days	46
04	Draft position Agentstrategy	Build-Buy-Borrow Agent	Build-Buy-Borrow Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	32.3 hrsstandard 2.4 days	34
05	Challenge Agentstrategy	Headcount Scenario Agent	Headcount Scenario Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	26.9 hrsstandard 41.7 hrs	13
06	Revise Agentstrategy	Location Strategy Agent	Location Strategy Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Core HR and Payroll	2.6 daysstandard 4.4 days	41
07	Ratify HumanpolicyDecision	VP Workforce Strategy Releases: VP Workforce Strategy	Work stops. VP Workforce Strategy reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the plan scenario decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Core HR and Payroll	6.7 daysstandard 8.8 days	7

The swimlane

The same steps, laid out by who is holding the work

Three lanes: a person deciding, an agent working, and the shared services spine. more

Person1 station and 35% of the dwellAgent6 stations and 65% of the dwellShared spine0 stations and 0% of the dwell1 crossing between lanes

Human

decides

Agent

does the work

GBS

shared spine

System

attributed by rule

Core HR and Payroll

Click any station to see who does it, what it costs in time, the rule that gates it and the system attributed to it.

Run the procedure

One unit walked along that swimlane on the happy viable agentified path

Press run and a single unit enters at station 01. Each station takes exactly the dwell this platform records for it and is held by whoever the estate says holds it. more

speed

worked clock

00:00

allowance clock

00:00

stations cleared

0/7

the happy path, worked time0 min of 18.9 days

the same run against its allowance0 min of 29.8 days

Human

decides · 1

Agent

does the work · 6

GBS

shared spine · 0

run log

Nothing has happened yet. more

where the worked time goes18.9 days a unit

Person6.7 days · 35%Agent12.2 days · 65%1 crossing between lanes

what makes this path viable

The lanes are the recorded lanes. 1 of the 7 stations stop for a person and every one of them still does on this run.
Every one of the 1 decision is still taken by the person who holds it. The happy path is that each one is released first time, not that it is skipped.
The owning team is held to a 62% autonomy ceiling and this run sits at 65% unattended, inside it.
1 system is attributed across the stations, and 0 of them are connected. Nothing in this run has been watched executing against a real system of record.

what would have to change

One decision, held by VP Workforce Strategy. more

stays with a person

07 Ratify — The last decision on the line. Something on every procedure ends with a person, so this one is never offered.

what this run is, and what it is not

This is a run, not a forecast. more

Happy means nothing goes wrong: no station raises an exception, no gate sends the unit back, no rework loop fires and nothing sits in a queue between stations. more

The second clock is the allowance. more

A decision may be handed to the agent lane only if two things hold … more

The run reads the station rows only. more

What this run does not model: arrival patterns, contention between procedures for the same person, shift patterns, weekends, learning curves, and the cost of anything. more

Run it again, going wrong

The same unit, the same stations, broken the way the estate already records breaking

This is the same unit on the same stations, breaking. more

No break below was chosen. more

One play head, two tracks, the same scale. The clean run stops when it runs out of stations; the other one keeps going.

As written

7 stations, nothing waiting, nothing sent back

0 min of 18.9 days

now Frame question · Demand Forecast Agent · 2.2 days

As the ledger has it

the same stations, plus 3 categories the estate already counts

0 min of 19.1 days

now Frame question · Demand Forecast Agent · 2.2 days

personagentshared spinework the break addsnobody working it

What breaks, and where it is counted

No break below was chosen. more

What the two runs say together

3 counted categories land on this procedure. more

What this run cannot claim

These breaks are shown together on one unit so the shape of a bad day fits on one screen. more

Two clocks run. Worked time is the sum of the time the work is actually being done … more

Roles and responsibilities

8 named parties

The responsibility grid is assigned by a rule, not lifted from a chart. more

Party	RACI	Steps	Duty	Escalates to
Workforce Planning Orchestrator orchestrator	Runs the line	0	Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more	Raises to VP Workforce Strategy when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Demand Forecast Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 91% clean · 3% overridden	Responsible	1	Runs the repeatable portion of strategic workforce planning inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.	Escalates to VP Workforce Strategy when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Supply & Attrition Model Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 94% clean · 3% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the strategic workforce planning step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Workforce Strategy when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Skills Taxonomy Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 92% clean · 4% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the strategic workforce planning step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Workforce Strategy when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Build-Buy-Borrow Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 92% clean · 5% overridden	Responsible	1	Authors positions on strategic workforce planning. more	Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
Headcount Scenario Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 98% clean · 9% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the strategic workforce planning step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Workforce Strategy when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Location Strategy Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 89% clean · 7% overridden	Responsible	1	Authors positions on strategic workforce planning. more	Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
VP Workforce Strategy person	Accountable and responsible	1	Holds 1 decision on this line. more	Accountable to VP Workforce Strategy for the decisions held here.

Decision points and escalation

1 places this procedure stops

07 · Ratify

6.7 days

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the plan scenario decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

VP Workforce Strategy

Handoffs out of this procedure

Nothing leaves this procedure for another function. It completes inside Strategic Workforce Planning.

The rules this procedure runs inside

4 governing rules

Strategic Workforce Planning Decision Envelope

active

HR1-POL-200 · envelope · vv3.6

Agents in this lane may act without a human when the plan scenario sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. more

Approved by VP Workforce Strategy · in force 2025-02-16 · reviewed 2026-05-12

Binds Demand Forecast Agent, Supply & Attrition Model Agent, Skills Taxonomy Agent, Headcount Scenario Agent

LATAM · US

Strategic Workforce Planning Evidence Standard

superseded

HR1-POL-201 · evidence · vv5.6

Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. more

Approved by VP Workforce Strategy · in force 2025-02-13 · reviewed 2026-08-04

Binds Demand Forecast Agent, Supply & Attrition Model Agent, Skills Taxonomy Agent, Headcount Scenario Agent

APAC

Strategic Workforce Planning Escalation Rule

active

HR1-POL-202 · escalation · vv2.3

Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. more

Approved by VP Workforce Strategy · in force 2026-02-22 · reviewed 2026-05-25

Binds Demand Forecast Agent, Supply & Attrition Model Agent, Skills Taxonomy Agent, Headcount Scenario Agent

EU · UK

Strategic Workforce Planning Autonomy Ceiling

active

HR1-POL-203 · ceiling · vv5.7

The ceiling for this lane is 62 on the platform scale. more

Approved by VP Workforce Strategy · in force 2024-12-17 · reviewed 2026-08-13

Binds Demand Forecast Agent, Supply & Attrition Model Agent, Skills Taxonomy Agent, Headcount Scenario Agent

APAC

Systems this procedure touches

1 named · 0 connected

System attribution is a rule, not a reading. more

System	Vendor	Domain	Criticality	Steps	Connection
Core HR and Payroll	Workday HCM	hcm	critical	7	modeled

0 of the 1 systems on this procedure is connected to the platform, and none of the twenty-six in the estate register is. 1 of them are marked as taking a write back, which is a property of the system, not a live path from here.

How it performs

End to end

18.9 days

Summed from the time each step sits, standard 29.8 days — running at 63% of the standard.

Touchless

30%

Agent share

86%

A week

In flight

216

Effort a week

9,666 human minutes · 17,564 agent minutes

Volume multiplied by the time on each step. more

Assurance over this procedure

4 governance gates sit above it

The twenty-four controls and eighteen exception classes in this platform are held at estate level … more

Gate	What trips it	Who releases it	Clock	Waivable
Candidate rejection on substantive assessment approval	Any rejection based on capability judgment rather than administrative criteria	Hiring manager	2 business days	No
Offer terms and compensation approval	Any offer, compensation change or exception to the published band	HR business partner and compensation lead	2 business days	No
Performance or disciplinary action approval	Any rating, performance plan, disciplinary step or termination	Manager and HR business partner	3 business days	No
Adverse-impact testing oversight	Monthly outcome testing across all agent-supported selection processes	CHRO and employment counsel	Monthly	No

Next to it on the same team

Strategic Workforce Planning

Annual Plan Build

HR1A

Quarterly Re-forecast

HR1B

All of Human Resources

What this document is and is not

These procedures describe the modeled estate. more

Actions

What is waiting on a person

What one procedure document gives you, and what to check before you treat it as the standard.

151

named approvers appear across the library

Every decision point on every procedure carries a job title, not a queue. more

143

steps in the library hand their unit to another function

A handoff is where a procedure stops being one team’s problem. more

controls exist in the estate, and they belong to no procedure in particular

Controls and exception classes are held estate-wide. more

Operations

What this desk is allowed to start

A surface that only reports is not operable. more

Trigger and bound

A procedure document prints purpose, scope, entry and exit, the numbered steps with the actor on each, the roles and their RACI position, the swimlane, the decision points and escalation, the handoffs, the governing rules with version and approver, the systems by rule and the timings. more

Live observability

What the record shows right now

The whole library, by lane, so a single document can be read against the estate it came from. more

Current distribution

2,748 steps

Agent, inside the function1,38951%

Agent, on the shared spine85131%

Person deciding at a gate50818%

Is policy and strategy coming to fruition

Whether the written intent is holding here

Half. The document is complete and every actor on it is measured more

Not holding on the record

A procedure here carries a version, an approver, an in-force date and a last-review date. more