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Planning analyst skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

6 min read

Quoted experts

Hanna Kim Ph.D.,

Hanna Kim Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical planning analyst skills. We ranked the top skills for planning analysts based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 8.0% of planning analyst resumes contained project management as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a planning analyst needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 planning analyst skills for your resume and career

1. Project Management

Here's how planning analysts use project management:

Project documentation by creating and implementing multiple projects resource and finance plans on a web-based project management system.
Provided project management leadership for a major system conversion, resulting in increased accuracy for planning and reporting.

2. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how planning analysts use customer service:

Managed the corporate Marketing Department market analysis function including perception and image studies, departmental employee satisfaction and customer service surveys.
Controlled profitability through superior customer service, effective and prompt communication and follow-up on all pending matters with the customer.

3. Data Analysis

Here's how planning analysts use data analysis:

Deliver optimal shift and driver recommendations based on data analysis and relational management techniques for 200 associates across three sites.
Developed a Facility Master Plan for a 600 bed Medical Center and conducted data analysis to support planning recommendations.

4. Logistics

Logistics is a complete organization and implementation of a problem. Logistics are often considered in a complex business operation, as some works need detailed plannings. Logistics are also used in military action.

Here's how planning analysts use logistics:

Coordinated the scheduling of services and materials, procurement and logistics activities and provided seamless integration between office and dock operations.
Administered logistics and organized communications for quarterly Customer Collaboration and annual national sales meetings.

5. Strong Analytical

Here's how planning analysts use strong analytical:

Demonstrate strong analytical and written skills with the ability to communicate with internal and external customers.
Demonstrated strong analytical and organizational skills.

6. SQL

Here's how planning analysts use sql:

Created SQL scripts for creating tables, views, and stored procedures, loading data into the tables.
Maximized trailer cube utilization by working closely with IT fulfillment team developing SQL planning module.

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7. Management System

A management system is a set of policies, processes, and procedures taken by an organization or a business to ensure it can fulfill its tasks and achieve its objectives. A management system makes sure that the company excels financially and improves the user experience. The management system also takes care of the worker's and employees' needs and manages their workload and oversees their performance. Apart from interior matters of the company, a management system also deals with exterior matters like legislations, tax matters, and law issues.

Here's how planning analysts use management system:

Established and deployed Sales Force Performance Management system to accurately monitor performance of the company s salespeople.
Developed an information management system for program evaluation.

8. Visualization

Here's how planning analysts use visualization:

Present data findings to VP-level management with data visualization (Tableau).
Conducted full reports using various data visualization techniques on client's areas of vulnerability, inefficiency, and opportunities for improvement.

9. Earned Value Management

Here's how planning analysts use earned value management:

Performed monthly Earned Value Management Analysis.
Applied Earned Value Management (EVM) technique to measure progress, and participated in Integrated Baseline Review (IBR).

10. ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is computer software used by major corporations and organizations for conducting their management and accounting tasks efficiently. ERP systems bind different business processes with each other allowing smoother flow of data between them resulting in swift project assessment and completion.

Here's how planning analysts use erp:

Lead program team to plan, create, and maintain manufacturing schedules using internal ERP system (Oracle).
Created and tested models to determine pricing of circuit boards to be incorporated into the ERP system.

11. Financial Analysis

Here's how planning analysts use financial analysis:

Developed documentation including guides, business process maps and training packs to help internal clients make decisions regarding financial analysis.
Created monthly financial analysis compared to actual results, explained variances and presented those financial results to senior management.

12. Process Improvement

Here's how planning analysts use process improvement:

Project lead for Strategic Workforce Planning initiative by constructing scenario based models to identify cost saving opportunities and process improvements.
Apply Lean lens to processes to identify improvements and productivity opportunities, and actively participate on process improvement teams.

13. Pivot Tables

A pivot table is a technique used in data processing to arrange and rearrange statistics to prioritize useful information. The aim of a pivot table is to summarize the findings and interpretations of the data extracted. Pivot tables take information from a database or spreadsheet to report sums, average, and other such statistics. This technique is integral to data analysis since it turns the data to view it from different lenses and perspectives.

Here's how planning analysts use pivot tables:

Use pivot tables, macros and filters to present data in a more organized manner to senior managers and sales teams.
Excel report consolidation from differences data sources and elaboration of reports, charts and pivot tables.

14. IMS

Here's how planning analysts use ims:

Manage program re-planning, re-baselines, integrated baseline reviews (IBR), manage integrated master schedules (IMS).
Used variety of tools: SAP, IMS, and Excel to manage production starts to customer receipt of shipment.

15. Data Integrity

Data integrity denotes the consistency or accuracy validation of data in the whole lifecycle of data. It ensures the security of traceability and search-ability of all data in a person's device to the source.

Here's how planning analysts use data integrity:

Performed daily system checks, ensured data integrity and manipulated and built compilers to deliver complex data to management.
Developed and maintained logic used in weekly validation reports which identified data integrity issues.

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What skills help Planning Analysts find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on planning analyst resumes?

Hanna Kim Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair, Adelphi University

Considering the undergraduate anthropology curriculum, many colleges and universities try to cover at least 2-3 of the 4 major subfields of Anthropology in their curriculum.
I say "try to" as the reality is that having faculty in all 4 subfields is not possible for many reasons. (The 4 subfields are cultural anthropology, archeology, biological anthropology (sometimes physical anthropology), and anthropological linguistics. These subfields are mirrored in graduate school where students going for PhDs will be focused on 1 subfield.)

For undergraduates with an anthropology degree seeking employment, I can speak only from the faculty side, not the employer side. My students report these factors as relevant to their being hired (and accepted into competitive schools in museum studies, social work, law school, etc.:
Analytical skills; clear writing; ability to synthesize large amounts of reading and data into well-supported arguments and interpretations; open-mindedness toward different identities and ways of being.

A hugely important skill that anthropology graduates have is the ability to be presented with a complex situation or problem, and to be able to chart a plan on how to approach the problem, gather data and other necessary information to solve the problem, and then to come up with a solution or possible strategies. Too often, particularly in situations involving human behavior, what is needed is a stronger grasp of social and cultural factors that could impede the desired outcome. Students of anthropology know that ways of doing things, and even seeing and thinking, are profoundly influenced by categories of thought that are culturally situated. This means that problem solving has to consider a network of variables that have an impact on behavior. Anthropology students, I would argue, would embrace this complexity rather than be hesitant to acknowledge it in favor of a more expedient and, in the long run, less successful solution.

What soft skills should all planning analysts possess?

Hanna Kim Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair, Adelphi University

Important soft skills: strong emotional intelligence: Anthropology students with fieldwork experience, for example, from study abroad, field school, or a course/semester capstone or thesis project, know the challenges of conducting a project or being part of a team with a project goal. Being attuned towards one's interlocutors or colleagues, that is, being aware of and acting appropriately, whether to obtain rich fieldwork data or facilitate teamwork, are valuable skills. Successful fieldwork, even of short duration, tests one's skills of interaction in unfamiliar situations; of reading a situation that may be uncomfortable and strange to one's experience; of navigating power dynamics, and learning while doing when one does not have all the skills needed. The anthropology student who has emerged from the other side of fieldwork has acquired these abilities. I would say that anthropological fieldwork demands strong baseline soft skills in emotional intelligence, or what I might call a heightened awareness that how people react, behave, and perform rests on many factors. One learns from anthropology by paying attention to these factors (by discerning them through observation and not via assumptions) and understanding them in context rather than jumping to conclusions.

What hard/technical skills are most important for planning analysts?

Hanna Kim Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair, Adelphi University

Hard skills: being more than monolingual! In a globally connected marketplace where young people worldwide are learning and mastering the English language, their multilingualism makes them attractive hires for multinational or international companies. Anthropology students know the non-negotiable importance of knowing a fieldwork language to understand peoples and their cultures. The same would hold for the workplace: knowing one or more languages affords an employee not just possibilities for work assignments: such an employee, i.e., an anthropology graduate who values the connection of language and culture, is ideally suited to work on projects that demand sensitivity to cultural, social, historical, and political nuances. This includes those who work in international humanitarian groups as well as those who work in global finance.

What planning analyst skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

A.J. Arreguin

Professor, Our Lady of the Lake University

The best thing for a student/graduate to do, if they're taking a gap year, would be to continue to enhance their skills in social media, marketing, and public relation writing by implementing practices to show progression in communicative methods when marketing a product/service/event or get a positive response/feedback to a well-organized campaign.

Students should volunteer with small/local businesses or create their brand (start a blog or become a niche social media influencer) to practice and build on their experience. Once the student/graduate does that, they should keep a weekly log with analytics to help them understand how to improve moving forward. This will be beneficial when applying for a communication/public relations job during an interview. The degree gets the student/graduate the talk, but the experience lands them the job.

What type of skills will young planning analysts need?

Lise Abrams Ph.D.

Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science; Coordinator of Cognitive Science, Pomona College

Given the ever-increasing diversity of the workforce, graduates will need to work effectively with heterogeneous groups of people and be able to conceptualize problems from multiple perspectives. Solving today's and future problems requires critical thinking and analysis skills, and graduates will also need to do their part in promoting the accurate dissemination of knowledge. Majors like experimental psychology and cognitive science give their graduates the tools to better understand human behavior through a scientific lens.

What technical skills for a planning analyst stand out to employers?

Jason Hewitt Ph.D.

Lecturer, Pennsylvania State University - Behrend, Erie PA

Zoom for every industry. Industry-specific software is of course important as well. Communication skills, both internally as well as customer facing, are essential in these times of uncertainty.

Do you want to know more?

List of planning analyst skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a planning analyst resume and required skills for a planning analyst to have include:

Project Management
Customer Service
Data Analysis
Logistics
Strong Analytical
SQL
Management System
Visualization
Earned Value Management
ERP
Financial Analysis
Process Improvement
Pivot Tables
IMS
Data Integrity
Inventory Management
MRP

Capacity Planning
HR
Macro
Production Schedules
Data Collection
Production Planning
Purchase Orders
KPIs
Market Research
Corrective Action
JDA
Lean Manufacturing
Business Planning
Supply Chain Planning
Customer Demand
Windows
Historical Data

ROI
SAS
Variance Analysis
Customer Orders
Inventory Control
ISO
POS
Regional Planning
Cost Savings
Material Availability
Market Trends
SME
Enterprise Resource Planning
Level Planning
Product Line
Executive Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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