CHROs: Think skills, not jobs, to realize radical productivity gains  

Checklist

• Are our leaders guarding the skills within their teams?
• Do our incentives encourage managers to redirect skills?
• Are people keen to acquire new skills and apply them in different ways?
• Do they know how to do this?

Getting started

Articulate a ‘North Star’

Articulate a North Star to guide the business on its journey. This should explain the productivity, agility, and efficiency benefits of a skills-powered approach and how it will evolve. It must also outline how systems, processes, policies, and culture will change to support the transition and detail how the work experiences of employees, managers, and leaders will change.

Start narrow and shallow

Start small, demonstrate success, then scale. Identify a discrete (narrow) part of the business that is encountering skills-related challenges and focus on that. It could be a product team facing surging demand, or a finance team that needs to rethink job roles in the context of automation.

Implement change enablers

Eight foundational pillars support a skills-powered organization:

I. Incentivize leaders

Managers typically try to keep the skills within their team. Restructure incentives to encourage managers to redirect skills to where they are most needed.

II. Encourage employees

Stimulate employees to engage with new work and learning opportunities.

III. Support managers and leaders

Create a dedicated unit within HR to drive the transition.

IV. Explore AI opportunities

Examine how AI can match the supply and demand of skills. Find the optimal combination of technology platforms to match skills and tasks.

V. Rethink governance

Define accountability for managing skills deployment.

VI. Change the culture

Create a culture in which employees are keen to acquire new skills and apply them to new projects and roles.

VII. Adjust legal and accounting processes

Change finance practices to account for work being undertaken in different teams and regions. Ensure compliance with local employment law.

VIII. Create a skills taxonomy

Ensure that technical and human skills are routinely assessed and captured.