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It’s time to take a skills-first approach to your people programs

By Laurie Bienstock and Vidisha Mehta | January 22, 2025

A skills-first approach to the design of your people programs will optimize your talent investment and help employees adapt to a changing work environment.
Career Analysis and Design|Compensation Strategy & Design|Employee Experience|Pay Equity and Pay Transparency|Work Transformation
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A rapidly shifting geopolitical environment coupled with the fast pace of technological advancements are having a significant effect on the availability of and requirements for specific skills. This is creating a new suite of challenges for organizations as they manage their talent pool.

To ensure their organizations have the talent they need and can provide employees with the necessary skills to thrive and drive company and individual growth, organizations need to take a skills-first approach when designing their people programs.

How a skills-first approach works

Identifying and developing the specific skills needed for organizations to be successful is at the heart of a skills-first approach. Continually assessing skill requirements and providing targeted training and development opportunities bridges the gap between organizational need and employee abilities.

  • Technology: Fast-changing technology like AI is essential for staying ahead of the curve for most businesses. By continuously upskilling and reskilling employees, employers ensure that their workforce is adaptable to technological developments and can effectively leverage new technologies to enable business success.
  • Talent market: A skills-first approach when designing HR programs unlocks the opportunity to build a robust talent pipeline. Employers enhance their opportunities, build their supply of existing talent from both within and outside the organization, and position themselves to competitively find the talent needed for the future.
  • Career agility: By taking the opportunity to upskill and reskill the workforce, organizations ensure that employees have the skills they need to adapt to changing job requirements as well as pursue new career paths within the organization.

With a skills-first approach, organizations optimize their human capital investment by ensuring that employees possess the necessary skills to effectively perform in their roles through upskilling and reskilling. Organizations also can secure the knowledge, talent, processes and automation needed to align with long-term objectives.

Ultimately, a skills-first approach positions employers to better attract and retain top talent and ensures that they are well-positioned to meet their business objectives in the face of quickly changing external factors and influences.

Shifting to a skills-first mindset

Before leaping into the actual tactics of a skills-first approach, organizations must adopt and socialize an overarching perspective that focuses on a holistic career ecosystem. This ecosystem links the foundational components of people programs (e.g., job architecture, job leveling, skills architecture). A career ecosystem also connects business objectives with how jobs are organized as well as how performance is measured and rewarded (Figure 1).

Image reflecting the concept of a career ecosystem, which is underpinned by two components
  • a career framework, which includes including leveling, job architecture, knowledge architecture and work architecture, and
  • career enablement, which includes a career strategy and career activation.
Figure 1. Structure of a career ecosystem

Identifying and categorizing skills based on the organization’s job architecture and levels ensures clarity on the skills that are needed within various parts the organization. Then, employee skills assessments can provide additional data on skills that currently exist within the organization. At the individual level, it helps employees to have a clear understanding of their career paths and development opportunities. Think of the career ecosystem as a mechanism to bring careers and skills to life, unlocking employees’ and candidates’ understanding of careers by providing a clear link between job architecture and job leveling.

With this link, you then have a mechanism to understand and forecast your organization’s needs based on the work being done. Once you know the skills required for different roles, you can better align your organization’s workforce planning, hiring strategies and development programs to meet those needs. In turn, you will stay ahead of your competitors in growing your talent pool, enhance opportunities for existing employees, and position your organization to find the best talent to meet future needs.

To shift this to a skills-first orientation and following on the foundation of a career ecosystem, you will need a comprehensive strategy that optimizes your approach to skills development:

  • Develop an overarching skills strategy. Aligned with your long-term business objectives, your overarching skills strategy should focus on identifying and developing the critical skills needed to achieve those objectives.
  • Create mechanisms to identify and forecast needed skills. This involves linking your job architecture and levels with the knowledge architecture, identifying specific skills required and then conducting regular assessments to identify skills gaps. This will help you ensure you have the right talent in place to achieve business goals.
  • Conduct pilot projects. This is the best way to identify, validate and deploy skills. These projects help identify gaps in your current skills development approach and provide insights on how to effectively fill those gaps. Pilot projects also help make the internal case for change as a proof of concept to share with business stakeholders.
  • Use data and technology. Use data-driven insights, including those generated by reputable AI sources, to make informed decisions about skills development and ensure that your workforce is equipped with the necessary skills to succeed.
  • Emphasize continuous improvement. This is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Organizations should emphasize the importance of continuous learning and adaptability among the workforce.

Implementing a skills-first approach

Once an organization has a robust knowledge architecture in place, the following steps will ensure a successful implementation of your skills-first approach.

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Step 1: Conduct skills assessments

As noted, regularly conducting skills assessments will identify the workforce’s current capabilities and reveal any gaps to be addressed. These assessments can be done through a variety of methods, including performance reviews, self-assessments and feedback from managers and peers.

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Step 2: Upskill and reskill

Providing targeted training and development programs provide employees with the skills they need to continue to be valuable contributors and high performers. Upskilling and reskilling can include formal training courses, on-the-job training and access to online tools and resources.

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Step 3: Encourage a culture of continuous learning

Encourage employees to take ownership of their skills development. This can be achieved by providing incentives for learning, recognizing and rewarding skill acquisition, and creating opportunities for employees to apply their new skills in real-world scenarios.

Skills-first puts success within reach

Prioritizing skills is a must for any organization that wants to successfully adapt to and grow in a continually changing world. When designed and deployed effectively, skills-based ecosystems can create and democratize opportunities, helping employees to develop the skills and knowledge they need to continue to perform well. In exchange, organizations will achieve their objectives and navigate through and thrive in any new challenges that arise.

Authors


Global Go-to-Market Leader, Work Architecture
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Global Advisory Digital Solutions Leader Work & Rewards
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