A dedicated, end-to-end platform for Strategic Workforce Planning - built to help organizations see the size, shape and skills of the workforce they'll need, and act on it before the gap opens.
"See the Workforce You Need Tomorrow, Today. Only with eQ8."
Most companies can tell you their revenue target three years out. Ask them what skills their people will need to hit it, and the answer gets vague. eQ8, a Sydney software company, exists to close that gap. It sells a dedicated platform for Strategic Workforce Planning - the discipline of working out how many people, with which skills, in what shape an organization will need over the coming years, and what to do to get there.
The company did not start as software. In 2014, Alicia Roach and Chris Hare founded Quantitative HR (QHR) Consulting and spent years advising more than 60 organizations on workforce strategy. That consulting work exposed a recurring problem: the moment the consultants left, the plan began to age. A workforce plan trapped in a slide deck is out of date the day the world shifts. In 2018 the pair began building eQ8 to turn their method into something living and rerunnable. The core technology launched globally in 2020, and the business rebranded from QHR to eQ8.
The product's pitch is that it is the only platform built end-to-end for this specific job, rather than a people-analytics dashboard or an org-design tool stretched to fit. eQ8 lets teams model dynamic scenarios - what happens to headcount and skills if a market contracts, a product line grows, or automation reshapes a function - and compare the paths side by side. The word "dynamic" is load-bearing here: the value is not a single forecast but the ability to rerun the model the moment reality changes.
eQ8 organizes its whole approach around three questions every leadership team eventually has to answer about its people.
How many people and which skills will the business need? This is the demand-planning and skills-gap layer - quantifying the workforce the strategy actually requires.
What do you do about the gap? eQ8 turns analysis into a costed plan using six levers - buy, build, borrow, bounce, bind and boost.
Integrated business planning and scenario modeling so leadership actually agrees on the plan - usually the hardest part of the whole exercise.
The lower-barrier entry product. Built to democratize SWP by helping organizations create alignment on the size, skills and shape of the workforce they need - now and into the future.
For organizations further along in their SWP maturity that need more customization and depth in their planning and scenario work.
AI woven into the platform to support skills prediction, future-of-work insights and faster scenario analysis.
Consulting and advisory that complements the software, drawing directly on the founders' decade of workforce-strategy consulting.
We're on a mission to bring SWP to all.
Strategic Workforce Planning sits at the intersection of people analytics, org design and financial planning. Big players like Visier lead on analytics, Orgvue on org design, and suites like Anaplan and Workday Adaptive fold workforce into broader planning. eQ8's wager is that SWP deserves its own purpose-built tool rather than a feature bolted onto something else.
Its differentiator is focus and accessibility. Where the discipline was historically the preserve of large enterprises that could afford long consulting engagements, eQ8's Essentials tier is aimed squarely at lowering that barrier - the practical expression of "bring SWP to all."
Bars are relative, for illustration only.
eQ8 sells to enterprise HR, people-analytics and strategy teams. These are organizations that could easily hire consultants - and chose a Sydney SaaS platform instead.
Alicia Roach and Chris Hare establish Quantitative HR, advising organizations on workforce strategy.
The founders begin building eQ8 as a platform combining innovation, data and strategic workforce planning.
The core SWP technology launches globally; QHR rebrands to eQ8.
eQ8 establishes a presence in Austin, Texas to grow its North American footprint.
eQ8 closes a $4M USD Series A round led by OIF Ventures.
The company launches enhanced accessibility and the eQ8 Enterprise product.
A lower-barrier product arrives, aimed at organizations starting their SWP journey.
Co-founded QHR Consulting in 2014 and co-leads eQ8. A recognized voice in the strategic workforce planning field.
Co-founded QHR Consulting in 2014 and co-leads eQ8, speaking frequently on the shift from short-sighted hiring to strategic planning.
eQ8 provides a dedicated SaaS platform for Strategic Workforce Planning - letting organizations model dynamic scenarios, forecast the size and skills of the workforce they'll need, analyze skills gaps, and align talent decisions with business strategy.
eQ8 was founded by Alicia Roach and Chris Hare, who serve as joint CEOs. They started as QHR Consulting in 2014, conceived eQ8 in 2018, and launched and rebranded to eQ8 in 2020.
eQ8 is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with a US presence established in Austin, Texas in 2021.
eQ8 raised a Series A round in November 2022, reported at around $4M USD, led by OIF Ventures.
Enterprise organizations and their HR, people-analytics and strategy teams. Named customers include AMD, Ficosa, Nestle and Suncorp.