Back to (Skills) School: A Modern, Downloadable, Workday Skills and Talent Glossary

By now, most of you have hopefully survived back-to-school season. You have the lunch and drop-off programs sorted, schedules re-arranged, and are maybe jumping back into your autumn soup era.  

With all the autumn changes happening, how much attention have you been paying to new market and workforce trends, and all the new technology terms coming at you in today’s ever-evolving HR landscape (Hello, AI!)  

Of course, we know that the challenge of keeping yourself and your team updated on the newest talent trends isn’t really optional. Though, with all of the rapid changes in the market it can feel like a bit of a fire drill.  

 A Modern Skills and Talent Glossary Just for You 

We’re here to help! Amid the plethora of terms in the lexicon of HR, “skills” and “skills strategy” often find themselves floating around conversations. Why? Because connecting your teams’ true capabilities – what they do in their roles – with your core business and talent goals is the secret to driving successful and enduring talent strategies.   

But what do we mean by all these skills and talent terms? Today’s blog will take you beyond the realm of skills buzzwords; and align some of the new terms you might be hearing into current talent strategies.  

That’s right. Today we’re sharing a customized Workday Talent and Skills Glossary that breaks down terms within the three core areas for a successful people strategy:  

• HR Technology 
• Learning and Developing 
• Staffing and Recruiting 

Keep reading to learn more about skills match analysis, skill sets, and skills strategies, then dive into the full glossary to unlock some critical HR, Talent and Technology terms you need to know for 2023.  

Skills Strategy 2023

Last time we gave you a sneak peek at some of the most important HR Technology terms. This week we’re sharing the terms you need to know in order to understand the rise of skills strategies and how it will forever affect businesses moving forward.

Skills Match Analysis 

A skills match analysis involves evaluating a person’s skills against a new role. This is especially important for internal candidates growing into more senior roles because it enables employers to recommend additional skills the employee needs in order to step into the next level of their career.

This approach is also helpful for first-time managers, who might have the right technical roles to succeed in their jobs but have gaps in the skills needed to manage and lead people. 

Matching the right skills needed to manage success against a worker’s profile allows HR to then program or present the right learning and development opportunities to these new leaders, at the right cadence and timeline (for example, before your annual review processes kick-off). 

Skill Set 

A skill set refers to a person’s unique combination of knowledge, abilities, competencies, and experiences. It includes both technical skills, such as proficiency in a software or coding language, and soft skills, like effective communication and problem-solving skills. Understanding someone’s skill set enables HR teams to recruit, train, and develop the entire team according to their organization’s goals. 

Skills Strategy 

Skills strategies clicks one layer deeper than job descriptions to understand your employees and workers. Both an HR vision and technology/data process, a skills-based talent approach, at a high level, gives you more insight into what makes people succeed in their roles. Pretty much everything you want to do with talent in your organization is made better by getting a clearer understanding of what capabilities your team has, and what gaps you need to find and grow. 

Using a skills lens, you can then get much more efficient and agile in hiring talent, mobilizing your workforce, and figuring out how to grow people into new roles – ultimately letting you execute a more comprehensive, thoughtful talent journey – more efficiently. 

Get Your Full Guide Today  

Ready to get your team ramped up on the latest Workday Skills and Talent Glossary? Get your exclusive guide to twenty-five more new Workday, Skills, and Talent Trends you need to know right now.