Workforce Planning: is a broad, comprehensive process that looks at the entire organization’s current and future talent needs. 

It covers all roles, with a special focus on critical roles that impact business value. 

Succession Planning: is a specific subset of workforce planning. It is a deeper, more focused process on ensuring readiness for a specific set of key leadership and mission-critical roles. 

While workforce planning asks “what skills will we need?”, succession planning asks “who is ready to step into this specific VP role if they leave?”