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Brain Circuits
Is your workforce strategy skills-powered?
A skills-first approach is emerging as the future of workforce strategy. Jeff Schwartz and Mike Worthington identify the key questions to consider and explain how it’s done.
Key questions
- How will doing this inform upskilling initiatives?
- Will it enable employees to explore new career opportunities?
- Do we have the technical capability to support our vision?
- Are our executives committed to a skills-powered approach?
- Is leadership driving the strategy?
- Are our skills platforms designed for employees, not the organizational chart?
How to design a skills-powered workforce strategy
1. Have clear use cases
Many companies create a skills inventory without a focus on what to do with it. Instead, define how skills intelligence will drive your transformation strategy.
2. Engage with vendors early
Engage early with vendors to validate plans, highlight pitfalls such as data silos, and ensure you follow best practices.
3. Get executive buy-in
Persuading executives to invest in the approach is essential to strategic success. Champions must speak their language; highlighting the link between skills transformation and wider commercial outcomes. Showcasing strong ROI will spark senior-level engagement.
4. Ensure leaders set the tone
Successful skills-powered strategies are driven by the C-suite. When senior executives designate a business priority, managers and employees listen.
5. Design platforms with employees in mind
Design skills platforms for people, not the organizational chart, and make skills visibility a part of the day-to-day employee experience so people naturally engage without having to do extra work.
6. Frame the change in a positive way
Employees may be resistant if platforms are unintuitive or time-consuming. Frame the change as offering opportunities for professional growth so they don’t perceive it is threatening.
7. Embed AI in your strategy
This will yield enhanced insights into in-house skills and deficiencies. Intuitive, employee-centric platforms, similar to consumer apps, make it easier to identify and facilitate matches between employees and opportunities. And real-time updates will optimize talent management at the pace the business requires.
Key learning
Putting skills first will enable you to deploy them where they matter most, help prepare for disruption, and unlock new levels of productivity.
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