Skills Strategies: Both Sober and Exciting [New Views on the News]

Welcome back to Views on the News, where we share a recent article from the HR press and influencers, and then ask our Leadership and Advisory team experts to share their “views” on why this particular news matters to People and talent leaders throughout the ecosystem.    

Last week, Co-CEO, Matt Gregory forwarded an email from one of our Skillcentrix favorites, Josh Bersin, talking about the Exciting, but Sober Reality of Building a Skills-Based Organization. As you might remember, we cited a Bersin article last month covering AI and Machine Learning trends, this was so relevant to the challenges so many of our clients are facing, we decided to dissect Mr. Bersin for a second session in a row.   

Why did Matt tell me this was one of the best articles Bersin has published recently? Let’s break it down:  

First, what does Bersin mean by an Exciting, but Sober Reality? 

Well… As many leaders who have worked to adopt a skills-centric approach to people strategy may have already realized, it’s not exactly a stroll in the park.  

Transforming your organization and shaking up your approach to the talent lifecycle – from acquisition to development, mobilization, retention, and team optimization (and infinity, and beyond…) can be hard.   

Bersin highlights some specific challenges many people leaders face, including: 

• Despite some HR press articles, the skills-based approach is not a silver bullet, nor will it solve all of an organization’s HR challenges. 
• The skills-based approach requires a significant investment of time and resources (and we would add, the right pilot rollout, staged approach, and OCM planning.) 

While a skills-focused can sometimes feel too big to begin, Bersin further argues that a skills program can be invaluable for organizations looking to improve their agility, adaptability, and workforce planning. Skills-based organizations often see a host of benefits, including:  

• Increased agility and adaptability 
• Improved workforce planning 
• Reduced costs 
• Increased employee engagement 

“Building A Skills-Based Organization: The Exciting, but Sober Reality” ultimately concludes by urging HR executives to start planning for the transition to a skills-based organization, with the understanding that it will take a bit of thoughtfulness and investment, but pay off big time, over time.  

Our Co-CEO’s take: Matt Weights In/Recommends Weekend Reading  

According to Matt, “If you are an HR executive who is considering the skills-based approach, I encourage you to read the article in full. It provides a wealth of valuable information that can help you make an informed decision about whether or not this approach is right for your organization. 

Unlike some recent product-focused conversations, this article talks more in detail about the business problems and solutions around moving to a skills-based approach, which is often where we see the primary disconnects happen.  

As many of you might know, one of Skillcentrix’s primary charters is supporting companies as they plan and execute their skills-based journey to become a more data-driven organization.  

Bersin’s article last week is one of my favorites. Based on our collective experience, working with dozens of companies in the midst of this exact transition, he does a good job of breaking down the challenges companies struggle to solve, as well as the potential benefits for those looking to adopt skills in their organization.  

A Tale of Two (Skill Strategy) Paths  

One of the major issues that we see when talking to companies is the breadth of this undertaking, their reticence to embark on the journey, or even how to get started.  

These questions are echoed in the article, which posits the often-repeated question, ‘How can we put this all together? Isn’t this a ‘boil the ocean’ type of problem?’  

In the article, he sees companies taking two paths:  

1. Path One is to build a skills taxonomy team, and then create a long process of working with business units to agree on the language and taxonomy architecture. This may work, but ultimately it has many points of failure. Without really testing these skills in action they’re likely to need tuning, so this often takes a long time. 

2. Path Two, which we recommend, is to start by focusing on a discrete, appropriately sized business problem, for example, creating a leadership succession plan for a critical business division or improving first-year retention for recent graduates.  

In attacking the challenges innate to that problem you then build a part of the skills taxonomy needed to solve the issue, create a process for design and governance, test it in real-time, and learn what tools work best. As they say, you can’t eat the elephant in one bite.  

Here, focus on developing a consumable roadmap with prioritization for solving high-impact problems in very targeted areas. This is what Bersin describes as “Falling in love with the problem” (Though, I’m not sure I love the term — I often see many companies “admiring the problem” rather than solving it.)  

Either way, the core idea is on point which is that through prioritization and focus we can solve very tangible and impactful problems.  

Talking Tech 

Inevitably, transforming your company into a skills-based, data-focused company requires tech support. These platform or point solution decisions are also one of the biggest sticking points we see with companies moving towards becoming more skills-based, which Bersin effectively dives into.  

In my experience, the companies that have best optimized their tech strategy find options to deliver robust skills management, and also, ideally, help rationalize their rolodex of rapidly expanding Talent Technology solutions. Of course, we have focused on working with Workday as the largest HCM system of record, but we have seen and supported clients with a diverse tapestry of HCM and talent or skills ontology platforms.  

The best working model for your organization will be based on where you’ve already invested, how quickly you are looking to move through your skills path (pro tip, AI is a killer accelerator), and your current platform and IT support maturity.  

Taxonomies Take Center Stage  

Beyond the approach or method, one of the primary challenges of moving to a skills-based organization is building a comprehensive skills taxonomy. Defining and classifying all of the skills that are important to your organization can be a daunting task.  

Now include the fact that you need to constantly update your skills taxonomy as new skills emerge and others become obsolete, and you can see where your peer companies might struggle.  

Developing a skills taxonomy isn’t one-size-fits-all. Your company’s requirements will depend on many factors from your size and industry to specific business challenges or strategic initiatives. I think Bersin does a great job of describing the rationale behind why organizations should make a move to skills strategies, the problems and approaches, and the technology supporting these skills transformations.  

I haven’t seen one customer who didn’t have (or strongly believe they needed) some kind of bespoke process. The challenge, however, is ensuring you have enough flexibility in your inputs to solve the business problems you set out to fix with your Skills program while maintaining enough forward motion and process controls to keep your skills momentum and show value along the way.”