Build, buy, borrow or automate? Make smarter workforce decisions

For many organisations, workforce decisions still default to a familiar pattern: identify a gap, go to market, hire a role.

But in a labour market shaped by skill scarcity, AI disruption, and shifting workforce expectations, that approach is increasingly expensive, slow, and risky. Meanwhile, the organisations navigating this environment most effectively are asking a different question:

Should we build this capability, buy it, borrow it, or automate it?

As Sarah Blanchard, Head of Talent Advisory here at Solve, explains, this choice sits at the heart of a modern talent strategy.

“Executive teams need to be able to choose whether they build capability internally, whether they buy it from the market, whether they borrow skills through partners or contingent models, and whether they replace work with AI or automation.”

Making those decisions deliberately and proactively is what separates future-ready organisations from those constantly playing catch-up.

Why “just hire” is no longer enough

Hiring will always matter, but relying on recruitment alone assumes that:

The skills you need exist in the market
You can access them quickly
You can afford the cost
Those skills will remain relevant over time

In reality, many organisations are operating in highly competitive labour markets where critical skills continue to be scarce.

This is why modern talent advisory services focus on expanding the decision set. Workforce capability can come from multiple sources and the smartest strategies consider all of them.

Build: investing in internal capability

Building capability internally remains one of the most sustainable long-term strategies, but only when done intentionally.

This means understanding:

The capabilities that are strategically critical
Which skills are transferrable or adjacent
Where learning and development investment will deliver the greatest return

Internal mobility is a key lever here, and organisations who understand the capabilities already sitting within their workforce are far better positioned to redeploy and upskill people rather than defaulting to looking externally.

Sarah notes that this mindset is becoming more common:

“Rather than immediately going to market, more organisations are getting better at understanding the capability gaps within their people and supporting them to address those gaps.”

This approach reduces hiring pressure while also improving retention and thus protecting institutional knowledge.

Buy: when speed or scarcity matters

When speed is critical or skills are genuinely scarce internally, these re the times when buying capability from the market is the right choice.

However, buying without market understanding can introduce risk. Organisations that over-invest in roles with declining strategic value or fail to consider how long those skills will remain relevant, often find themselves repeating the same hiring cycles year after year.

A capability-led talent strategy would help leaders answer the more nuanced question:

Is this a capability we need to own long-term, or one we need to access temporarily?

Borrow: flexibility through partners and contingent models

For many organisations, borrowing capability is a core part of how work gets done.

Understanding what contingent workforce is in this context is critical. It’s not just about contractors filling short-term gaps but accessing specialised skills, scaling capability up or down, and responding quickly to change.

When used strategically, contingent workforce models allow organisations to:

Test new capabilities before committing long-term
Access expertise that doesn’t need to be embedded permanently
Maintain flexibility in volatile or uncertain environments

This is particularly relevant as work becomes more project-based and as AI and automation reshape demand for certain skills.

Automate: redesigning work, not just replacing it

Automation is often framed as a replacement strategy, but its greatest value lies in redesigning work.

Many tasks that once defined entire roles can now be automated or augmented, freeing people to focus on higher-value activities. But this only works when automation decisions are made alongside talent strategy.

As Sarah points out:

“The question isn’t just what technology can do, but whether the organisation’s talent strategy is designed to capitalise on it responsibly.”

Automation without capability planning can create new bottlenecks, skill gaps, and governance risks. Automation with a clear talent lens can unlock productivity and resilience.

The leadership challenge behind the choice

Choosing whether to build, buy, borrow, or automate requires leaders to:

Think in terms of capability, not roles
Make trade-offs between short-term delivery and long-term sustainability
Accept that not all capability needs to sit on the balance sheet

This is where integrated talent advisory adds real value, in helping leadership teams make these decisions in a way that aligns workforce models, risk, cost, and strategy.

From reactive decisions to deliberate design

When organisations don’t make these choices explicitly, they’ll still end up make them further down the line — reactively. They over-hire, under-invest in internal capability, rely too heavily on the market, or introduce automation without the skills to support it.

A modern talent strategy brings these decisions into the open.

By deliberately choosing when to build, buy, borrow, or automate, organisations gain: