Three Keys to Ensure a Future-Proof Talent Strategy (Downloadable Deck)

How often do you read an article or a LinkedIn post which talks about the CHROs newest and most critical remit in the first few sentences? If you’re reading what I am, one of the most frequently shared topics today revolves around ensuring a future-proof workforce – developing an organization aligned to handle whatever comes next in business and society (which is getting harder to guess), as well as ensuring a resilient organization to meet and thrive amid challenging times.

The last several decades (and certainly the last several years since 2020) have underscored the rapid need for workforce transformation. Both industries and technology are swiftly evolving, and new business models are being created seemingly daily. (Though, I’m not sure the evolution to the metaverse will happen as quickly as some pundits predict.)

For the CHRO agenda, that means it’s no longer good enough to ensure you have the right people – with the right skills – at the right time.

Progressive HR Executives are leading the way into this new era by ensuring they have a future-aware talent strategy and are maximizing all of the leading-edge Talent technology available to them (AI, automation, Workday Skills Cloud, Talent Optimization, etc.).

Progressive HR Executives are leading the way into this new era by ensuring they have a future-aware talent strategy and are maximizing all of the leading-edge Talent technology available to them (AI, automation, Workday Skills Cloud, Talent Optimization, etc.).

Based on hundreds of conversations with CHROs (and my own experience at award-winning cultures from both Enterprises and start-ups), here are the three keys that Talent Leadership teams need to deploy to ensure they’re developing a future-proof strategy.

1. They’ve stopped simply buying talent to fill seats
2. They understand the “State of their Talent” at all times
3. They predict the skills their company will need in the future

For this article, I’m going to dive into this first trend, and how HR leaders should be thinking about this trend in light of recent talent rationalization efforts. You can also download the full slide deck with all three trens here.

1. Future-aligned CHRO’s have stopped simply buying talent to fill seats

Looking at some of the top technology firms in the world right now, it’s clear that the rapid and continuous external hiring over the past two years has come to an abrupt halt for many companies.

For example – Meta shared plans to significantly reduce its workforce last month – a trend we are starting to see emulated in other recent announcements. But having a holistic vision of your bench must underpin any layoff strategy.

Case in point: Twitter recently let half of its workforce go. Then, the following week, it turned out (shared via Twitter, always a PR bonus), that the company followed up their layoffs by asking many people (they now call “Key” employees) to come back because they “made mistakes”.

If they could do it over again, would they have made the decision to upskill or reskill rather than overhire? Their business is evolving rapidly and so they must raise the sophistication level of their talent strategy.

Taking a skill-based talent approach can help companies ensure they have the right talent at the right time, clearly understand their talent gaps, and get working on closing the gaps during their team rationalization exercises.

Companies that win today are the ones that can react quickly to shifts. In the (impending) economic downturn, more companies will adopt a skills-based strategy not just to predict and have a plan for what talent they need in the future, but to ensure they don’t overhire again.